Article: 5 Things Personal Trainers Get Wrong

segacs

Hey all, this is an excerpt from an article that appeared in our local daily newspaper today. I thought there were some good points in here, and also some sacred cows that get bandied about this forum addressed.

“Use light weights so you won’t bulk up”

This is a popular claim of celebrity trainers whose female clients want toned, not bulky, muscles that look good in sleeveless tops, skirts and shorts. Despite my unease with statements suggesting that muscles aren’t feminine, there’s little chance that women can achieve the kind of muscular arms so coveted in men – even if both genders follow the same fitness routine.

The main reason for this difference in muscle mass is testosterone, a muscle-building hormone that women have substantially less of than men. And while some women have more muscle definition than others, that’s probably due to a few different factors including an elevated level of testosterone and/or lower level of body fat as compared to other women and a genetic propensity to build muscle – not by the size of the weights they lift.

The reason to lift weight remains important for both genders including improving athletic performance, easing the function of everyday activities, reducing the risk of injury and slowing the loss of muscle that’s associated with aging. Looking great in a tank top is a bonus.

“Here are some exercises to flatten your tummy”

Most trainers know that spot-reducing is a myth, but succumb to pressure from their clients to design exercise routines or recommend exercises that will get rid of unwanted fat from various locations around the body. Sit-ups won’t get rid of belly fat, side-lying leg lifts won’t melt away chubby thighs and side bends won’t chisel those love handles down to size.

Genetics has more to do with where you gain and lose weight than any one exercise, so while working out regularly and eating a healthy diet can help you lose unwanted weight, it’s impossible to preferentially target one body part over another. The only way you can rid yourself of a genetic propensity to sporting a pear- or apple-shaped build is to choose different parents.

“Slow down to burn more fat”

There is no such thing as a “fat-burning zone” despite what your trainer or favourite exercise machine suggest. Sure, low-intensity exercise burns more fat than high-intensity exercise, but that doesn’t mean walkers are leaner than runners.

The role exercise plays in weight loss is based on the number, not type, of calories burned. So while high-intensity exercise burns more carbohydrates than it does fat, more total calories are burned per minute of exercise. So if you compare the calorie burn of someone who runs for an hour and someone who walks for an hour, the runner will burn about twice the number of calories.

In fact, short bursts of high-intensity exercise is generally considered the best way to burn the greatest number of calories in the shortest amount of time.

“Drink a protein shake if you want to get buff”

Sure, body builders need more protein than the average couch potato, but the belief that bigger doses of protein build bigger muscles is widely overstated. Several studies that have exceeded the maximum daily amount of protein recommended for athletes have shown no greater gain in muscle mass when compared to athletes who consumed protein in more moderate amounts.

Also worth noting is that the body can’t utilize more than 20 to 25 grams of protein at one time, so adding a big protein shake to your egg-white omelet is of little benefit. A far better strategy for muscle-building athletes is to consume smaller amounts of protein throughout the day.

And, as a final salvo in the debate about the benefits of protein shakes, it’s far better to consume protein from foods that provide other sources of vitamins and minerals – like milk and tuna, which add iron, zinc, B vitamins, calcium, all at a lesser cost than expensive protein powders.

“Lift weight to burn more calories at rest”

It’s widely accepted it takes more calories to maintain muscle than it does to maintain fat. Yet trainers are very generous in their estimates of the amount of extra calories burned with every additional pound of muscle gained. Several prominent researchers have publicly stated that the number of extra calories it takes to sustain a pound of muscle is more likely to be in the single digits versus the 50 or more calories often quoted by trainers.

You can still burn a significant number of calories during an intense weight-training session as well as benefit from the added muscle, but it’s likely a muscle-bound 200-pound gym rat will burn only slightly more calories at rest than a 200-pound couch potato who’s never hit the gym.

montrealgazette.com/health/diet-fitness/what-personal-trainers-get-wrong-at-your-expense

Discuss.

sofaking6

I'm starting to get annoyed when people claim something is wrong, then in the explanation they say oh well not WRONG but lots of people misinterpret it so it might as well be wrong. No, that's really not how truth works. Talking about the last item on the list there.

SergeantSausage

What's to discuss. It's all true.

segacs

sofaking6 wrote: »

I'm starting to get annoyed when people claim something is wrong, then in the explanation they say oh well not WRONG but lots of people misinterpret it so it might as well be wrong. No, that's really not how truth works. Talking about the last item on the list there.

Fair point. #5 is technically accurate. However, probably not in any way that's significant for most people looking to lose weight, so in the sense that it really impacts people's lives, it's probably irrelevant. I think that's the point the article was trying to make.

For most people, burning more calories means moving around more. That's the bottom line.