The test of time usually works. Futile fads like sweatboxes and vibrating belts died out quickly enough. But a few bad exercises have persisted, and exercise physiologists don’t see how these ineffective and sometimes dangerous maneuvers have survived.

Take the lat pulldown, for example, which most people perform behind their heads. Unless you're very flexible, that’s a recipe for "weightlifter’s shoulder" — a painful impingement in which the muscles and tendons of the rotator cuff become entrapped in the shoulder joint.

In fact, lat pulldowns are just the kind of "unsafe behavior" that scientists at Arkansas State University say account for 63 percent of all weightlifting–related emergency room visits. Purge them and the rest of these body breakers from your routine, and keep your name off of the disabled list for good.

1. Behind-the-Neck Shoulder Presses

Just as lat pulldowns strain your shoulders on the way down, this exercise hurts them on the way up, says David Pearson, Ph.D., director of the Strength Research Laboratory at Ball State University.


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