Stop running in circles with these time-wasting exercises. Yes, running on the treadmill can be an effective way to burn calories, but running in place when it comes to your exercises is no Bueno. Find out which exercises may have you spinning your wheels and what you can do instead to maximize your time in the gym.

Not All Exercises Are Created Equal

Just because you see “everybody doing it” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for you. Many people you see working out have not had professional training on the proper performance of exercises. While this may not be the end of the world, when it comes to form, doing exercises correctly is very important. You want to ensure that you (and your body) learn the correct movement patterns involved in each exercise. You must perform repetitions the right way to work the intended muscles without inadvertently straining or injuring yourself.

Doing things the right way instead of spending workouts on time-consuming exercises can help you overcome plateaus, avoid injuries, and boost your fitness results.

Time-Wasting Exercises and What You Can Do Instead

How can you discern between time-wasting exercises and ones that are productive? Follow this quick guide below to weed out the most common useless movements.

Behind the Neck Lat Pulldowns—not only are these fairly useless when building muscle or strength, but they can actually be dangerous. Because you generally need to move your head slightly forward to get the bar behind your neck, the exercise promotes a bad movement pattern.

Do These Instead—to keep your head upright and prevent injury to your neck and shoulders, you can do front lat pulldowns, bringing the bar in front of your head and down toward your chest as you lean slightly back. Another great alternative to behind-the-neck pulldowns is pull-ups. Pull-ups will challenge the same muscle groups but without the risk of straining your neck.

Cable Squats—while it may be tempting to use these, especially if you’re a beginner, they’re really not helping you build muscle, learn proper form, or improve your balance. Because you’re standing in front of a cable machine, squatting down, and pulling a rope up toward your body as you straighten, the tension is going in the wrong direction.

Do These Instead—try doing a goblet squat, holding a dumbbell in front of you and squatting down. Alternatively, you can do body squats with a light dumbbell in each hand to learn the motions. Once you’re confident, you can add more weight or even try regular squatting with a barbell.

Russian Twists with Weighted Ball—this is another one of those exercises that doesn’t do much and can actually cause more harm than good. When it comes to moving your back, twisting with weight is seldom a good idea. If your back has weaknesses or you move in just the wrong way, you can find yourself with a strained back or worse.

Do These Instead—you can work abs and obliques in much safer and better ways. A regular plank will work your entire core and lower back intensely. Try doing a plank for one to two minutes between exercises, or fit in several rounds of planks a few times a week.

External Shoulder Rotations with Dumbbells—once again, when done with enough weight, these movements can provoke and induce injuries. External shoulder rotations with light weight are designed only to be used as a warm-up exercise. There are so many delicate muscles in the rotator cuff matrix that it’s an area easily injured if you’re not careful. Taking the time to warm up preps the shoulder girdle for more rigorous weighted work. Plus, this movement doesn’t put any tension on the rear delts, as gravity is only pulling the dumbbells downward, putting the force on the biceps instead of the delts.

Do These Instead—use the cable machine to dial in on your rear delts. This will ensure that you put the tension on the rear delts where it’s needed and not on the biceps. This exercise will also allow you to isolate the rear delts so you can work them directly.

Cable Pull-Through for glute activation is another worthless exercise. It involves facing away from the cable machine, squatting down to grab the rope between your legs, and then pulling it through your legs and up to chest level. Your glutes will only see action if you purposely squeeze them at the top of the motion.

Do These Instead—for better glute activation, do Romanian deadlifts (aka RDLs) where you keep a slight bend in your knees and deadlift, squeezing your glutes throughout the movement.

Using BosuBalls to Build Strength and Muscle—yes, another time-wasting exercise that’s also potentially damaging for most people. Disclaimer: if you’re using a BosuBall to work on balance, then bravo. Keep going. But, if you’re performing weightlifting exercises designed to build strength or muscle and you’re balanced on a BosuBall, this can be a recipe for joint stress and even injury.

Do These Instead—do your weightlifting on flat surfaces with your feet set about hip-width apart and engage your core to stabilize your body.

Keep in mind that while specific exercises may be considered time-wasters at certain times, many exercises have a time and a place, depending on your goals.