Worst Weightlifting Pieces Of Advice You Can Ever Be Told

Ben BA(Hons), PGCert

Have you ever been in to a gym where the advice you have heard or been told contradicts that you have read?

Are you left wondering what the hell is best to do to increase your muscle strength and size?

Bad advice can come from all angles. There’s also a lot of recycled ideas with new buzz words to make it sound fresh, new and exciting when really it is just a take on old practices.

However, bad advice or bad training techniques can come from a variety of different sources.

Plus, what may work for John, may not necessarily work for Aaron or Amy.

The anabolic steroids used by Jason can create a situation whereby his recovery is far greater than that experienced by Brad who is not using steroids.

Therefore, training advice spouted by Jason because he has seen raid gains is not going to provide the same results for Brad who simply cannot cope with the extra training demands placed on his body.

Therefore, most advice or training suggestions are spilled all over the gym floor and forums with a real lack of consideration for the user.

I, for instance really respond well to high weight and low reps, I am talking 3 reps at the most.

A higher rep range just doesn’t have the same effect even though it is preached that I should be doing 8 or even 12 reps to increase muscle size.

For me, that advice just does not work.

So, with advice that only works for a select few people and over training a real concern it can be the root cause of injury, lack of real progress and a loss of self belief.

Yet, regardless, these bits of advice just do not seem to disappear, people tend not to discover what works for themselves and consequently put their bodies through ineffective training routines needlessly.

So, let’s take a look at some of the more popular pieces of advice that really should be banished to the depths of the ocean.

Light Weight & High Reps

Those that are looking to maintain a slim yet toned physique are often advised to hit the gym floor with a lower weight yet increase the repetition range.

However, what does it mean to ‘tone’ up?

Well, essentially it is just to see visible muscle. In that case you need to decrease body fat.

If you want bigger muscle too, you are going to have to lift heavier and create a calorie deficit by doing some cardio, plus weights and careful nutrition.

That’s how you see more of the muscles and also make them bigger and more pronounced.

Just lifting light weights in higher repetitions doesn’t ‘tone’ anything.

Heavier weights lifted stimulate more muscle growth that you require while trying to lose fat, otherwise you’ll just look like a marathon runner.

There’s No Gain Without Pain

If you experience sharp, stabbing or deeply painful sensations from joints or muscles when you are lifting weights or even exercising at all you must stop immediately.

If you feel any of this pain this is your body telling you to stop as it is not appropriate for you. Therefore the technique or the movement may not be suitable for joints, tendons, ligaments or muscles.

Do not mistake this searing, deep and sharp pain for delayed onset muscle soreness or the ache of muscles being worked to the max.

Any sudden or stabbing pains can be the start of something much more severe that you should not continue with.

If anything becomes extremely uncomfortable, just do not do it. Your body is communicating with you for a reason.

Crash Dieting – Cut Carbs

Research has shown that low carbohydrate diets are no more effective at weight loss than the results achieved with a low fat diet.

Again, like with weight lifting and many approaches to fitness and dieting, you have to find what works for you as an individual, not the latest craze spawned by a celebrity.

Some people do find a low carbohydrate diet to be effective for them and this could be that they personal find it easier to stick with that other forms of dieting to create a calorie deficit.

Carbohydrates hold moisture and water. In fact carbs hold 4 times as much water per gram of carbohydrate.

That means, a sudden reduction in carbohydrates also means a reduction in water weight.

Therefore, as soon as carbs are reintroduced, so is the water weight.

This is not a reduction in fat. Again, any fat loss should not be measured by weight lost.

Not only this, but carbohydrates are the preferred energy source for your body.

Therefore, if you are low on carbs it can be difficult to perform optimally.

We also risk losing muscle, and, more muscle means your metabolism is running higher.

Fruit Sugars Are Bad

It is not necessarily sugars that make us fat or gain extra fat, it is more about the calorie intake and calorie expenditure.

Therefore, regardless how sugary food is, and fruit comprises of almost all sugar, it is how many calories we consume that really count.

Therefore, if you decided to eat way too much fruit it would have the same effect if you decide to over eat anything.

Calorie balance is the main concern.

Some foods have a much higher calorie content that others, therefore it is important to eat them accordingly.

A calorie deficit from eating calorie dense foods is still a calorie deficit that will see weight loss.

Likewise, eating lots of low calorie dense foods can create a calorie surplus and regardless of the food type, you will gain weight.

Muscle Confusion

How many times have your been told to confuse the muscles by changing routines?

The theory that shocking the muscles keeps them stimulated and maintains continued growth is fine as long as you are progressing with the weight used.

Just changing routines but without progressive overload is not going to bare any further development just as sticking to the same routine will not without increasing the weight.

Progress must be measured and that is down to increasing the weight lifted not just the way it is lifted to confuse the muscles.

I personally maintain the same routine week in week out yet I notice development because I am always striving to increase the loads lifted.

Plus, if you have progressed over a period of 6 months with your deadlift and have been continually adding more weight but then you decide to stop deadlifts and try a new exercise, how can you then measure your deadlift progress?

Continually strive to increase the weight, not confusion

Lose Weight By Doing Cardio

Cardio is a great and effective way to lose weight. I love cycling to work, it has really helped me lose weight alongside a good nutrition plan and also using a fat burner.

However, it is not the be all and end all of fat reduction.

To ensure you lose weight you need to ensure your calories consumed are less than what your are burning.

Therefore, calorie balance is required but also, weight lifting burns lots of calories too, not only that, weight lifting maintains a raised metabolism for much longer than cardio does once you have finished.

Not only that, but increasing muscle mass means more calories are burned just maintain it.

Therefore, your body will use up more calories just resting when you have more muscles.

You can build more muscle by introducing a testosterone booster to your weight lifting regime.

Weight Lifting Makes Women Look Masculine

Weightlifting does not necessarily make women look bulky or masculine as long as they are not using drugs such as steroids or they are not over eating calorie dense foods.

Only really when drugs are involved does a woman’s physique start to change and masculine characteristics start to become more prominent as their hormone levels change.

Women can maintain a feminine and slender figure when using weights as part of their fitness regime as demonstrated by Sabrina Coates.

Again, more muscle mass contributes to more calories burned while resting and helping to reduce body fat.

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