See Dan’s latest article on supplement giant, www.myprotein.co.uk. Learn why situps suck and what to do in place of them!

http://community.myprotein.com/myprotein-com-news-discussions/34038-real-core-training-athletic-domination-daniel-iaciofano.html

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PS. Did we mention RAW Outdoor starts Wednesday the 4th of May!? More details coming in the next few days.

What does the average individual think of if you were to say the word ‘strength training’ to them? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Lou Ferrigno? Big muscles, Golds gym, a 120kg bodybuilder doing bicep curls while every vein in his body popping out?!

These stereotypes have helped popularise one of the oldest myths in the fitness industry: “If I touch a weight I will grow big muscles!”.  If you believe this statement, you are confusing bodybuilding with strength training. In this article we hope to dispel some of the myths around strength training and how it can benefit women in particular.

Strength training is not bodybuilding, the goal of bodybuilding is to maximise hypertrophy (muscle growth) whereas strength training is about improving the physical capabilities of your muscles. Strength training is about what your muscles can do rather than how big they are.

Some of the various benefits of strength training include:

• Bodyfat reduction

• Increase in bone density

• Injury prevention

• Increased movement quality

• Better posture

• Ability to produce greater force through various planes

Even with all these benefits, strength training myths still have a hold on the female fitness population. Here are the most popular ones:

“Cardio is better for fat loss”

Strength training increases your excess post exercise energy consumption (metabolism) which means that not only will you be burning energy during the session but after as well. Compare this to a cardio session where the increased energy consumption ceases once the exercise stops. Muscle is a metabolic tissue, this means even if you are sitting down doing nothing you will burn more calories than you would with reduced muscle mass.

“Lifting weights will give me big muscles”

Lifting weights will NOT make you overly muscular. Muscle growth is a function of nutrition, hormones, training type, stress, sleep and a bunch of other factors. The overly muscular physiques female bodybuilders posses is mostly due to huge doses of ‘added’ testosterone. Naturally, females do not posses anywhere near enough testosterone to build any significant muscle. Take a look at female athletes, you will see women who strength train and have a figure that most women will be proud of.

Too much muscle? Pentathlete Jessica Ennis regularly strength trains.

“I prefer doing cardio for ‘x’ hours”

Cardio is a small piece of a large puzzle and should only make up part of your program. Too much long steady cardio will eventually turn to muscle as an energy source, which will in turn eventually lower metabolism. Combine strength training with intervals and traditional cardio to melt fat.

“I should stick to low weights and high reps to ‘tone’”

While we’re here, there’s no such thing as ‘toning’, you can either lose fat, or gain muscle, both of which will give the visual impression of ‘toning’. Training with low weights for high reps (like using 2kg dumbells for 50 tricep kickbacks) is endurance, although barely.

Resistance needs to be high enough so that you are activating your fast twitch (type ii muscle fibres) which are stimulated when higher forces are required, so if we use weight as a resistance example you need to be lifting heavy and using compound exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, swings, lunges etc.

This type of training will not only make you stronger but your shape will improve due to reduced bodyfat.

Still not convinced?

If you are still sceptical ask yourself this, when was the last time you actually got results with your current programme? Strength training could be the answer! Try this sample 3 day gym program or if you do not have access to a gym, download our free bodyweight training eBook at http://www.rawperformance.co.uk/?p=774.

3 day sample strength program for women

So now you’re sold on the benefits, let’s put it all together! The equipment needed has been kept simple, so you can perform this programme in a commercial facility with little hassle.

Perform a 5-10 minute warm up before lifting including mobility and flexibility.

Use a weight that is as heavy as possible while using perfect form.