Should you avoid certain exercises?

Are there exercises out there that just feel awkward and you just don't think it works for you?

Personally I can name many exercises that feel awkward for me, but spending more time with said exercise does make it feel less awkward. Personally for me I have never gotten comfortable with the front squat, my arms don't bend enough for the bar to be sitting level with my shoulders.

With that said, the more time I spent doing the front squat the better it felt. That is not to say that I didn't have days where it felt like I am back at square one. If you are not comfortable with certain exercises, bad days can certainly accentuate the bad.

The question is should you just give up on certain exercises? My answer is it depends.. No exercise is essential and there are so many alternatives you can do instead.

You probably suck at that exercise due to certain limitations of strength, coordination and flexibility demands. When you improve certain areas of your overall strength you will almost certainly improve on things that you suck at.

Take for example the barbell overhead squat, this is a very advanced barbell exercise which requires strength, coordination and flexibility to be optimal before it can be performed perfectly.

If you are not good at going deep into your squat, you will not feel comfortable or perform the overhead squat well. Over time if you improved on your deep squat, coming back to the overhead squat you might find there is actual improvement.

So the takeaway message here is to always revisit exercises after you have put in some hard work and you have made progress in areas like strength,mobility and adapted to a variety of exercises.