1. If you lift weights, you’ll bulk up! It’s physiologically impossible for women because testosterone is responsible for increasing muscle bulk, and women simply don’t have enough of this predominantly male hormone to build Schwarzenegger-sized bulges.
2. Lifting weights will get rid of “lovehandles” and any other unsightly bulges.
The truth is that there is no such thing as “spot reduction.” If you have a ripple here or a bulge there, your only recourse is to reduce fat all over. The best way is with a combination of cardiovascular exercise, strength training and a healthy nutrition plan. Strength training (via free weights or weight machines), and you’ll beef up your lean muscle mass, turning your body into a round-the-clock calorie-burning factory.
3. In order to see results, you need to work every muscle individually. Not only is it unnecessary to work each of your more than 600 muscles separately, you actually get a better workout (as in faster results in less time) by performing compound moves. Think squats, lunges, dips, push-ups. Unlike single-joint exercises (like a biceps curl or leg extension), compound moves mimic activities you’re likely to perform in everyday life.
4. For maximum definition, the more repetitions of each exercise, the better.
In order to see gains in strength, size, or power is by taking the muscle to fatigue. In general, try to do at least two sets of each exercise and use a weight that’s heavy enough so that you can barely lift it by the end of the second set.
5. If you stop working out, your muscles will turn to fat.
Think apples and oranges: Fat and muscle are two different substances, and one cannot, will not, and has not ever turned into the other. Less of one simply means more room for the other. When you stop using your muscles, your body becomes significantly less efficient at burning calories and this allows the fat to creep back on. And another thing to remeber ladies is that women who work out with weights can slow the 10 percent loss of strength per decade that occurs in women who don’t train with weights.
