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Fitness Myths For Women: Weights Don't Cause Bulk And More

The Huffington Post Canada   First Posted: 03/12/2012 5:47 pm EDT   Updated: 12/13/2012 1:48 pm EST

Getting in shape can mean different things to different people, but the way we plan our workouts is often based on fitness myths that probably had their orientation somewhere around high school gym class. Women in particular tend to base their workouts on a slew of misconceptions that has them avoiding places like the weight room -- and personal trainer Irene Lewis-McCormick really wants to change that.

Lewis-McCormick, the author of "A Woman's Guide to Muscle & Strength," has set out to revamp the female workout to push women to their best bodies. She's a stalwart believer in strength training, and wishes more woman made it part of their regimen.

"Strength training is one of the only forms of exercise that offers so many benefits to health and fitness, which makes it a solid choice of regular exercise," Lewis-McCormick says. "If anything, strength training is especially important for women because it provides maximum opportunity to control weight and achieve many other long-term benefits."

She's put together five myths that persist for women's workouts -- and while some of them may be disappointing (what do you mean I can't burn off my butt fat?), they should help to achieve better results -- and reteach some important lessons.

Fitness Myths For Women
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Personal trainer Irene Lewis-McCormick knows many women fear the weight room -- and she wants to helps them embrace it, and get more fit in the process.
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Fitnessa sk
0 Fans
02:34 AM on 09/26/2012
Gr8 post! Your readers may also be interested in Weight Training and Women it's a good resource for women who are thinking of weight training to lose weight.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onwisconsin
Trust women; protect choice.
2067 Fans
09:04 PM on 03/14/2012
My personal favorite was from my mother. I have very long arms, legs and broad shoulders. She wouldn't allow me to be on the swim team because it would make my shoulders bigger. At 45 I swim daily. Guess what? My shoulders haven't grown an inch!
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tyrDC
16 Fans
05:03 AM on 03/14/2012
The spot reduction myth annoys me, oh how I wish it were true! My legs tone up so easily but my middle is the last to go, just like the majority of the women in my family. I am so sick of people telling me I just need to do more ab work and spot reduce. I diet and workout but boy does my belly want to hang in there until every appendage is whittled down to bones. I may have abs of steel under this layer of fluff but you won't see it until my legs are sticks which is not a look I'm going for. So short loose dresses it is!
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Kali03
I am an Obama supporter
6260 Fans
09:16 PM on 03/13/2012
#2 annoys the cr@p out of me--it's patronizing to women.

Yes, most women are not going to get big. Especially not the sorts who come in and lift the five pound dumbbells for awhile and then go read Shape magazine while pedaling on the recumbent bike.

However, some of us put on muscle very easily AND our muscles (relative to our bone size) are large. In that case, it is easy to get thicker and bigger than one would wish, especially if the fat doesn't come off as quickly as the muscle comes on. So to pooh-pooh the concern is insulting.

I've had guys do that to me and then a few months later, marvel at how quickly I put on muscle. And it's genetics and the size of my muscle to bone ratio that does it, not a man-size testosterone level.

Derrr.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onwisconsin
Trust women; protect choice.
2067 Fans
09:08 PM on 03/14/2012
I'm have a lot of muscle mass too. I'm just under 6 feet tall and I used to worry about it, particularly in my legs and upper arms. But my husband is 6' 4" and he's much more muscular than I so it all works for us. I think he was the first guy who didn't try to compete with me or make me feel like I wasn't feminine.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Spartan Ideal
82 Fans
08:59 PM on 03/13/2012
This may be for women, but it's good advice in general (hell, most guys need to understand that getting -big- requires a herculean effort).
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MarvinGardens
"Vacantly occupied"
203 Fans
05:59 PM on 03/12/2012
I've been a trainer for 32 years. This is basically good advice. One thing though, There most certainly is a target heart rate for optimum fat burning. Take 220 subtract your age, take 65%-75% of that number. For MOST people fat burn range will be the resulting number in beats per minute. If you can sustain that range for 30-60 minutes, everyday you are on your way!
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