Erin Stern continues to offer fans easy-to-apply workout advice, calling on her extensive experience in bodybuilding. On February 26, 2025, she broke down a list of leg exercises that get a bad rap but are actually quite valuable.
“There are people online who label certain exercises as bad and tell you to never do them. I think this type of thinking, it eliminates nuance. We have different goals, we have different preferences. There are different reasons why someone would pick a specific exercise.”
There’s no denying Erin Stern’s abilities as a bodybuilder. During her prime, she managed to not only win the Figure Olympia title in 2010 but proved she could bounce back from adversity, claiming the honor again in 2012. She remains one of few athletes in the category to accomplish such an impressive feat.
In her spare time, she gives workout breakdowns and has quickly grown a successful and popular YouTube channel, which houses over 315,000 subscribers. With so many fads and myths interwoven into the fitness landscape, she gives detailed explanations for all of her exercise selections.
Erin Stern Shares 5 Exercises Tha Get A Bad Name But Are Packed With Value
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Find the exercises she discussed in her YouTube video below:
1. Smith Machine Squats
2. Good Mornings
3. Goblet Squats
4. Leg Extensions
5. Leg Curls
Smith Machine Squats
First, Stern disputed that Smith machine squats foster lazy technique over time.
“It’s said that this leads to lazy technique, you don’t have to use stabilizers and it could put too much pressure on the knees due to the fact that you’re working in a fixed plane. I disagree. As part of a well-rounded routine, this could help you go heavy if you don’t have a spotter.”
Good Mornings
While good mornings done incorrectly can put stress on the lower back, Stern emphasized that you’ll see impressive results if you perform the movement properly.
“This can put a lot of stress on the lower back. According to experts, you’re going to break your spine if you do this exercise. Things to consider with good mornings, it’s not a heavy exercise it’s more of a finesse exercise due to the distance of the weight from your center of gravity.”
“You’re going to see great results with this exercise if performed properly.”
Goblet Squats
Even though goblet squats cause upper body fatigue, she credits the exercise for helping with proper squatting form.
“The Goblet squat is really high on upper body fatigue. It has a ton of limitations according to experts. Now, I’ve seen people holding this dumbbell in the opposite direction parallel to the floor.
Of course, it’s going to be harder to hold. If you hold it this way, close to your upper body, you are going to not only work on lower body strength but upper body strength.”
“The goblet squat is going to help with proper squatting form.”
Leg Extensions
In addition, she defended leg extensions, which have been criticized for the stress they put on the knees.
“Leg extensions, experts say that this open chain exercise puts too much stress on the knees.
Now, it can stress the knees if you’re going as a primary mover. This is a second-degree exercise meaning that it can be used for pre-exhaustion or it can be used later on in the workout.”
She believes they are an ideal exercise for effectively building the quads.
“If you’re using this exercise to build your quads, it is excellent.”
Leg Curls
Lastly, she explained why leg curls don’t deserve a bad rap, underlining that the movement is all about hip extension and knee flexion.
“This exercise has been criticized for not being functional, causing knee strain, saying that hamstrings don’t isolate in real life. This may be the case but when we’re looking at the function of hamstrings, we’re looking at hip extension and knee flexion.”
“This is a knee flexion exercise. So we must get knee flexion at some point to help build those hamstrings. And just like the leg curls, if you’re sticking to that 10-20 rep range going later on in the workout with them and really focusing on executing and not going too heavy,” she said.
When it comes to training intensity and exercise selections, Erin Stern always has tried-and-true strategies for helping her followers reach a new level of fitness. She said to be careful while performing these movements but emphasized that there’s no valid reason to ignore them altogether.
RELATED: Bodybuilder Erin Stern Reveals Her Top 3 Exercises for ‘Building Strong, Balanced Legs & Glutes’
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