2nd June 2012
I am often surprised by the silly things that normally quite intelligent people sometimes say.
One subject that a lot of clever people avoid doing any proper research into is weight training and fitness.
They might once in a while jump on the latest band wagon and take up the newest diet. They might buy the next best thing in ab training or fat burning that will slowly start to accumulate dust in the loft, in the garage or under the bed.
The reason for this is probably because clever people associate fitness with muscle bound thugs who can't possibly be intelligent and therefore what they do can't be a clever thing.
The irony is that it is the clever people who have fallen victim of the advertisers and have become too lazy to do anything about their lack of fitness or perhaps it is because they are just too busy to give it the time it really deserves. Is watching TV really more inmportant?
Here are some of the myths, misconceptions and lesser known advantages about weight training.
1. If I exercise, my fat will turn to muscle. My body will become hard and I won't enjoy cuddles anymore.
Muscle and fat are different things and one cannot become the other. It is not possible to grow muscle by eating fat - muscle comes from protein, fat produces fat.
Fat can also develop from excess calories from any source of food. Eating too much of anything can lead to the development of fat. Fat is basically unused energy which is put to one side for future use except it never gets used because we continue to eat to excess. Eating protein does not automatically lead to developing muscle - you need to convert it to muscle by exercising. If it is not used properly it will either be burnt as a source of energy or it will be deposited as fat as a future source of energy.
We need to eat properly to provide the body with what it needs when it needs it. Protein is consumed to help the body preserve or grow muscle.
There are certain things the body needs on a regular basis to remain healthy. We know about vitamins and minerals but protein is another. If the body does not receive a fresh source of protein roughly every three hours, our body will cannibalise itself - it will actually eat away at our own muscle. This is why if we do not continue to exercise, as we get older we become weaker, our metabolism slows down and our mid-rift expands. Our ratio of fat to body weight increases and our muscle to body weight ratio decreases.
Carbohydrates are eaten as our source of energy and we should concentrate on complex carbs like oats and unprocessed grains and avoid simple carbs or those that are processed such as sugar. Complex carbs are slow releasing and provide energy over a longer period of time. What happens is that after eating carbohydrates, the energy is stored in the muscle for immediate use. If we do not use it all, within a certain amount of time, it is converted to fat and deposited around the body. So you can see it is important to eat the correct amount of energy for when the body needs it.
Ideally, we should aim to eat a balanced diet every two and a half to three hours consisting of around 60% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 10% fat. The fat should only be Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) which cannot be manufactured by the body so therefore need to be part of the diet - these are our Omega fats, 3, 6 and 9.
What you should hope to achieve if you are fat, is through exercising, an increase in muscle that will help to burn your excess fat. You may develop muscle without being able to see it as it will be covered by fat. It is only after removing the fat through a different regime for loosing weight, that the muscle will be revealed.
Muscle is only hard when it is tensed and therefore when it is relaxed, it is soft and pliable and provides as good a cushion for cuddling as fat. Fat cannot be tensed or controlled so it wobbles and falls under the command of gravity - it cannot be controlled by tensing. What good is that?
2. If I want to lose weight, I am better off running or doing any other form of cardio rather than lifting weights.
Big mistake!
While running is my preferred form of cardiovascular exercise and helps me to burn more calories when I need to, I am aware of greater weight loss when doing high intensity weight lifting. You can increase intensity, duration or frequency of weight training, but it is intensity or lifting heavier weights that burns the most calories not lifting a lighter weight more times (duration).
Running, cycling or rowing or any other cardio exercise (dance, aerobics) burns calories at the time of doing the exercise. Once the exercise is finished, that it is it; you stop burning calories associated with that exercise.
Lifting heavy weights leads to breakages in the muscle fibre which require time to repair and during this period of recovery, there is an increase in the level of calorific burn. For the bigger muscle groups such as the thighs, glute (bum), hamstrings, chest and back, the recovery period can be as long as 72 hours meaning that lifting weights results in increased calorific burn for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after the exercise.
3. If I start to lift weights, I will develop unsightly muscles.
Developing muscle is very difficult to achieve and requires dedication in the gym and in the kitchen. A lot of hard work is involved, a special balanced diet with a lot of high quality protein and proper sleep.
Having the right genes also helps so if you are not naturally muscular, it is not likely you will find developing muscle easy. This is not to say you shouldn't try hard to develop some muscle as having more muscle is better than having less.
This is probably subjective, but I can't see how it can be; muscle is more attractive than fat. There is nothing more unsightly than cellulose lumps and bumps and sagging fat and stretch marks. A toned muscular body is far sexier on a man or woman than fat. And if you don't agree then that's fine but I really don't understand how you can believe that. I would like to be attractive in a swimsuit or even better, in the nude.
I can't stand these TV programmes where they try to dress up fat women to look attractive or when they try to get them to love themselves for what they are. There are products that are sold on TV to fat women that attempt to hide the fat by squashing it in. It would be far better and more honest if they were advised on how to change their lifestyle, get fit and healthy by eating and exercising rather than trying to sell them a new product and help some big corporation get rich. However, that's the beauty of living in a consumer state, the quick fix society, where we expect to get what we want as soon as we want it and for as little effort as possible.
Cash is king and wins every time. The banality of the shop 'til you drop crassness of the modern capitalist society has brainwashed most of us into accepting our sad little lives without putting up a fight or argument. No one is going to make money by telling you to work hard at preserving your health and eating fresh unprocessed foods.
4. If I do sit ups or concentrate exercising on my wing flaps under my arms, I will be able to get rid of the fat from these areas.
This is the spot reduction myth.
Doing a particular exercise develops the muscle that is being used. Doing
sit ups works the rectus abdominis, otherwise known as the abs or six-pack. Doing
dips works the triceps, the muscles on the back of the upper arm.
Although slightly off subject, I want to point out that doing the same exercise over and over again does not help to build muscle. You might improve a certain motor skill but after a while the muscle will reach saturation level and the only way to grow it is to add resistance or increase the weight that is being lifted.
The fat that is stored in that area is there by mere accident - it has no muscular function and does not take part in the work involved in moving the muscle.
You cannot target which fat is used as the source of energy. So in order to get rid of fat around your waist, your thighs or your arms, you need to think about targeting fat by burning all fat. Each person will lose fat from different places faster than others and every person will hold onto some areas of fat longer than others. For some, like me, the belly will be the last to go, for others it will be the legs.
5. After developing muscle, if I stop exercising, it will all turn to fat.
While referring to the first point above, we know that muscle cannot turn into fat - they are different things. It is possible for a once muscular person to get fat if they stop exercising but continue to eat the same amount of food as when they were still active.
However, once you know the advantage of regular exercise, why would you want to give it up? You might start to slow down as you grow older, but you would more likely than not wish to continue to live a strong and healthy life having worked so hard at achieving it.
Having got to this stage you are more likely to be able to eat according to your needs and you will not only know that calories in should equal calories out if you want to maintain weight. You will also know how many calories you need and how to measure them easily; a skill worth getting to know.
6. Weight training leads to a weak heart and the danger of having a heart attack is increased.
This myth probably comes from the stories of old school body builders from the late 60's and 70's and into the 80's who used a lot of anabolic steriods. They were unaware of the dangerous side effects of these drugs and the weight training regime that went together with these drugs was very different to a workout regime carried out by an amateur who lifts weights for its health benefits.
Weight training done properly is actually good for the heart but anyone with a heart problem or with a history of heart weakness should consult with a doctor before embarking on a weight training programme.
My advice, though, is to get yourself into the gym and lifting weights before you develop any heart problems; you will be doing yourself a big favour.
7. Lifting weights reduces the risk of osteoporosis in later life.
Muscles are joined to the bones by means of a tendon. Ligaments join bones together and once they are broken they will not grow back, they need to be replaced either synthetically or by using another ligament or tendon in the body not used so much. This can lead to a weakness in both parts of the body, the injured part and the donor part.
Lifting weights can help to strengthen tendons and ligaments but the weights for this purpose should be light and the number of repetitions should be high.
It is not uncommon for people with over-developed muscle either through steroid use or other endurance enhancing drugs to snap tendons or indeed break bones when lifting weights; their muscles are too strong for their bones and tendons.
A common problem in old age, especially for women is osteoporosis; this is when the bone becomes porous and weak and when it can break easily. Women who take up weight lifting are less likely to suffer from the effects of osteoporosis. Lifting a heavy weight in a controlled and balanced manner with increased resistance over time not only strengthens the muscle but also strengthens the tendon which pulls on the point at which it joins the bone which results in a strengthening of the bone as well.
8. Muscular people burn more calories than fat or skinny people even when asleep.
Having more muscle leads to an increase in your metabolic rate. Maintaining fat requires zero calories whereas muscle actually burns calories even at rest. Muscle requires calories all the time so the more muscle we have the more energy we naturally burn.
9. You can actually lose weight by eating more than you do now.
A lot of fat people are overweight not because they eat too much. It might not even be as simple as eating too much of the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Obviously, eating too much or too much at the wrong time will eventually lead to obesity but it is also possible to get fat by eating the right stuff at the right time but just not enough of it.
Our metabolic rate determines how quickly we burn up calories and store fat.
If the body is not receiving enough calories, it will try and preserve energy by slowing down its metabolic rate. This is a natural process and helped our ancestors survive times of famine. When the body does not receive the food it needs, it will go into famine mode and shut down. It will start to rid the body of muscle by devouring it as a source of energy. As muscle requires energy in order to be preserved; muscle has to be the first to go. As far as the body is concerned, any food that does come in might be the last source of energy for a long time so it is automatically stored as fat; a source of energy for later on.
More than three hours between sources of protein as part of a balanced diet is too long for the body.
By calculating how many calories we need for our level of daily activity and dividing this into six meals a day we might find that we actually need to eat more and definitely more frequently.
It is more likely though, that most people who are obese in the western world are so because they eat too much at the wrong time. As long as you can ensure you have a balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein and fat, to a ratio of 60, 30, 10 and that as a reasonably active man, which is what you should be aiming to become, you need to eat about 2500 calories a day and exercise four hours a week. Possibly when you want to lose weight, you need to run twice a day; in the morning to burn calories quicker and again in the evening just so that you can maximise the amount of calories burnt. It is better to lose weight by increasing the metabolic rate through exercise. By eating the same amount of food as before we ensure we are taking in an adequate amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals which are best consumed through natural means. Tablets can be used to boost these levels especially for minerals like zinc which are hard to find in the natural world - it occurs in oysters but how often do we eat them? Zinc is vital when it comes to building muscle - I shall explain more in a later post.
Women should aim for the same amount of exercise and between 1800 and 2000 calories a day divided among six meals.
I will be writing more about weight loss techniques and methods to help achieve your goals in later posts.
