10 Mistakes Women Make in the Gym

yeah i'm going to disagree on the bosu balance ball. If you do some weight action, like swinging a kettlebell, while being on the unstable surface...it really DOES work the core muscles. Probably double the effect.

My general comment on something BOTH sexes do wrong, is not using the machine or exercise to the maximum effect. Like if you are on the stairmaster, walk on it, do NOT hold onto the hand rails--even lightly. You WANT to have all those core muscles trying to keep you balanced and upright. No CHEATING

Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.

im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle

"Skinny Fat" suggests that someone who chooses to focus on Cardio, which is ok btw, is somehow less than acceptable than those who choose to lift.

Different people have different plans--whatever works for them, but they don't needed to be labeled. No one calls lifters "buff-fat" if they have some extra weight on them.

I agree with the above posters. I also shut down when I saw the skinny-fat word; I don't like it either. It seems that in the last couple of years "fat-acceptance and Skinny fat" are the words du jour, and both are being used in a derogatory way.

The article assumes that everybody has the same goals, and worse, that they should all have the same goal. Honestly, and like another MFP member posted a while back, we spend more time with clothes on than naked so to assume that every woman just exercises to look good in a bikini is too presumptuous and shallow.

I am all for strength training but sometimes we take things to the extreme. Carry on

Skinny fat means as you lose weight you are losing muscle which when you look in the mirror you will see a smaller you but still not look fit and still look fat in places you want to lose fat.
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I know what it means, and I am sure that the others poster do as well. But it makes no difference, we don't like that expression just like a lot people don like to be called "fat" or "obese" or "Skinny."

I get the feeling I read a different article than some here and I understand where he is coming from on a few of the topics that keep popping up in this thread.

#4 is about the contradiction of wanting a super thin waist (wasp waist) but doing exercises that make it bigger yet being afraid to exercise the other muscles that tend to look better with some muscle behind them. If you want a muscular waist then by all means use weights.

#6 he defines "skinny-fat" as looking skinny in clothes but having a higher body fat % than before. He is talking about excessive aerobic workout in a caloric deficit and destroying muscle instead of building it. In this case, the excessive aerobics coupled with a calorie reduced diet leads to a huge deficit and muscle loss. High end marathoners are not necessarily "skinny-fat" but they generally have no curves (one of the 3 descriptions he used for runners).

The author clarified #9 by saying he really wanted to focus on nutrition and the importance of fueling the body to build muscle and the periworkout period being an important time for building muscle. It falls in line with the above, starving yourself to lose weight by not eating and lack of fuel to build muscle. Besides, how much can you eat in that 1 hour period

He also clarifies #10 in that he could have been clearer; he is talking about the juice bars/jamba juice places that are mostly fruit juice based and not veggie based juices. Most people are right though, blending is different in that the fiber is kept in the mix, juicing removes the fibers from the mixture.

I guess I read this as something I would expect from T-Nation and the audience it is geared towards. The audience believes muscles are sexy and you should build muscle making the article a bit easier to understand.

I love it. I get tired of looking all over for gender stereotypes and this article conveniently aggregates them in one place.

Guys are probably the biggest tools in the gym because they're driven by ego instead of logic, but women make their own share of mistakes that are unique to their sex. Women are torn between what they read in Shape or on some insane aerobic queen's blog, their unqualified husband's or boyfriend's pontifications on diet and exercise, or society's conflicting and confounding expectations of what a woman should look like. It's no wonder women can't decide between lifting weights, becoming a Crossfit wind-up toy, doing aerobics until they're thin as a waif from Oliver Twist, or practicing so much yoga that their seven angry and overworked chakras pack up their things and go to Cabo for a weekend of volleyball, sun, and suds.

Plus, they have a lot of good stuff to sell in the store.

"I love it. I get tired of looking all over for gender stereotypes and this article conveniently aggregates them in one place."

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

There are some interesting photos on this page from women who are athletes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/howard-schatz-photos-women-professional-athletes_n_4297902.html


The ladies involved into more "cardio" type sports, including the long ditance runner, would probably die from laughing too hard after reading how they really do not have that great bodies.

There are some interesting photos on this page from women who are athletes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/howard-schatz-photos-women-professional-athletes_n_4297902.html


The ladies involved into more "cardio" type sports, including the long ditance runner, would probably die from laughing too hard after reading how they really do not have that great bodies.

The distance runner really is thinner than the weight lifter (which also has a lot to do with the efficiency of the body to transfer heat while running long distance). She's not, however, skinny-fat.

Here's another distance runner. Very different body type than a power lifter. NOT skinny-fat.



The problem isn't the exercise - it's the undereating.

God look at this skinny-fat marathoner. The meatheads on here would have a heart attack after the first 3km.



This is her after a 42KM run.

Oh my God all that loose fat in her belly, those jello-like arms...disgusting! (yes this is sarcasm)

I'd love this lady's legs!

GO FLORENCE GRIFFITH-JOYNER!

God look at this skinny-fat marathoner. The meatheads on here would have a heart attack after the first 3km.



This is her after a 42KM run.

namecalling is not necessary.

She looks amazing.

Agreed- not sure why it's okay for "skinny fat" to get reemed as being inappropriate where as calling someone a meat head is okay?

secondly seriously? 3KM? I'm a "meat head" and I regularly go for 2-3 mile runs with consistent 9-9:30 min miles. "meat heads" regularly do cardio in the cutting season and do a variety of stairs and jogging. Of course we aren't going to go be competitive at a local 10K- but why would we be- we aren't training for- much like if a marathon runner came in to try to squat 250 -they might actually urinate on themselves.

It's a useless comparison to try to say oh a lifter can't run- of course they can- they just chose not to so insulting them for not being able to be competitive at something they don't train at is just plain stupid and inflammatory.

I'd like to point out the two ladies posted above Lauren Fleshman and Flo-Jo- heavy into track and field. Fleshman made the recent conversion to long distances- and she is obviously lacking the same musculature as a her track only comparison here.

She definitely doesn't look bad- but there is a big difference between track and long distance.

That being said- I think it's not hard to figure out she came from a shorter distance filed- she's carried over some of that meat.

I also don't understand why she's wearing boxing wraps??

I posted the one of Flo because I was a) diverting attention away from some of the body bashing we seem to moving toward and b) I saw it on that site and thought WHOA those are hot legs.

I agree... I'm not a track and field star - I'm SLOOOOW at running. But I do run, and swim, and have awesome cardio. And I box and lift too. :-D

Calling names is so ridiculous! I totally agree. And Jo, you are such an inspiration to me!

As for the "wraps" I looked closer and they don't look like wraps... more like arm sleeves or arm warmers. They're too loose to be actual wraps.

God look at this skinny-fat marathoner. The meatheads on here would have a heart attack after the first 3km.



This is her after a 42KM run.

namecalling is not necessary.

She looks amazing.

Agreed- not sure why it's okay for "skinny fat" to get reemed as being inappropriate where as calling someone a meat head is okay?

secondly seriously? 3KM? I'm a "meat head" and I regularly go for 2-3 mile runs with consistent 9-9:30 min miles. "meat heads" regularly do cardio in the cutting season and do a variety of stairs and jogging. Of course we aren't going to go be competitive at a local 10K- but why would we be- we aren't training for- much like if a marathon runner came in to try to squat 250 -they might actually urinate on themselves.

It's a useless comparison to try to say oh a lifter can't run- of course they can- they just chose not to so insulting them for not being able to be competitive at something they don't train at is just plain stupid and inflammatory.

I'd like to point out the two ladies posted above Lauren Fleshman and Flo-Jo- heavy into track and field. Fleshman made the recent conversion to long distances- and she is obviously lacking the same musculature as a her track only comparison here.

She definitely doesn't look bad- but there is a big difference between track and long distance.

That being said- I think it's not hard to figure out she came from a shorter distance filed- she's carried over some of that meat.

I also don't understand why she's wearing boxing wraps??

Spare me. There are lots of posters on here (you're not one of them) that deride cardio as useless. There's even posters on here that think doing 30 minutes, a pittance of cardio, will somehow drain one of all energy.

You're not a meathead. Not even close. The duncecap meathead that posted last week that aspartame causes cancer - that guy is dumber than a pile of rocks.

I do find your speculation rather annoying though. Why not ask Lannie Marchant her history? @LJM5252

Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.

im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle

i dont get whny people dont liek the term. it seems to make sense to me

skinyy = refers to size
fat = refers to a high body fat %

seems logical

Bumping so I can read more later...

In general, I agree with the article, but there is some definite broseph content going on.