Adam’s very own Mammy has started strength training for the first time in her 60s.
We had some conversations leading up to this big leap which caught me off-guard in realising how much misinformation is going around to the general public. Social media polarises opinions to drive engagement and often these fringe views and “best hacks” are taken onboard as fact and form a world view. Without a voice of nuance and reason, it’s very easy to get lost.
I’m going to recap you, dear reader, on some common myths and misconceptions.
You do not need to totally cut carbs out to lose weight. When influencers try to sell ou the idea you’ll “burn fat” instead they’re actually referring to dietary fat vs fat tissue. Any dietary interventions work to convert fat tissue to energy via a calorie deficit. That’s it. There’s nothing particularly effective about cutting carbs except you’ve probably eaten fewer calories as you’re restricting intake. You can do this any way you please.
Lifting “very heavy” weights won’t make you bulky. Our capacity to drastically increase muscle mass is sadly limited and certainly won’t happen accidentally. For any of the non strength training but training curious gals out there, please stop fearing weights above 5 kg. I guarantee you that you won’t wake up someday shortly after starting training and realising that you’re a Ronnie Coleman lookalike.
Training a body part/muscle group won’t reduce the amount of fat in that area. This misconception is known as “spot reduction”. It’s very common for folk to think that by doing “more core” they’re going to wake up with a rippling six pack. Alas, we have no control of where we lose fat from first as we engage in a caloric restriction. It’s largely genetic and typically the thighs and stomach are the last areas to retain fat mass. Train your core to be strong and keep yourself pain free but as a method to burn fat and become leaner these exercises are pretty low in efficacy.
If you have a dodgy/injured joint, you absolutely want to build muscle around it to keep it functional (post injury and ffs go to the physio/hospital). Of course, we want to keep from further pain but avoiding using this joint will detract from any real progress. Often, I see folk with chronic knee issues and these individuals have avoided any type of squat, lunge or knee extension exercise and sure enough their strength and stability have deteriorated over time. Careful and progressive loading of muscles around these joints (along with medical intervention if needed) is the solution to feeling capable and fit again.
I hope this helps anyone out there feeling lost in the noise. Thanks for reading.