Woah make me panic a bit when I read #10 but thanks to the people who clarified things a bit. Those sweeping statements can be a bit to broad sometimes. I only do 60mins cardio a day anyway and am eating healthily so hopefully my muscles won't waste away

Very good point--if it doesn't feel right don't do it. That's the way people get injured. All of our bodies are different--and the opt is right here--there are many exercises that are not beneficial and unfortunately some of them can do more damage than good.

You want to feel the muscle not the joint. There are many good exercises for problems area's that do work, and a little homework makes all the difference in core strength. Those muscles that keep us together and standing up straight. If your core is strong the rest follows.

Ahhh!!! Number one and two blow my mind! I absolutely loved doing those, but ... then I would injure myself. This explains a lot.

I will remember to avoid that, and worry about my thighs when I'm ready. Right now just being able to walk up the 3% incline to my college is enough of a challenge!

I agree with 7. Shoulder Press Behind Neck.

It hurts me just thinking about doing shoulder presses this way. Can you say serious shoulder injury?

This is really dangerous and can lead to a major injury.

Great tips here!

And the best one is

You name the exercise, and if you don't perform it properly it has the potential to cause serious injury, especially compound movements where the heaviest weights are used like bench, squats and deadlifts.

Thanks for this post Ilene! I do some cardiovascular workouts every morning its about 30-45 minutes. I want to lose weight easily. I want to double the time I spend in my workout everyday but I saw this post and it is really helpful for me. Thank you for sharing this.

I knew a lot of these, but a few were a surprise. Makes me wonder why they have the machines in the first place?

I see A LOT of people at the gym doing these exercises and sometimes even doing them in a very bad way. Looks like they are just flopping the weight around. I just know they are going to get injured one day. There are also a lot of people flopping weights around on regular lifts and it just makes me cringe!

I am one week into joining the gym and I am very disappointed to learn that MY THIGHS ARE HURTING FOR NOTHING!!!!!

This is interesting. I mean I use the abductor and adductor machines, but I've gotten results from them. I didn't know that it could cause that many problems though.

The only ones really worth doing are: 1) cardio (don't care how); 2) squats; 3) lunges; 4) deadlifts; 5) military presses; and, 6) bench presses.

Everything else is an extravagence. But an extravagence I nevertheless enjoy.

Agree with you. For me Cardio, squats, deadlifts & bench presses are enough

Interesting points, i have read about the adductor and abductor machines before, and really i can say that they do nothing to reduce the size of the tights, but there are some other benefits. I was truing to get my legs stretched for the splits, and it used to take me very long time to do so, then i have been introduced to these machines, and in time of 5 min i get over a 100 reps of both and my mussels are ready for the stretching. I have tried to complete the splits for months, and i just couldn't, with this exercise i hit the floor just in two weeks, now this stretch is my regular routine. And the leg hug got very strong... ) my husband loves it... So i guess what i wanted to say here, that there are some benefits in this machines, especially if u are trying to get the splits down to the floor, but not the thigh size reduction.

if your tights hurt it definitely working, don't take it for granted... do your own research, if you don't have an instructor. I couldn't afford an instructor and i did all the research online, youtube is a good start, subscribe to the fitness videos, to learn to get the exercises done the right way, so you don't hurt yourself.

I never would have thought that more than 60 minutes of cardio could be bad. I will keep that in mind for the future!