Female Fitness Myth #1: You can TONE your muscle: Toning muscles does not exist. You either are building muscle or breaking down muscle; a muscle gets stronger or it gets weaker. Toning is a total marketing term along with the other lies the industry tells like when fitness programs tell you can achieve long and lean muscles, like a dancer…it’s total BULLSHIT!
Female Fitness Myth #2: If you lift heavy weights, you’ll look like the incredible hulk: Unless you take steroids, 99.9% of the female population cannot hormonally increase their muscle mass to the point that women fear; even if these women lifted as heavy as a man. It’s just physiologically impossible! Lifting heavy weights is the BEST investment you can do for your bone density, for your metabolism, as a weapon against anti-aging, especially after the age of 30!
Female Fitness Myth #3: Women need to do a lot of cardio to be fit: Firstly, cardio is a good thing. It keeps your cardiovascular system in tip-top shape, which many will struggle to do through weight lifting alone. Truth be told, you can get results from cardio, especially when it comes to fat loss. However, they’re hard to continuously come by. The body enjoys this system called progressive overload, where you continuously increase some variable of your workout. It’s a lot easier to manipulate the variables involved in resistance training. You can increase the weight, the reps, or change the tempo in which you lift the weight. It can also cut down on the total amount of time you spend working out, so you can have more time to enjoy YOUR life.
Female Fitness Myth #4: Women Shouldn’t Take Creatine: For some reason, a lot of people still fear creatine monohydrate. There’s numerous studies out about how beneficial it can be, yet people still adhere to the myths. Creatine can assist women in achieving their resistance training goals. It can help you increase the amount of work you’re capable of doing in the gym. This leads to more calories burned, and depending on how you’re eating can indirectly lead to a greater amount of fat loss.
Female Fitness Myth #5: Women don’t need to eat as much protein: Women don’t need to eat as much protein as men, sure. But that’s only because men and women have different caloric needs. Women looking to lose fat should keep protein consumption rather high relative to their overall calorie consumption. Having a high protein consumption while trying to lose fat will help you preserve lean muscle while also helping keep you satiated (feeling full). Adding in a supplement like a protein shake or protein bar can help you achieve the necessary protein requirement if you have trouble reaching that goal with real whole food. How much protein should you eat per day? Aim for .6 to .8 grams per pound of bodyweight for maximum muscle adaptation and health.
