The Three Biggest Exercise Myths for Women by Gary Cheung

There are many myths and fallacies surrounding women and weight training. Many women are put off from lifting weights because of the circulation of these myths. Here, we’ll set the record straight and debunk these myths and hopefully answer any questions you might have about the impact of weight training.

Myth 1: I don’t want to get too big

Often time, women who start lifting weights say that they do not want to get big to their trainers. For as long as I have been personal training, probably every other female client that I have trained as told me that. Many times women see images of female bodybuilders in popular fitness magazines (virtually all of them are chemically enhanced) think that they will end up very muscular looking when they put a hand on a dumb bell. This is simply not true. This is because women do not have the same level of testosterone as men. Thus, their muscle develops much more slowly.

Myth 2: Toning and sculpting are different from building muscle

When I hear that women only want to tone and sculpt their bodies, I often laugh. When applied to muscle, tone and sculpt means that you want to build muscle. There is no difference between toning a muscle and building a muscle. People must realize that women are scared to death that they are going to look “big” (see the above myth). The fitness industry began to use phrases like tone your arm, to trick women that they are not building muscle. So the end message here is that, tone, sculpt and muscle build means the same thing but just used differently according to gender.

Myth 3: Women and men should train differently even though they have the same goal

Again this statement is not true at all. Women are men are very similar physiologically. If you look at some of the books at Barnes and Noble, you will find that these books have pictures of other women doing the same basic exercises, such as a squat, lunges, bench press, etc. Exercises are exercises. There is no just a purely women’s exercise and there is certainly no guy exercise.

About The Author

Gary Cheung is fitness professional in New York City. He has helped many people change their lives. He currently runs a free informational website on weight loss. Please visit: http://www.weightlossmasterpiece.com