Bad Advice?

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Replies

  • Heather4448
    Heather4448 Posts: 908 Member
    Not everyone graduates at the top of their class ;)
  • swebb1103
    swebb1103 Posts: 200 Member
    My doc is the opposite - she wanted me to do strength training because in her opinion, strong muscles and ligaments support our bones, decreasing the chances for fractures later in life. She encourages doing both. I have family history of osteoporosis, so I do what she says.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    That’s weird. I’ve only ever heard it’s good to strength train. Was she older I wonder?
  • katsheare
    katsheare Posts: 1,025 Member
    Ninjaeema wrote: »
    BTW, thanks for the support everyone. I've worked so hard over the last year to get strong, and I have, and I continue to, and a lot of that is because I can lurk here in the forums and get inspiration and advice. I never would have started lifting if it weren't for the people here, and it's changed my life.

    I second what you've said here. While lifting isn't in my current regime, it is in my near-term plan, and that's ENTIRELY to do with lurking and learning here.

    @Ninjaeema I hope you find a GP you can work with. Sounds like the relationship with this one may have tanked before it set sail...
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    Seems that your doc is projecting her ideas on body image onto her patients and it is approaching it from a health care perspective.
    I agree with @AnvilHead that the primary healthcare providers have minimal formal education on nutrition and personal training and that makes them not suitable to talk to on the subject. Which is a shame considering we live in a society that thinks that the primary healthcare provider should now about health. However a doc is primarily treating diseases in the patient, not the health of the patient. Subtle difference.

    But having said that I as just reading Runners magazine and what a lot of broscience on losing weight was spouted there! I shook my head in disbelief and threw it to the side.
    And FWIW lifting is great, bulking is not a given and it is good for bone density and with that good for women. But most of all it is totally enjoyable :wink:
  • sssynnamon
    sssynnamon Posts: 14 Member
    Your doctor may, or may not, be an idiot as so many in this thread have said. However, the mere fact that she gives the same advice to all women indicates that her mind is narrow.

    I was an amateur competitive bodybuilder many years ago and life changed. It happens. I stopped training and REALLY let myself go (like 50 pounds gained go). I did the dieting and the cardio, but the weight wasn't coming off. I started lifting again and I watch my calories. No cardio (not against it for others, it's just not MY thing). I've lost 33 pounds in 5 months and have built my muscle back up, though I'm hardly bulky. I could have added cardio and cut calories drastically, but I wanted a slower loss since I'm over 50 and wanted my skin to have a chance to keep up with the loss. This is the approach that worked for me. Different things work for different people.

    Remember, advice, even from a doctor, is still only advice. You don't HAVE to follow it.
  • dbanks80
    dbanks80 Posts: 3,685 Member
    Ninjaeema wrote: »
    She never asked me what my fitness goals were, and when I tried to explain to her that I enjoyed lifting, she said there was no reason to and then dismissively said "unless you want to get super strong or something". I get that most women want to be thin, and for them that means just thin, not fit, but I like seeing my muscles pop. She also told me never up the weight I was lifting, just increase the reps. Literally everything she told me was wrong.

    Is she a GYN? Most Gyn will tell women to lift weights. Especially older women because lifting weights helps prevents Osteoporosis.

    Your doctor sounds really unknowledgeable with fitness.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,249 Member
    dbanks80 wrote: »
    Ninjaeema wrote: »
    She never asked me what my fitness goals were, and when I tried to explain to her that I enjoyed lifting, she said there was no reason to and then dismissively said "unless you want to get super strong or something". I get that most women want to be thin, and for them that means just thin, not fit, but I like seeing my muscles pop. She also told me never up the weight I was lifting, just increase the reps. Literally everything she told me was wrong.

    Is she a GYN? Most Gyn will tell women to lift weights. Especially older women because lifting weights helps prevents Osteoporosis.

    Your doctor sounds really unknowledgeable with fitness.

    This.....

    No one, including men, gets "bulky" by accident. Bodybuilders put in hour upon hour in the gym and some resort to a little bit of chemical help, even if you were doing a program like Stronglifts ( 3 x approx 45 minutes weekly) you would get stronger but you're not going to bulk up.

    Your doctor has done you and every other woman that she's given this advice to a grave disservice with this completely inaccurate advice.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
    edited October 2017
    Never, ever listen to a doctor about exercise or nutrition.
    Medical doctors are trained to know about, and treat, illness, injury and disease. They sometimes think this makes them experts on health, and it probably is true that they pay attention to information they acquire on health more than many average people do.
    But they often have little context, because they do not have any real experience in these things because they have spent so much time learning about diseases.
    They are also prone to that fallacy that starts when they see that some guy who has a bad knee, for example, who happens to be a runner. Maybe the runner seeks health care faster because he/she wants to keep running. So, the doctor sees a few and comes to the conclusion that running kills your knees.
    But people don't go to the doctor if they don't have a problem. So doctors never see all those other people who run miles and miles, for years, and never have any serious problem.
    But, what is he going to tell you? "Everyone I see who runs has bad knees!"
    PS It is REALLY, REALLY hard to get bulky lifting weights. You have to lift very heavy and you have to eat a lot and you have to want it. Otherwise, you are probably going to get strong and healthy, but you won't get a lot bigger. Think of all the athletes that lift weights -- the basketball players, soccer players, sprinters, volleyball players, even baseball players. They lift for years and they work hard. But soccer players aren't huge. Sprinters aren't huge, except their thighs. Volleyball players aren't huge or they wouldn't be able to jump so high.
    Football players get huge because they have training tables and because they want to. Probably also, they were huge to begin with or they wouldn't have chosen to play football.
  • HermanLily
    HermanLily Posts: 217 Member
    edited October 2017
    I'm a female on steroids for medical reasons, and to literally save my life and I can tell you this, i am far from bulky. I have a female body through and through. I've been lifting weights off and on for 30+ years. No one would ever say I look bulky. Slim, trim and fit.
  • mysteps2beauty
    mysteps2beauty Posts: 494 Member
    Doctors specialize. Like many professions. This means outside of their verified knowledge in their specific field they fall back on their long held views on things. I respect their medical opinions but unless they can back it up with sound scientific evidence, well, gonna consider your "opinions" with a grain of salt. That's why the medical community itself advises to get a 2nd, 3rd opinion. Don't be mad just get more info. I remember back 20 years ago asking about Brewers years and wheatgrass juice as nutrition for a pregnant mom and her growing fetus. He could not speak on it cause he did not know enough and said as much. Remember, the practice of medicine is just that....practice.
  • deputy_randolph
    deputy_randolph Posts: 940 Member
    You're doctor is wrong and must get her fitness advice from the internet.

    I lift heavy, competed in 3 powerlifting competitions. I'm a size 4....how could one be "bulky" at a size 4?
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    HermanLily wrote: »
    I'm a female on steroids for medical reasons, and to literally save my life and I can tell you this, i am far from bulky. I have a female body through and through. I've been lifting weights off and on for 30+ years. No one would ever say I look bulky. Slim, trim and fit.

    steroids for health conditions are not the same as anabolic steroids that some take to gain mass.