5 training myths you probably believe

By Emmet Rushe • 7 years ago

Jul
2017

Fitness columnist Emmet Rushe looks at the most common ideas people have about exercise that are not true.

This is a 2-part article this week.

This one will focus on popular training myths and my other article over on Donegal Daily will focus on popular nutrition myths.

I’m sure there will be at least one of these that you have heard before and probably believed or might still believe.

1. STRENGTH TRAINING WILL MAKE YOU ‘BULKY’.

This is often one that you will hear from females, but it is not just females who believe that this is true.
This myth still runs through many sporting organisations and many amateur coaches will still tell their athletes to avoid strength training as it will make them ‘bulky’ and ‘slow them down’.
Let’s clear this up.
This myth comes from the association of lifting weights and bodybuilders.
People are under the illusion that if you lift weights you will end up looking like Schwarzenegger or Ronnie Coleman, but you won’t.
You won’t be training like them, you won’t be eating like them and you won’t and shouldn’t be taking the performance ‘enhancers’ that they were taking to end up the size they were.
Strength training is a huge benefit for athletes when done correctly.
It is great for body composition and all females should do it, especially if they want that ‘toned’ look.
There is no bad side effects to lifting weights when it is done right and is in line with your goals.

2. CARDIO WILL MAKE YOU FAT AND YOU SHOULD ONLY DO HIIT.

This is one that took flight in the mid to late 2000’s.
When HIIT started to take off and people started to jump on the bandwagon, slow and steady state cardio began to get vilified.
Trainers were saying that it could make you fat and have negative effects on your hormones.
Naturally, like everything else this was taken to the extreme case and the studies being pointed out were looking at people who were doing extreme cases of cardio on very low-calorie diets.
Cardio, when done as part of a structured training program is very beneficial and when done with a proper strength training program can have great benefits to fat loss.

3. YOU NEED TO HAVE AN ARM DAY, CHEST DAY, LEG DAY IN YOUR TRAINING.

Again, this one comes from old school bodybuilding programs.
This is probably the most inefficient way to train no matter what your goals are.
It has been shown that the more frequently you train a muscle group, the better the benefits you will get.
This goes for muscle gain, fat loss or strength training.
So if you usually do 16-20 sets for your chest once per week on a Monday,(which is international chest day), you would get better gains if you split that workout into 2-3 workouts over the week and did 4-6 sets 2-3 times per week rather than doing them all on the one day and not training it for another week.
Doing 3 full body sessions for beginners works best and for more advanced trainees doing 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days is a better layout.
You can progress this further depending on your training level and recover capacity.

4. MY MUSCLE WILL TURN TO FAT IF I STOP LIFTING WEIGHTS.

This is a huge one that people believe.
Muscle and fat are 2 separate things.
Muscle cannot turn to fat and fat cannot turn into muscle.
If you lift weights, follow a good nutrition plan and have good muscle tone and low body fat you will look pretty good.
If you stop training and stop following a structured nutrition plan, you will lose some muscle mass and that toned look and you will probably gain some body fat.
You won’t look as good physically as you previously did.
This is not your muscle turning to fat.
This is you letting everything go and getting lazy with your diet, if you start again you will soon be back to where you were.
Using this as an excuse not to start is no longer a viable option, so stop using is ?

5. WOMEN SHOULDN’T LIFT WEIGHTS.

Another myth that is a load of nonsense.
It goes like this;
‘Don’t lift weights, you’ll end up looking like a bodybuilder and will look all manly, ewww’.
You know you have heard this before.
This is what’s commonly known as bovine excrement, (think about it).
Weight training won’t make you look manly, it can, however, give you the toned look that 99% of female crave and want to look like.
When you are on the treadmill trying to walk and run yourself to that physique, you should also be training with weights 3-4 days per week to get to where you want to be.
Don’t worry about the myth above, it will never happen, trust me.
It isn’t that easy to gain muscle.

I can guarantee that you have heard at least one of these myths and that you probably have believed it up until now.
These things tend to keep circulating around the training world and they don’t seem to be going away.
This isn’t the 1^st training myths article that I have penned over the years and I doubt that it will be my last.
Just remember to take things with a pinch of salt and always try and find the truth yourself before spreading around more half-truths.
#TrainSmart