The final 3 of the 7 personal training myths, continued, from last week’s 7 Myths reviewed!
Personal Training Myth #5
Male and female training regimens should differ. Myth. The overall goal may be different between men and women; however, the one variable that does not change between males and females is the principle of overload. The five main components of fitness for the average person are: cardiovascular (increasing your heart rate), muscular strength (being able to pick something up heavy), muscular endurance (the ability to do a lot of repetitions without getting tired), flexibility (range of motion) and finally, body composition (the amount of fat compared to muscle in your body). Women usually stick to cardio, since that “burns calories” and if they do use weights, they use between 2-5lb weights. Ladies, I am going to speak to you directly on this one—there is not enough testosterone in your body to bulk up (if there is, something else is going on). Pick a weight that you can do 12-15 repetitions with and is challenging for three or four sets, but with which you can complete your sets with some challenge. Guys, doing pilates or other flexibility training will not pose harm to your manhood. Strength training is very important, but as stated earlier, that is only one component of fitness. Increase the amount of core and flexibility training you do and I guarantee your strength will increase, since core strength goes hand in hand with strength training.
Personal training Myth #6
The idea that weight belts, knee braces, wrist supporters, and other training accessories are needed. This is a pure myth. 99% of the population should not be using any of the aforementioned accessories. If you’re a beginner, do not worry about looking like one. Just come into the gym wearing comfortable workout clothing, meaning no jeans or nice, button-down shirts and simply work out. If you need help, then ask for help, but make sure to consult a professional—not just a person in the gym that looks like “they know what they’re doing.” Buying workout gloves or any other accessories does not make you look like you know what you’re doing. Used incorrectly, they will only make you more prone to injury. I promise you, either people will not know that you’re a beginner, or they’ll know you’re a beginner regardless of the amount of extra accessories you wear. For those who are at an intermediate level or more advanced than that, did you ever hear the quote “if you don’t use it, you lose it”? When you begin relying on a weight belt, straps, wrist support, knee braces, or even gloves, though you can isolate further into the larger muscle groups, you are weakening your smaller muscle groups. For the intermediates, a simpler rule of thumb is simply not to use these accessories. If you’re advanced and use these accessories anyway, make sure to do a few sets of the same exercise without the accessory. (Contact me for further clarification)
Personal training myth #7
The myth that nutrition labels contain all the vital information. Calories, grams of fat, grams of sugar…all of that isn’t important as what order the ingredients are listed in. Look at the ingredients, and if there is any type of sugar or any other unneeded ingredients as one of the first four ingredients, then put the product down. The food you buy lists the ingredients from most used to least used. Do not clog your system up with unneeded preservatives.
Commercials, media, and blogs (except this one 😉 ) often have ulterior motives. Skip through the hype, and if needed contact a professional (yes, Training Aspects is approved).
By: Kirill Vaks
Fitness and exercise specialist
BA, CSCS, ACSM-cpt, NFPT-sns
Suggested articles:
*Most common reasons for not exercising
*Macro-nutrient density
Suggested video:
*Push up variations
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