If it's too hard, you're doing it wrong...

There are many misconceptions regarding weightlifting. There are those who believe that it is not necessary since the invention of Zumba-whose slogan is “Ditch the workout, join the party!” Great, if it’s a party why don’t we drink beer while we’re at it! But I digress. I would like to clear up some of these misunderstandings and hopefully make you see how absolutely essential weight-lifting is for looking good and feeling good.

Misconception #1: Weight-lifting will make you big and bulky. I’ve heard this one many times, especially from women, but even from a few men. They think that lifting weights will automatically make their muscles swell up like balloons all over their body and that they’ll look thick because of it. Well, the truth is that only fat will make you look thick, added muscle acquired through weightlifting can only make you look leaner. I’m going to guess that people who are having near-seizures every time they do a Zumba workout are doing so because they want to be leaner. Now, I didn’t say ‘thinner’, I used the word ‘leaner’ for a reason. Most people who want to improve their overall body composition (look better in a bathing suit) usually want to be lean, which is the state of having a low level of body fat, where your muscularity shows through very clearly. Brad Pitt was lean in Fight Club, not thin, and he even looked somewhat muscular despite never lifting a weight in his life, such is the power of being lean. Another good example of lean is Madonna. She isn’t bulky or overly muscular, she is just lean, and what little muscle she has is very visible because of it.

Misconception #2: Weightlifting is too hard, or too dangerous because you have to lift relatively heavy weights. Well, it’s more dangerous than sitting on your couch watching tv, but if you do too much of that you’ll eventually develop heart disease or some other ailment as a result of your inactivity. You see, life isn’t easy, you have to fight to live. Dying, on the other hand, is very easy, go ahead, change the channel. As far as it being too hard, it’s only too hard if you’re doing it wrong. Weight-lifting is fun, satisfying and extremely beneficial to your overall quality of life if you do it right. An example of doing it wrong would be just doing arm curls and leg extensions every day, 5 days a week before getting on the treadmill to run 5 miles or however far you’ve conditioned yourself to run. An example of doing it right would be going to the gym with a set plan that you would adhere to week to week, and in this plan you would work all the muscles of the body with free weights, and not just the muscles you want to bring up. Remember, the body works as one, so to be healthy and strong we need to train the entire body every week. A good way to do this is to split up your weight-lifting days into upper body days and lower body days, and you can do 2, 3, or 4 days a week for about an hour each time or less if you don’t have that much time.

Misconception #3: You have to lift weights for hours a day to get results from it. Well, the problem with that line of thinking is that it doesn’t take recovery into consideration. The body needs lots of time to recover from an intense bout of exercise if your goal is to improve. The body does adapt to a high volume of training and can survive intense training every day, but you won’t be allowing enough time for the body to recuperate and become stronger and you’ll be training with a much higher risk of injury, so you’ll be spinning your wheels and inviting injury.

Ideally, to improve athletic ability or strength, one should lift weights no more than 4 times a week, one hour at a time, and in my experience that number has been even lower, usually only 2 or 3 days a week for one hour at a time is plenty for most people if they’re training intensely. Form follows function; this means you have to improve your body’s performance in order to improve your body’s appearance, and to do so you need to give your body time to recuperate fully. So get to the gym, do what you need to do, then go home and recuperate!