5 Exercise moves to avoid for weight loss

If you’re looking to shed pounds, make sure you skip these exercises!

Keep squatting — sans the barbell

Everyone hails the squat as a powerful exercise, and it certainly is. But when you’re trying to lose weight, keeping the additional weights down is key. Some weightlifting is good, but anything heavy is unnecessary. Squats are a compound exercise, meaning they work multiple muscles, which can increase your weight — you definitely want to stay away from boosting muscle too much, especially if you are looking to lose weight.

Lose the side bends

These are not effective at slimming your waist; in fact, they are thought to build muscle and “push” body fat out further so everyone can see your love handles even more! Instead, focus on cardio to burn off fat, then work on exercises that target the obliques directly, such as side planks.

Pass on the presses

Another exercise to avoid for weight loss includes the bench press and the shoulder press. Bench presses are performed lying on a bench and pressing a barbell up and down, creating a 90-degree angle with your arms and your body when arms are extended. But you work the pectoralis major muscle more when lowering the barbell to your chest.

Shoulder presses follow the same motion and use the deltoid muscle more, and are just as counteractive if you are trying to exercise solely to lose weight. Anything that resembles a bodybuilder exercise is typically not great for losing weight, especially when done with a very high amount of weight. While you can build muscle which helps burn fat, there are better moves for weight loss.

Skip the deadlift

When you stand facing a dumbbell bar on the ground, then keep your back straight and bend your hips and knees to grab the weight, then straighten legs and push to a standing position, it’s no good for weight loss. This is a known exercise used to build muscle mass, and you definitely want to pass on it if you’re looking to lose weight!

Pass on pull-ups

Pull-ups sound kind of extreme; after all, you see them featured in boot-camp-like regimens. But the truth is that pull-ups — when you hang from a bar with palms forward and pull your chin up over the bar — aren’t all that great for losing “ellbees.”

The aforementioned exercises aren’t bad for you at all; they’re just not one sto focus on if you are exercising solely to lose weight. Instead, use your bodyweight, light weights or resistance bands–you will still tone your muscles that way. Focus more on cardio to shed pounds, but don’t rely on it. You want to use and thus build some muscle tissue to burn fat, which is key when trying to lose weight.

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