Are Some Exercises Dangerous?

Yesterday I made mention of the fact that I don’t think that upright rows are necessarily a bad exercise for everyone’s shoulders. Rather, I think that they are a bad exercise for SOME people’s shoulders and those people specifically should not do them.

As a rule of thumb, I like to think of exercises in terms of WHO they are being used on, their specific injury history, how they are being performed, and the overall context of the program they are in.

If someone with otherwise healthy shoulders, good scapulo-humeral rhythm, who is doing an adequate warm up and pre-hab work, I don’t see a problem with their inclusion (subject to how the client actually responds to them).

However, the main points to drive home here are:

1) A program is more than just a bunch of exercises thrown together. Everything should be examined in the context of the whole program and everything should have a purpose.

2) Each program should be individualized to optimize results while minimizing risk for each person based on their individual goals, abilities, and history.