Are you getting started on building your new body for the New Year, but hesitant to add in a proper strength training routine? Here are three strength training myths that may ease your mind about picking up some “heavy” weights this winter:
- Lifting heavy weights will make me bulky: Wrong! Lifting heavy weight won’t make you bulky, eating a lot of calories will though. Heavy is a relative term and depends on the individual; a proper strength training routine will help you develop lean muscle and burn more calories while doing nothing. That’s right, nothing… the more lean muscle you have on your body the higher your metabolism will be. The only way to do this is to lift those weights you may have thought were too much for you.
- “I don’t want to get too big- just tone”: This is one of the most common things said when referring to strength training or weight lifting. “Tone” is a misused term and when talking about your muscles they can only do one of two things; get bigger or get smaller. When you are “toned” it just means that your muscle is more visible but other than that it is impossible to sculpt yourself any other way. So in actuality, your muscles got bigger and you appear more “toned” because they are more visible.
- “Low weight, High reps!”: A commonly misused phrase, this gives people a misconception of what they need to be doing and may not be appropriate for everyone. Often this will lead to a very light weight being used in hopes that you can do 30 of them and it will be sufficient. For example, when doing a set of 15 repetitions, you want to choose a weight that is challenging from the start and is quite hard towards rep number 14 & 15. If you can easily get to 15 reps with your weight it may be too light- the last four to five reps should be challenging, yet do-able!
By Tyler Palmquist
