Myth Busting

MYTH: 

Guys should lift weights but girls should do cardio

No…Guys should lift weights but girls should…lift weights. That’s right, not cardio, lift weights. Why? Cardio does not tone your muscles and in traditional cardio (which we call hamster training) you do not burn sufficient calories to affect a change in your body composition. In plain English, it doesn’t burn the body fat and give you the toned body that you want ladies.

In his book, The Doctor’s Heart Cure, Dr. Al Sears states, “The better alternative is to do strength training that also gets your heart rate up. We call this incidental cardio. This not only will tone your muscles better and burn more calories but it is much healthier for your heart.”

MYTH:

Children should not lift weights!

"A common misperception is that resistance training will stunt the statural growth of children. While resistance training does not affect the genotypic maximum, resistance training probably has a favorable influence on growth at any stage of development, as long as appropriate guidelines are followed."(p175)

"Children as young as age 6 have benefited from resistance training, and a variety of training modalities -- including modified adult-sized weight machines, child-sized weight machines, free weights (barbells and dumbbells), and bodyweight calisthenics -- have proven to be effective.

Strength gains of roughly 30% to 40% have been typically observed in untrained, preadolescent children following short-term (8- to 20-week resistance training programs)..."(p.174)

"Even 1RM (repetition maximum) testing in children is safe, provided that appropriate training guidelines are followed (i.e., adequate warm-up periods, individual progression of loads, and close supervision)."(p.176)

"Paradoxically, it seems that the forces placed on the joints of children during sport participation may be far greater than those generated from resistance training programs. The belief that resistance training is dangerous for children is not consistent with the needs of children and the documented risks associated with this type of training."(pp.176,177)

Now, having said that, I still take a safe and in my opinion conservative approach with children especially under the age of 16.

MYTH:

But girls will get all big and bulky from lifting weights

Ladies, guys in the gym lift heavy weights all the time and very few of us get big and bulky and we have a gazillion times more testosterone (which builds muscle) in our bodies than you do. If you lift weights and all of a sudden bulk up, let me know your secret because I’m a strength coach and I have a hard time adding any bulk to my frame. (Unless I sit in front of the TV and eat doughnuts all night.) In case you are naïve and haven’t figured it out yet, the big female bodybuilders and pro-wrestlers you see on TV… take steroids! Shhhh…Don’t say anything.

Seriously, putting on a lot of muscle takes a lot of dedication and hard work; it is a lot more than just lifting heavy weights. You have to eat like a beast, get 8 hours of sleep per night, keep your stress down, etc. There are tons of pictures of ladies who train with kettlebells who are slim and definitely not bulky.

MYTH:

Squats are bad for your knees

No they aren’t. That is like saying driving is how car accidents happen.

Improperly squatting is bad for the knees; that is true. Properly squatting is good for the knees, your body was made, designed, to squat and pick things up. What is really bad for the knees are using machines to train your legs. Machines such as leg extensions and leg curls move your legs in a manner they were not designed to move in and put undue stress on the knees. People with knee problems shouldn’t squat until we have determined what is going on with the knee; it is usually a crooked lower back and hip imbalances… we will work on that.