Myths and Misconceptions

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There are many myths and misconceptions floating around the fitness industry, here are but a few.

Myth #1: You can reduce fat from a specific area by training that particular area.
Fact: Not true. Imagine a swimming pool of water. If you removed a bucket of water from the pool, the level would reduce across the entire surface of the pool, not just in the place where the water came out. You can train a particular area to increase the strength and lean muscle mass of the underlying muscle but you cannot burn fat from an area by training that area.

Myth #2: Women can get big from doing weights
Fact: The main hormone required to gain muscle mass is testosterone and females do not naturally produce enough of this hormone to cause large muscle growth.

Myth #3: Muscle turns to fat after you stop training
Fact: Muscle is muscle and fat is fat, two different types of tissue. When a person does resistance training muscle mass increases causing an increase in metabolism, ultimately leading to a reduction of body fat. When a person stops lifting weights muscles go through a process called atrophy (reduction in size) leading to a decrease in the person’s metabolism. If nutrition and cardiovascular changes are not made, this may lead to an increase in body fat stores.

Myth #4: Kids can’t do weights
Fact: While it is not recommended children lift heavy weights or do extreme types of training, resistance training should be encouraged to develop a healthy life style during adolescents and early adulthood.

Myth #5: I am too old to start
Fact: There are no age limits to commencing a resistance training program.

Myth #6: Light weights will cut me up
Fact: Looking cut is a person’s ability to see their muscle definition. In order to see this, one needs to remove the body fat covering the muscle. Heavy weight training increases muscle mass leading to greater fat burning. Lifting light weights more often will usually cause a person to target an endurance type workout activating the anaerobic lactic acid energy system which burns glucose as its main energy source and not fat.