Do Crunches Hurt Your Neck?

There's a guy at the gym where I workout that has the worst, most "spastic" form of anyone I've ever watched exercise.

He does these weird swinging arm curls, the jerkiest pullups in the world, and worst of all "neck crunches" (that are supposed to be ab crunches - I think?).

You have to wonder how this guys neck isn't killing him every night after his workouts. His form is brutal. Not that he'd really be getting that much benefit from perfect crunches anyways. After all, he does about 50 of these neck-nods in a row. And most people can do 20, 30, or more crunches in a row.

But why would anyone expect to get results from doing the same thing 50 times in a row?

Oh well, just another one of the weird things I see when I workout...

Actually, there was one other thing I watched go down today that I don't quite understand.

A big buff personal trainer met with a new client. It was clearly their first session. Trainer stands there asking the client a bunch of questions, all while he's eating a sandwich. In the weightroom. The new guy wants to lose some weight. The trainer gives him some nutrition advice, and then says, "Okay, today's chest day."

To a beginner who needs to lose about 50 pounds.

Chest day.

That poor guy probably can't even turn his steering wheel right now, his arms are probably too sore. I remember I felt that way when I did my first chest day at age 16 at the YMCA. But I was a dumb kid. Not paying $50-$100 to a professional to help me lose weight. No one who is 50 pounds overweight needs to do a full chest day on their first day in the gym.

Anyways, on to my workout...

Warm-up

Squats into toe raise - 10
Prisoner Squat - 10
Pushup - 10
Forward Lunge - 10
Arm Circles - 10
Neck Circles - 5
Waiter's Bow - 10
Hip flexor stretch
Shoulder mobility move - 10
Chest stretch
1-leg RDL - 8
Pushups - 10

Strength

Warmup
Power Shrug

Power Clean
95x5
135x5

"Real Sets"

175x3
185x3

Supersets

Warmup

Bench -> 45x12, 95x8, 135x8, 185x8
Good morning -> 45x10, 95x8, 135x8

1A) Bench -> 205x3x8 (3 second eccentric)
1B) Good Morning -> 185x3x8

2A) Inverted Row -> 3x15 (3 sec eccentric)
2B) Overhead Squat - 75x3x5

Short workout, had to get home.

Off to Vancouver tomorrow,

Craig Ballantyne