On Display Men Magazine: Exercise Favoritism

Let's face it, when it comes to exercise, we all tend to stick to the exercises we know and like best. Usually the exercises we tend to steer towards are the ones that seem or feel easier. Some of you would rather jump on the treadmill for half an hour than suffer 5 minutes of squats, while others embrace the squats quite happily but go green at the thought of any cardio. Everyone is different and we all have our favourite exercise repertoire that we like to draw from. I'll quite happily do a set of heavy deadlifts, but suggest I spend some time squatting heavily and suddenly I get butterflies and break into a cold sweat... You too will have exercises that you put on the back burner. That is just the problem. Most of you spend too long doing exercises that you don't really need, because you're quite good at them already. What most of you should be doing is focusing on the weaker areas of your bodies, the muscle groups that actually need some strength and conditioning work! Most people spend too long working on the mirror muscles - muscles that can be seen in the mirror; the chest, arms, shoulders, abs and front of thighs. Spend a little more time on the back of the body, with exercises like dumbbell rows, deadlifts, single leg squats and pull ups, and you'll start to improve your posture and increase your exercise library. A good start is to follow this rule; for every exercise you do that involves pushing, try to add in 2 exercises that require a pulling motion. While you ignore these important muscles they'll remain weaker and their correlating exercises will always seem like hard work that should be avoided. Your posture will suffer and you will end up looking slightly 'unbalanced'. If you're in doubt as to what needs work and what doesn't, book yourself in for an assessment at your local gym and ask them to tell you where your body needs work, to bring your posture back into line. The more exercises you try, the more you will start to discover where you do and don't have muscle weakness. Exercise variety is the spice of fitness, so give it a go!