6 myths about women's strength training that keep you from getting prettier

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We've all heard that lifting weights is bad for women. The life hacker figured out whether to avoid the gym and choose too light dumbbells and in what cases the danger really exists.

1. Strength training harms the female spine

Here's what it says in the article "Why Women Shouldn't Lift Weights":

It's all about the special structure of the female skeleton. The bones of the fair sex are much more fragile and thinner than those of men. Including the spine, which has the main load when lifting heavy objects.

With the systematic (and sometimes one-time!) Lifting of weights in women, the vertebral discs are gradually displaced, which after a few years can lead to such a serious disease as a spinal hernia.

But the truth is, improper strength training leads to injury and degenerative changes in the spine, regardless of gender. With the right technique, the load on the spine is minimal.

In addition, weight training involves a gradual increase in load in parallel with the growth of muscles and strength indicators. So the health risk almost disappears.

2. Strength training can result in prolapse of the uterus

The prolapse of the uterus is the displacement of the fundus and cervix below the physiological border due to the weakening of the muscles of the pelvic floor and ligaments of the uterus. There are many reasons for this ailment: from congenital defects in the development of the pelvic organs to injuries sustained during childbirth. Lifting is almost always mentioned as a risk factor. Some doctors, as a preventive measure, do not advise lifting more than 5 kg.

However, do not confuse weight lifting and proper strength training! Carrying bags of cement without preparation, with the wrong technique (with a round back) and especially in old age (50% of cases of prolapse of the uterus are diagnosed in women over 50) is really an unforgivable stupidity and health risk. Strength training, however, is another matter entirely.

If strength training with sensible weight gain and proper technique promoted prolapse of the uterus, many female athletes would suffer from this ailment. The facts suggest otherwise.

Women involved in sports tolerate pregnancy and childbirth much better, recover faster after them and have fewer problems with the pelvic organs.

It's all about strengthening the core muscles (including the pelvic floor muscles), which keep the organs in position.

In general, strength training according to a competent program and with the correct technique will save you from problems with the pelvic organs. But only if you do not have a hereditary predisposition to prolapse of the uterus and existing problems with the pelvic organs. In these cases, it is best to consult a doctor before exercising.

3. Strength training disfigures the figure

Forms of pumped up fitness models and bodybuilders are not to everyone's liking. And the girls run away from simulators, barbells and dumbbells, believing that a couple of exercises are enough for the muscles to swell and turn the woman into a pitching. In vain.

Even eating more (much more!) Protein or absorbing protein shakes, you will not build up a mountain of muscles without special drugs and constant hard training.

The most you get from strength training without rethinking your diet and targeted muscle gain is a leaner body without excess fat. Isn't that the goal of most people who go to the gym?

4. Guys - iron, girls - a treadmill

This myth about the distribution of equipment in the gym follows from the previous one. And also from the opinion that all the girls in the gym want to lose weight.

Cardio on a treadmill is great. However, strength training is even recommended for runners: it helps to increase aerobic endurance. Maximal strength-training effects on force-velocity and force-power relationships explain increases in aerobic performance in humans.

Strength training also burns more calories than medium to low intensity cardio. Of course, even here you cannot do without revising the diet.

After strength training, oxygen debt increases, and a fair amount of calories are spent to cover it. According to a recent study, after strength training, oxygen demand persists for 21 hours: during this time, the body burns more calories, even in a calm state.

Therefore, if a girl wants to lose weight, she needs weight training, and not long walks or low-intensity jogging in the cardio zone.

5. Strength training does not help you lose weight, but, on the contrary, increases body weight

Strength training helps replace fat with muscle. Your weight may stand still or even increase, and the volumes will decrease at the same time.

It is not for nothing that fitness models are urged not to be guided by weights, but to measure your progress using a centimeter tape.

A great visual example is this photo of fitness blogger Kelsey Wells. In the first photo, the girl weighs 65.8 kg, in the second - 55.3 kg, in the third - 63.5 kg.

Why in the third photo does Kelsey look slimmer, fit and athletic than in the first one, although she weighs only 2 kg less? Just because of the percentage of muscle mass. First, the girl lost fat, reducing her weight to 55, 3 kg, and then gained 8 kg of muscle mass.

As you can see, strength training reduces body volume, but increases weight due to increased muscle mass. So do not be afraid of such a quality increase.

6. Women should choose low weights and high reps

In the gym, you rarely see a girl doing, for example, deadlifts or heavy squats for 3-5 reps per set. Much more often, girls choose light dumbbells and do 20 lunges per leg, endlessly squat with an empty bar or bodybar, or exercise on simulators with low weight, performing many repetitions per set.

This pattern of women's workouts naturally follows from the myth that women should not lift weights. Since you can't work with a lot of weight, you need to do a lot of reps with a small one.

But working with high and low weights has different goals.

Doing 1-3 reps per set at 80% of the one-time maximum, for example, is training absolute strength. Doing a lot of reps at low weights will increase your strength endurance.

To understand exactly how muscles respond to a particular load, you need to understand their structure. Muscle fibers are fast and slow.

Slow fibers (red, oxidative, subtype I) use aerobic metabolism (with oxygen) for long-term muscle activity. They are hardy, small in size and poorly hypertrophied. That is, exercising with low weight and multiple repetitions, you will not soon achieve a relief body. Proof of this are marathon runners, triathletes, cyclists - tough, wiry and thin.

Fast muscle fibers (white, glycolytic, subtypes IIa and IIb) work during short-term high-intensity exercise. They are larger than slow fibers and hypertrophy well.

Exercises with high weights and low repetitions train white muscle fibers that grow rapidly and provide a beautiful figure for powerlifters, weightlifters, sprinters.

If you want to quickly increase the definition, be sure to include short-term intense work in your workout: exercises with high weights and low reps.

If you don't have specific tasks in the gym, you can diversify your workouts and increase both strength and strength endurance by alternating loads. For example, in one workout, perform exercises with high weight and low number of repetitions, in the second - with medium weight and increased number of repetitions per set, and in the third - with low weight and high number of repetitions.

As you can see, the type of exercise does not depend on gender, but on the tasks that you are pursuing. In women's training, there is a place for cardio loads, and multi-repetitive exercises with low weight, and work with weights close to the one-time maximum.

Build your workouts wisely, take care of the right technique and carefully increase your working weight, and strength training will give you health, strength and a perfect figure.