Myths about female training

[Steve]

MYTH 1. You shouldn't perform resistance training until you get down to your ideal body weight. Many women feel that adding muscle to an overweight physique will make them look even fatter. They mistakenly try to diet their way to fat loss while avoiding weight training. The fact is, weight training helps to promote fat loss. Muscle mass increases your metabolic rate, which directly aids in the burning of fat as fuel. Studies have shown that for each pound of muscle added to your body, you burn an additional 30 to 50 calories a day at rest. Moreover, the calories burned are more apt to come from fat rather than glycogen stores. Thus, weight training is one of the most important activities that you can do to help to lose body fat, arguably even more important than cardiovascular exercise.

MYTH 2. Performing abdominal exercises will give you a flat stomach. Many women believe that if they perform exercises for their abdominals, they will get a flat stomach. Television "infomercials" for abdominal exercises further help to promulgate this myth. The fact is, the only way to get a flat stomach is to strip away the fat around the midsection. This is accomplished by having a proper nutritional regimen, increasing muscle mass to increase metabolism, and performing cardiovascular exercise to help burn calories. Abdominal training will help to build muscle in your midsection and is certainly beneficial to overall health and well being. However, you will never see the abdominal muscles unless the fat in this area is stripped away.

MYTH 3. You should train your abdominals every day for best results. This fallacy goes hand-in-hand with Myth 2. It is widely believed that the abdominals exercises can and should be trained on a daily basis to achieve maximum effect. The fact is, abdominals can be overtrained just like any other muscle group. Muscle tissue is actually broken down during training, and therefore needs adequate rest and recuperation in order to regenerate. When your abs are trained too frequently, the recovery process is shortchanged, resulting in diminished muscular development. Moreover, your abdominals are worked indirectly while training other muscle groups. They are stabilizers for virtually every movement you perform. Exercises such as triceps pressdowns, lat pulldowns, squats, etc., heavily employ abdominal assistance. In effect, you get an ab workout every time you train with weights! Considering these facts, you need only train your abs a maximum two or three times per week. If you do not see proper results, train more intensely and/or use weighted abdominal exercises. Don't forget, if you have excess bodyfat in this area, you will never see the muscle that you have worked so hard to build!

MYTH 4. You must train for hours on end to achieve a great physique. People look at bodybuilders and fitness competitors and believe that they attain their physiques by spending six hours a day in the gym. The fact is, it's not the quantity of training that matters, but the quality of training. Short, intense training sessions are the way to achieve a terrific body. If you train too much, you'll enter a state of overtraining and actually reduce the quality of your physique. Sixty to ninety minutes of intense training, three or four days per week, is all that's required to develop a great physique. Further, keeping a strict nutritional regimen is paramount to supplementing this training style. Without proper nutrition, no level of training will make you look great.

MYTH 5. Women should train with light weights so they won't bulk up. Many women feel the way to a great body is to lift very light weights that do not put a strain on the muscles. The fact is, the only way to achieve great muscle tone is to train to momentary muscular failure. If you want to tone up, not bulk up, you have to utilize a high repetition scheme. By performing high reps (15 to 20 per set), you target the endurance muscle fibers and tend to get a leaner, harder physique without adding substantial muscular mass. However, the weight used must be heavy enough so that the last few repetitions are very difficult to complete. If the weight is too light, you will not tax the muscle sufficiently to adequately stimulate results.

MYTH 6. If you stop training with weights, the muscle that you have will turn to fat. There is a prevailing sentiment that all the hard work that went into developing one's muscles will turn to fat if training is ceased. The fact is, muscle and fat are two separate and distinct properties. Muscle cannot turn to fat and fat cannot be converted into muscle. When a person stops weight training, their muscle will gradually atrophy (get smaller), ultimately returning to pre-exercise levels. Generally, the longer a person has been training, the longer it will take to lose muscle tissue. Unfortunately, many people don't adjust their caloric intake when they cease weight training. Since muscle increases metabolic rate and allows the body to burn more calories, weight training affords you with the ability to consume more calories. When training is discontinued, you must reassess your eating habits and take in fewer calories to account for a slower metabolism. If calories are not reduced, you will ultimately gain weight and give the illusion of having your muscle turn into fat.

By Brad Schoenfeld, CSCS, CPT

Steve

Great info, Steve..! Thanks!!

[Cougar]

Oooh, yes. Those are good ones. Leave us not forget, however, some of the other beauties.... the two that immediately spring to mind as having been omitted are:

"You do X exercise to tone, X to firm, and X to sculpt."

There's no such thing, dammit! There's losing fat, gaining strength, and gaining muscle mass. Especially no such thing as "sculpting"- if I see one more bull**** program claim that THEIR way builds long, lean muscles whereas Evil Free Weights builds short, bulky muscles, I'll puke. Muscle shape is genetic, and the female thigh is not clay.

"You'll lose your breasts if you do free weights!"

Your breasts may shrink if you do anabolic steroids. Your breasts may get somewhat smaller if you are very overweight and some extra fat has been deposited there; otherwise your breasts will stay the same size your genes think they should be, except they'll be sitting on top of bigger, firmer pectorals. By the same token, you cannot make them larger; breast tissue is not muscle tissue.

[sillyme]

Thanks for taking the time to debunk some myths steve. You said one thing that I have a question about. You said that all you need to do is

Sixty to ninety minutes of intense training, three or four days per week, i

I've heard this before and have a hard time with it. I really like going to the gym as I find it to be a tremendous stress releiver.

What if I lifted 5 to 6 days per week for about an hour, but only did on or two body parts each time? Then spent another 15 minutes on the stairstepper and another 15 to 30 minutes stretching? Would that be OK or would I be sabotaging my muscular development?

[AnnaD - TX]

Thanks Steve, I was really believing myth 1 for the longest time. I would never train my arms or back, because I didn't want my arms to look swoll and my back to be bigger. I guess I need some tips on maintaing, those 2 bodyparts??? What do I do? Just use lighter weights, I guess??

[arbit]

Just train them the way u wood any other part.
Gaining muscle is hard, even for men-thats why they have all those steroids, testosteron boosters etc. Its even harder for women to gain muscle becoz of their low testosteron.
For men, 2lbs of lbm/month is considered to be excellent progress.
Still think u will become like schwarzenneger?

[atherjen]

I agree with arbit,if it were that easy for woman to gain muscle then there woudn't be all those woman out there sticking their butts with needles(steroids).
we have a VERY hard time to gain muscle, but lifting heavy weights will help to form and shape our body, not only will adding muscle boost your metabolism which equals in less overall fat storage if you eat more.
muscle takes up alot LESS room on our body's that fat does, yet weighs more. so going by the scale is a poor way to track progress as well.

[sillyme]

what about my question any comments on it? Can I work out per mentioned above or would you consider that overtraining? (Steve said you can only work out 3 x per week but I want to work out more)

[Lady C]

If you want to workout 6 times per week, DON'T do aerobics on the same days as weights. This will defeat the purpose of the muscle gains. Alternate your days between aerobic and weights. Also if your weight training is an hour each time that is probably overtraining. My training takes 45 minutes max. regardless of which routine I'm doing.

[DaRkAnGel]

Originally Posted by sillyme

what about my question any comments on it? Can I work out per mentioned above or would you consider that overtraining? (Steve said you can only work out 3 x per week but I want to work out more)

Yes it will be overtraining. I am all for girls training like guys, but in some aspects they cannot - men and women were not created equally. You can try it and read your body but I am pretty sure you are going to be overtraining. If the volume is low each workout session then it is ok; however, unless you are training for strength, the increased frequency is not really the best type of training. In all reality, if you train intensely like this for several weeks you will get seriously burnt out(your cns will become a wreck) and you will have to stop lifting for probably a few weeks just so your brain functions correctly. Trust me, it is not a good feeling.

[sillyme]

OK - thank for the advice. I will devise a workout schedule that takes into account the expertise share here

[fawn]

regarding stopping the weight training..how long will it take to decrease the muscle mass that u gained?

[Lady C]

After gaining the muscle, it only takes 30 minutes per WEEK to keep it. I don't know how long it takes to lose it. Why would you want to lose it after working so hard to gain it?

[midgetcop]

Originally Posted by DaRkAnGel

Yes it will be overtraining. I am all for girls training like guys, but in some aspects they cannot - men and women were not created equally. You can try it and read your body but I am pretty sure you are going to be overtraining.

I don't know if I agree with that. How can women not train like men?

[Lady C]

Yeah, Dark, why would a woman train differently? The only difference I see is the amount of weight used. Look at AtherJen she even defies that rule!