80% of our new clientele at PPS are:

Newbie to novice lifters
Work at a desk all day

This means they are exposed to a higher risk of injury when lifting.
Most desk workers present themselves with common postural issues such as:

Stiff lower-back & sleepy glutes
Rock hard quads & tight hip-flexors
Rounded shoulders and a cranky neck

So it makes sense to address these issues from day 1 in the Gym, helping to ensure we get off to the best start possible in our lifting career (or it could make for a short one).

However there are at 3 really common movements a lot of newbies perform in the gym (mainly because they are simply & straight forward), that only work to make the above issues even worse. Increasing their chances of getting injured even further.

These are the:

Back Extension
Leg Extension
Shrug

Let’s touch on why you don’t need to perform these movements and what we recommend doing instead:

Back-Extensions:

The ‘Back-Extension’ is designed to strengthen the lower-back.

As we touched on earlier, you probably already have a pretty stuff back from spending 8-10 hours slouched in a chair all day. What we should be doing, is looking to wake up and strengthen our glutes, so they can take some of the load off our lower-back.

The solution?

Movements such as the Barbell Hip-Thrust. This movement teaches ‘hip extension’ and targets the booty (both for functional and visual purposes).

Leg-Extensions:

Tight hip-flexors & quads are the most common complaints from desk-workers & novice lifters in the Gym.

When we sit, our thighs are in a flexed position - this shortens the muscle and in turn can lead to a host of other issues such as ‘anterior pelvic tilt’.

Isolating our quads on the Leg Extension (which is a seated movement) should be a big no-no for now.
This may look cool and seem pretty easy to do but only exasperates the ongoing problem.

Try performing lunges instead. The ‘front-foot elevated’ lunge is a great movement - you are still working your quad muscles, but also training single stability/balance & getting a nasty stretch through your hip-flexors.

Everyone HATES lunges, but they are a must in any training program.