Lean and Hard

What do you call someone who won't accept a statement just because "that's what everybody says"? That's me. Why don't I believe things "everybody says"? Because everybody is often dead wrong. People tend to be lazy about demanding proof, and instead like to repeat what they hear or read with little or no skepticism. That's the word, skeptic!

If only there was a way to check these things out, to find out the facts, to research things ourselves. Hey, there is! The Internet! It's a simple matter to find out the truth, or as close to it as current research allows.

How about this one: Caffeine is bad for you. Well that's wrong. And another: Work out with high reps and light weights to tone muscle, heavy weights and low reps for getting huge. That's also wrong. Here's what research has shown...

What grows muscle is forcing it to adapt to greater stresses than it is used to. This means putting it under greater tension and working it to the point of fatigue. It turns out that you have to lift nearly the heaviest weight that you can. This from Lou Schuler, an award-winning journalist and certified strength and conditioning specialist, quoted from this article:

"The good news is that the muscle-building process creates a stronger, leaner, healthier, and better-conditioned body even when the actual increase in muscle tissue is minimal. But it only works if you try to build muscle by using weights that are pretty close to the heaviest you can lift. If the workout tells you to do 10 repetitions, for example, you need to pick a weight that you could lift, at most, 11 or 12 times. Studies show that adults typically choose weights that are much lighter than the workout calls for."

As for the fear many women have that lifting heavy will make them huge and masculine-looking, the same article has this to say:

"Heavy weights won't make you huge, but they can make you lean. Males don't have the market cornered on unrealistic expectations. The woman doing presses and rows with dumbbells smaller than her forearms is trying to do the impossible: "tone" muscles she hasn't yet built. She's worried about getting "too big," which is equally absurd. Muscle is hard to build at any age, for either gender, and it never happens by accident."

Another result of this fallacy affects men who are overweight and try to get a toned look by lifting light weights. You can't tone what isn't there, and you can't look toned anyway as long as you are covered with a thick layer of fat. That takes a combination of resistance training, diet and rest.

You know those ads for the Bowflex: You can look like this if you shell out whatever it is we're asking for! Baloney. Same for the hundreds of silly devices that promise to "tone" your abs, thighs, arms, whatever. Don't waste your money. It's better spent on a gym membership and healthy foods. 

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