Welcome to the third installment of our
four-part article series on the myths surrounding women and weights. Could your
reluctance to incorporate weight lifting into your circuit training routine be
keeping you from achieving maximum results at the gym? “Probably,” say many Los Angeles Gyms instructors.
Previously, in Part 2, we debunked the
following myths:
3. Weight lifting leaves you stiff and
inflexible: If you
warm up, stretch, exercise correctly and perform the weight lifting movements
as shown to you by your instructor, it should actually increase muscular flexibility.
4. Stopping weight lifting can allow muscle to
turn into fat:
Definitely not. Fat and muscle are two different kinds of tissue. One cannot
become the other. If you stop exercising and increase your intake of calories,
you will likely increase your body fat percentage.
Let’s take a look at some more myths:
Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 5: You
Can Eat Anything You Like, So Long As You Train With Weights
The
ability to eat anything you want, when you want, has far more to do with your
unique metabolism than it does with exercise. There are some people who can
literally eat chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still be as
skinny as a rail, although they won’t be healthy. Then there are other people
who have to exercise every day and eat a calorie-controlled diet in order to
prevent themselves from putting on weight.
The rate
at which the body burns calories when at rest is something that varies from
person to person and will have a far greater bearing on how liberal you can be
with your diet. Working out at the gym and doing exercises such as circuit
training and Interval Training do
help you to burn off a lot more calories, thereby making it possible for you to
eat more without putting on weight. But to say that weight training allows you
to eat what you want is a dangerous myth that, while it may work for you, may
not work for others with a lower metabolism.
Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 6: Women
Only Really Require Cardio Exercises and Very Light Weights to Stay Fit and in
Shape.
“Cardiovascular
exercise is necessary for both men and women; it’s what makes our bodies fit
and our hearts healthy,” explains a Los Angeles gym instructor. “But to say
that women only require cardio exercise is absolute nonsense. Weight
training builds muscle mass and compels the body to burn fat, while cardio
tends to burn both fat AND muscle. Following a circuit training routine
therefore increases fitness, burns fat and strengthens and builds muscle
throughout the body.”
As for
using lighter weights, again, this is a myth. Your muscles respond to
resistance. The heavier the weights, the more the muscle fibers have to tense
and strain to lift it (and the more calories you’ll burn), which explains why
people with bulging muscles are strong. If you only make use of light weights,
your muscles won’t really need to do much work to lift them and your body won’t
change because it’s not being challenged.
“Remember,
women don’t produce enough testosterone to build the kind of muscle bulk that
men can, so you don’t need to worry about looking masculine if you incorporate
weight training into your circuit training routine,” says a female personal
trainer in Los Angeles.
Stay
Tuned for Part 4, Coming Next Week!
We’ll
be exploring the following final myths:
# 7: It’s Dangerous For Women to Lift
Weights
# 8: Being Lean is the Ultimate Goal of
Exercise
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