Its about Training Myths
If you’ve ever been told to stick to light weights only to “tone” your body, this one is for you.
There are still SO many people (fitness professionals included) that follow/preach outdated advice. While it’s true that any workout is better than no workout, we want to make the absolute MOST out of the time that we put in and not let it go to wasted efforts.
In this blog we will bust 5 common training myths so you can start lifting smarter and see lasting results.
High reps will ‘tone’ your muscles.
Honestly, the word ‘toning’ at all is just word play that makes ‘building muscle’ seem less scary. The ‘toned’ look comes from increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat. If you were to lose body fat without having gained muscle, there would be no ‘tone’ to show. So, in coming back to the idea that high reps will give you that tone… yes, high reps can assist in building muscle (if you are taking the weight at those reps close to failure). Low reps and moderate reps can do the same.
The main point is that you have to increase your muscle mass before losing body fat, no matter what rep scheme you do. AND if you’ve been doing the same light weight for the same reps for years, or do some type of class thats mainly a cardio workout while holding 2lb dumbbells, you may feel a burn but it will not elicit any true change without progressively overloading your body (aka doing more over time so your body continues to adapt).
Lifting heavy will make you bulky.
Anyone who still thinks that lifting heavy will make women look ‘manly,’ you’re wrong. Lifting heavy and building muscle creates curves, strength and definition that highlights a feminine physique. To go off of what we talked about in myth #1, lifting heavier is a very important aspect in progressive overload. It is very challenging and takes conscious effort in your nutrition to ‘bulk’ (meaning increasing muscle AND body fat by eating in a surplus of calories).
If you are eating in a way that suits your goals, your physique will change with time and consistency. We will talk more about the nutrition aspect over the next few blogs. But rest assured, lifting heavy is NOT going to make you bulky.
Cardio is the best way to lose body fat.
I have had so many conversations with women who’s immediate thought when wanting to lose weight is to change the priority to increasing cardio over strength training. While yes, when you are on a spin bike for an hour you will burn more calories in that single time frame than if you were to strength train for an hour, BUT then that calorie burn stops there.
Strength training works a bit differently— your body continues to burn calories at a slightly higher rate for an extended period of time than when compared to a resting caloric burn (all which is person-dependent on the amount). More importantly, increasing your muscle mass increases your overall metabolism, meaning you will burn more calories daily at rest. Cardio is a useful tool to aid in your fat loss goal, with strength training still your main event.
Less rest between sets means better results.
PLEASE do not turn your strength training into a cardio session. You should not aim to make the workout ‘harder’ by decreasing your rest and keeping your heart rate high. The rest period is important in your body recovering enough to perform the next set, especially when at high loads and low reps. Shortchanging your rests, or adding jumping jacks into your rest periods, likely transfers into less weight lifted, worse form, and getting less out of your actual sets.
When pushing strength at low-moderate reps, resting 1-3 minutes is ideal. For higher rep sets or with muscular endurance as the goal, shorter rest periods (30-60s) and supersets make sense. The key is matching your rest to your goal—you should not feel like you ran a marathon at the end of your strength session.
You need to constantly switch up your workouts.
You do not need to ‘confuse your body’ to elicit adaptations. You don’t want to be doing random workouts each week. The best way to progressively overload your body is to master the basics and keep getting stronger at them. You should be following the same routines weekly for 4-6 weeks—this includes the exercises AND the rep schemes of each—with the goal of improving form, increasing range of motion, and increasing load. It’s ok to switch out exercises if need be, but you want to make sure it follows the same movement pattern (AKA if you can’t use a hip thrust machine, do some dumbbell glute bridges instead).
Results come from simple, consistent and effective training—not from complicated, random workouts.
💡 Ready to stop wasting time on random workouts and start seeing real results? Our coaching programs are built around proven strength training strategies — no gimmicks, no “muscle confusion,” just progress you can see and feel.
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