If you’re struggling to lose weight, chances are that your liquid calorie intake is a big part of the reason you can’t lose the excess pounds.

Researchers examined the relationship between beverage consumption among adults and weight change and found that weight loss was positively associated with a reduction in liquid calorie consumption and liquid calorie intake had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake.

But more specifically:

Of the seven types of beverages examined, sugar-sweetened beverages were the only beverages significantly associated with weight change.

To summarize, drink less sugar, lose weight.

This exercise fairly closely resembles a traditional squat, so it’s far from the most pointless exercise you’ll ever see, but even despite it’s similarity to the king of all leg exercises, this exercise is still pointless because it’s such a useless range of motion, not to mention it’s often done without any added resistance.

I present to you the plie squat:

This exercise no doubt made it’s way into the fitness industry because of all the trainers out there that mislead their customers into believing the myth of spot reduction. Unscrupulous (or incompetent) trainers tell their female clients that performing this useless exercise will tighten and tone their inner thighs. That’s complete BS. This exercise will not spot tone your inner thighs, and it’s an utterly useless exercise towards fat-burning in general. You’d be far better off just doing traditional squats.

So avoid this pointless exercise, and if your trainer ever gets you doing plie squats, find a new trainer because your current trainer is inept.

This exercise should be near the top of any list of pointless exercises. Not only is it a useless movement without any real world application, the repeated spinal flexion done when performing this exercise is horrible for your spine.

I present to you the abdominal crunch:

This exercise is pointless and dangerous. Remove this useless exercise from your workout program immediately. You’ll have stronger and fitter abs by doing static and dynamic planks as well as compound exercises that effectively work all of our core muscles together as a functional unit.

Possibly the most pointless exercise I’ve ever seen, I present to you the wall sit:

The wall sit is a completely pointless, inefficient, and ineffective exercise.

[...] by the very nature of the exercise, it is an isometric contraction and far less effective than resistance through a range of motion specific to real life. Furthermore, if the biomechanics of pretending to sit in a chair are considered important, then wouldn’t it be more prudent to focus on the components of truly lowering to and rising from a real chair? “Wall sits” offer no real benefit simply because they do not involve the gluteals, hamstrings and quadriceps as a functional unit.

Please do yourself a favour and never perform this pointless exercise.

This is the workout we did at my boot camp tonight:

Warm-Up (3 minutes)

1. jumping jacks (60 seconds)
2. squats (30 seconds)
3. lunges (30 seconds)
4. butt kicks (30 seconds)
5. high jog (30 seconds)

Circuit #1 (10 minutes)

1. burpees
2. jumps
3. strides
4. jumping jacks

Perform 30 seconds of each exercise, immediately moving to the next exercise (i.e. no rest between exercises). After performing all four exercises (2 minutes total), rest for 30 seconds, and then repeat. Perform this circuit a total of 4 rounds, then rest for 2 minutes before moving on to the next circuit.

Circuit #2 (10 minutes)

1. runner stance squat jumps
2. alternating split squat jumps
3. biceps curl + shoulder press (with resistance bands)
4. squat + row (with resistance bands)
5. single-leg chest press (with suspension gym)

Perform 40 seconds of each exercise and then take 20 seconds rest as you transition to the next exercise. Perform a total of 2 rounds, then rest for 2 minutes before moving on to the next circuit. The first round perform the single-leg chest press with either leg raised, and the second round perform the exercise with the other leg raised.

Circuit #3 (8 minutes)

1. underhand grip row (with suspension gym)
2. triceps extensions (with suspension gym)
3. suspended reverse lunge (with suspension gym)

Perform 40 seconds of each exercise and then take 20 seconds rest as you transition to the next exercise. Perform both sides of the suspended reverse lunge (40 seconds per leg, 20 seconds rest in between), before moving onto to the next exercise (i.e. starting the circuit over again). Perform a total of 2 rounds, then rest for 2 minutes before moving on to the next circuit.

Circuit #4 (4 minutes)

1. step-ups

20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. Repeat for 8 rounds then rest for 2 minutes before moving on to the core circuit.

Core Circuit (8 minutes)

1. abdominal rollout (with suspension gym)
2. supine leg raises
3. jackknives (with suspension gym)
4. side plank

Perform 40 seconds of each exercise and then take 20 seconds rest as you transition to the next exercise. Perform a total of 2 rounds. The first round perform the side plank on one side, and the second round perform the side plank on the other side.