Hey everyone Happy Friday!!
Today I am talking about weight training and the old myth that ‘lifting weights bulk you up’.
This is a common misconception amongst women. I often get told by my clients that they want to lose weight but they don’t want to lift weights as they will get too big. I can tell you now ladies that this is not true…….I lift weights everyday and my weight remains the same. You will only bulk if you are consuming a huge amount of calories and I mean huge. If you have a balanced diet your muscles will only grow to healthy, normal level that promotes an increased metabolism. With proper nutrition, lifting weights will create a leaner physique, not a bulkier one.
Another misconception is that muscle turns into fat if you stop lifting, this will never happen as they’re two completely different things, muscle never turns into fat and fat never turns into muscle. However muscle will help you burn fat.
Unless you’re a bodybuilder training for competitions, choose compound exercises that work more than one muscle at a time like squats, deadlifts and pullups for a more effective workout in a shorter amount of time. Also vary your workout by mixing in heavy weights for lower reps and lower weights for higher reps and also bodyweight exercises such as press up, tricep dips and mountain climbers as these can all be effecive for toning and muscle gain. Weightlifting can also be good for protecting the joints as muscle helps absorb shock.
So for all you cardio queens out there (or kings!!!) mix things up, lifting weights can be far more beneficial for you than running for 40 minutes on a treadmill or cross trainer and will give you a far more varied workout.
Ok everyone have a great weekend…….go lift!!!!!
(Featured Image: Sven Mieke)
