BY EMMET RUSHE: As a trainer, I have been asked this question a thousand times.
Anyone who has stepped foot in a gym has heard someone say, ”I don’t want to lift weights, because I don’t want to get too bulky”.
If you are involved in sports I can guarantee that at one stage or another someone who ‘knows what they are talking about’ has told you to stay away from weights because you will get too big and it will slow you down.
I used to believe this myself.
I spent 8 years training in kickboxing where we were advised that weights would slow us down.
So I avoided lifting weights for my legs, (couldn’t neglect the upper body could I?), and ended up the proud owner of a nice set of pencil thin twiglet legs; something I have spent that last 4 years rectifying.
Have you had bad advice regarding weights?
Drop me a message and let me know.
Even today, with the rise of Strength and Conditioning throughout sports, I still hear people asking the same questions and giving outdated advice to athletes.
Then we have people who are looking to ‘lose weight’ or ‘get in shape’.
For the majority of my clientele, their goal is to look and feel better about themselves.
When I am doing the initial consultation with a new client, I will always bring up the topic of weights.
I usually ask them if they have any experience of using weights and proceed to inform them that their training programme will involve the use of them.
That same phrase will usually surface, ‘I don’t mind using weights, but I don’t want to get too bulky’.
I have had men tell me that they ‘wouldn’t mind putting on some muscle, but they wouldn’t want to get too big’ that they ‘don’t want to end up like a bodybuilder.’
There is still this idea among the general population that as soon as you start lifting weights, you will turn into a Russian shot putter and your clothes won’t fit you anymore.
Some women, through media and misinformation, seem to think that if they lift anything over 2kg they will end up looking like an 80’s action hero, complete with stubble and an Adam’s apple.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
If people actually saw how much food has to be eaten, and knew the length and intensity of the training sessions that it takes to put on serious muscle that would actually result in you looking bulky, they probably wouldn’t believe it.
The biggest problem with this myth, for both the general public who want to look better and for athletes who want to improve performance, is that people still assume that a programme of lifting weights will resemble a programme for a bodybuilder.
This is not the case.
If weight loss is your main goal, I have found that following a full body weights programme 3 days per week, can give exceptional results when your diet is in check.
If you are a beginner looking to put on some size, again you can start with a 3 day per week full body weights workout; it would just be programmed differently.
If you are playing sports, body part splits like a chest day, leg day, and arm day are essentially useless.
Your focus should be on;
• Developing muscle and movement patterns you won’t get in practice.
• Exercises that will have a good carryover to on-field of play performance.
• To minimise or reduce the likelihood of injury while training.
Upper-lower or Push-pull splits work better for this.
Lifting weights does not make you ‘bulky’.
There are a huge amount of factors that would have to be in place before this would happen.
Weight lifting, when done in the right way with a personalised program, can help you get to your chosen goal, whether it is looking good on the beach or improving performance in your sport.
#TrainSmart
For further information on how to get a program to suit your goals, contact me through the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rushe-Personal-Training-and-Performance/120518884715118
* Emmet is the owner and operator of Rushe Fitness
Tags:
