How much do you really know about health, fitness, and nutrition? From the essentials to common myths, let’s see if you’re able to answer these quick true or false statements correctly - or see if there’s room for improvement!
Resistance training will make you stiff
Resistance training will put ‘wear and tear’ on your body
You have to be sore after a workout for it to be successful
You can get a good muscle building workout in 30 minutes time
Protein supplementation can help increase strength and hypertrophy (increasing muscle size)
You need to push to failure in order to see gains
Lighter weights are just as effective as heavier weights when it comes to muscle hypertrophy
Lighter weights are just as effective as heavier weights when it comes to maximal strength
Strength training benefits will be inherited by your offspring
You don’t need to do a cool down after a workout
Women can handle more strength training volume compared to men
Resistance training only counts if you do it with weights
You should stop strength training all together if you have any pain
Resistance training should look different for men and women
Anyone, at any age, can see benefits with strength training
The Answers
Drum roll please….
Resistance training will make you stiff
FALSE
Actually, the opposite is true. Strength training with a full range of motion (ROM) will actually help increase your flexibility and decrease stiffness!
Resistance training will put ‘wear and tear’ on your body
FALSE
Done safely and appropriately, resistance training is one of the best things you can do for your body, and will help make the body more resilient.
This is where appropriate programming comes into play. Following the core principles of programming will help develop safe and effective programs, ensuring you progress and see results.
You have to be sore after a workout for it to be successful
FALSE
Soreness isn’t a sign of a good, productive workout. Soreness is usually a natural consequence when you either do something new, or do something at a different intensity or different amount. As you continue to do the thing that initially made you sore, your body adapts and becomes less sore, and even not sore at all, after you repeatedly do that thing over time.
Just because your body adapts and is less sore or not sore anymore, it doesn’t mean you’re not reaping the benefits. Let’s say you start following a 12 week exercise program. The first few workouts you might be really sore, but by the end of the 12 weeks you probably won’t be feeling it to the same degree as you did at the start. Does that mean you didn’t make any improvements over the entire 12 weeks? Not at all.
If you’re constantly sore, it can mean a few things: you’re changing it up too frequently and thus not letting your body adapt (or see meaningful results), you’re doing too much (volume), you’re going too intensely, or you’re not recovering enough (sleep, nutrition, rest, etc).
Being constantly sore can also really get in the way of your training consistency, since you’ll probably have to back off for a few days and/or go less intense than you normally would - which affects your overall gains. Not to mention, it’s a pain to be so sore in your everyday life too.
You can get a good muscle building workout in 30 minutes time
TRUE
You don’t need to spend hours upon hours in the gym every time you go to workout. You can get an effective workout in as little as half an hour.
Making sure your body’s feeling good, following a well thought out program, and not dilly-dallying are key if your goal is to be as efficient as possible with your workouts.
Protein supplementation can help increase strength and hypertrophy (increasing muscle size)
TRUE
Protein is the building block of muscle, and you need to be making sure you’re getting enough of it in order to see optimal results. Supplementing your diet with protein has been shown to help bridge that gap for people, especially if they’re finding it hard to consume enough in their everyday life.
You need to push to failure in order to see gains
FALSE
You don’t need to push yourself to absolute failure - this can actually hurt your gains as it’ll fatigue you a lot more, and may stress your body too much if you do this too often. This can often leave you feeling too tired, too sore, or just simply unmotivated to train again.
That being said, you should push quite hard and close to failure to see optimal results.
Rule of thumb: Leave 1-3 reps left in the tank by the end of your set. Don’t be maxing out every lift thinking that’s what you need to do.
Lighter weights are just as effective as heavier weights when it comes to muscle hypertrophy
TRUE
Believe it or not, you don’t need to be lifting the most amount of weight in order to build muscle. But the point from the last question comes into play. You still need to be pushing it during each set in order to see results.
Lighter weights are just as effective as heavier weights when it comes to maximal strength
FALSE
When it comes to strength specifically, we do need to lift more weight. Strength is a skill, and it specifically requires you to lift more weight - that’s what strength is. So in order to get better at this skill, you need to practice it.
Strength training benefits will be inherited by your offspring
TRUE
There are a ton of benefits if parents exercise during pregnancy or even before conception. From improved cognition and neurodevelopment, enhanced cardiovascular health, to motor learning, the benefits of both parents being active is plentiful.
You don’t need to do a cool down after a workout
TRUE
You can stretch or do some other kind of cool down if you’d like, just know you don’t need to. Some people will find it nice to unwind by stretching or doing something at a light intensity at the end of their actual workout, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re in a rush and have to make it back to work for a meeting, you don’t need to worry about doing a cool down routine after your workout session.
Women can handle more strength training volume compared to men
TRUE
It’s true! Women tend to be able to handle more reps at a given training intensity (up to 80% 1RM), and lose less strength across sets than men.
This is due to a few reasons, one being that women have greater proportion of type I muscle fibres, which are more fatigue resistant
Resistance training only counts if you do it with weights
FALSE
Any sort of resistance counts as resistance training. Whether it’s free weights, machines, bands, or even your own body weight. You can get creative with it!
You should stop strength training all together if you have any pain
FALSE
It’s important to listen to your body. If you do have any sort of pain, it’s key that you adapt and modify your programming so you can work around that pain.
Whether that looks like changing the range of motion, decreasing the intensity or volume, opting for a different exercise variation that works similar muscles, or resting and working other parts of the body for the time being, there are many ways to modify training to best suit your current needs and goals!
Resistance training should look different for men and women
FALSE
While men and women may have different goals, there is no need to train differently. Apart from women tending to focus more on lower body exercises and men on upper body, lifting principles don’t change and both men and women see improvements when they’re followed.
Anyone, at any age, can see benefits with strength training
TRUE
Strength training is for everyone. Regardless of age, sex, or experience level, anyone can see benefits with some sort of strength training incorporated into their lives.
Were you surpirsed by some of the answers? Write in the comments down below what your score was and ask any questions you may have!
Final Remarks
Our goal at Delta Kinesiology is to help women reach their health and fitness goals. We specialise in conditions and injuries that women are more likely to experience, and we tailor the sessions using evidence-based principles and methods to help you reach your goals. Whether that be going about your day pain-free, building muscle, improving stamina, or feeling better about yourself, we are here to help.
Check out some of the ways we can help below!
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