I went to a water aerobics class tonight with two lovely and awesome ladies. The class was fun until the teacher, as part of her instructions to us to do twists, said “You’re whittling your waist”. That’s one – I’m irritated but able to return to my happy place.
Then we started doing crunches in the water. She confused the lats for the obliques, twice. That’s two, more irritated but still able to return to my happy place.
Then when we started doing side crunches she said “now you’re losing your love handles.” That’s three – my workout is now fueled by rage.
I was annoyed at the “diet talk” – as if I should have a problem with my waist or love handles, but that’s not my bigggest problem. I’m seeing red because this person who is supposed to be a fitness professional was giving people blatantly incorrect information. It happens a lot, it shouldn’t but it does. I was first certified as a personal trainer in 1995, and I just re-certified once again this year so I can tell you that people who go through certification should absolutely know better. Here are some of the most common stupid things that fitness instructors say:
Spot Reduce
Sit ups don’t make your waist thinner, side bends won’t change your love handles, adductor presses (inner thigh presses) won’t make your inner thighs smaller. We already know that weight loss almost never works, so it should be no surprise that you can’t make certain fat go away by working the muscles near it.
Melt Away The Fat
The evil cousin of spot reducing, this is the idea that you can somehow make the fat (often in a specific area) melt away. No. No. No. You can work that thigh master until the cows come home and it will strengthen your inner thighs but not change the fat around them.
Work Your Lower Abs
This drives me nuts. There is No. Such. Thing. as lower abs. The rectus abdominis is made up of two long muscles that are parallel with connective tissue down the middle and fibrous tissue going across (that’s what creates the “six pack” there are not six muscles, some people even have 2 bands or 4.) Whether you are doing crunches or lower leg lifts, you are working the exact same muscles. There are no lower abs, anyone who tells you to work your lower abs should be shot or at lease start looking for another career.
Tone Your Muscles, Don’t Bulk Up
I think that this one is a shame. There are a ton of benefits that can be gained from strength training but this myth puts women off of it. It is impossible for most women to “bulk up” without a massive amount of effort. Lifting reasonably heavy weight has tons of benefits including making you stronger and supporting mobility, strengthening bones to prevent osteoporosis, retain muscle mass as you age, and if you are fat it helps with the physics of moving a fat body around etc. If someone tells you to lift a 1 pound pink weight 100 times a day so that you tone but don’t bulk up, you can tell them with great confidence that they are full of crap. You either get stronger, weaker, or maintain but if you want the benefits of strength training feel free to save yourself sometime and lift heavier weights and fewer reps.
Hey – you know what I was just thinking? All of these issues would cease to exist if we created fitness goals around, um, fitness – instead of trying to manipulate body size. What if we lifted weights based on what we wanted to lift (grandkid? Boxes full of files? Ourselves?) What if we decided that we wanted to be able to do 100 push ups because it’s a fun challenge and without the empty hope that it will give us someone else’s arms? Of course you are under no obligation to care about fitness at all, but if you do and you interact with fitness professionals there is a decent chance that they will lie to you either out of ignorance or for profit, and I kind of hope that you call them on it.
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I would love to find a group workout that doesn’t involve “diet talk,” but it’s difficult! So many instructors assume you want to change the shape of your body when you’re working out, and they gear their motivational comments in that direction. It really saps my motivation, though. I’ll be having a grand ole time, when the instructor says something about a flat tummy or tight tush. And then I just feel so deflated. It seems to devalue the workout–like, if you’re not there to get thin or change the shape of some specific body part, you must be wasting your time. These comments also seem to assume you’re not having a good time and you need some abstract motivation to keep you going. Anyway, thanks for posting this. I hope lots of fitness instructors will read it!
Ooh, I didn’t know this about the abs. Your blog is a very informative place ^^ But how is it that with some exercises the “lower part” of the muscles will be more strained? If it is all the same muscle o_O Or has it sth. to do with the muscles on the back?
Yah, I am still of the opinion that the “fitness check” in my old gym was part of why I now have massive knee problems >_> It really is a shame that the methods of certification are so different and still all those who did one can call themselves fitness instructor etc. I think it should be checked more often what they teach there and what gets neglected…
When you work a muscle you work the whole muscle. You don’t work the upper or lower part of a single muscle. You DO work the upper or lower muscles in a specific body area. Example, the lower back MUSCLES which include the transversus abdominis, the quadratus lumborum, the lower muscles in the erector spinae… all of these are whole, individual muscles in the lower back. if you focus on the lower back, you will work these muscles. But you are still working the whole muscle (and often several muscles) not a part of a muscle.
So is there no need to do lower leg lifts? Can we only do crunches? Or is there some benefit to some of the exercises that are for these mythical “lower abs”?
If you do an exercise and it feels like it’s hitting your “lower abs”, that’s actually your hip flexors, not your abs. Simple crunches contract the entire rectus abdominis.
Actually I think that for some muscles it’s a bit more complicated than that, but the rectus aren’t one of those muscles.
One of them is the pectoralis major, which you change the area of muscle tension by changing the arm position; if you put the arm closer toward the head and then move it backward as you would in the first part of the backstroke in swimming you stretch the fibres along the sternum (much as you do in a pullover exercise), but if you take the arm down toward the side and away from you, you stretch and facilitate the clavicular fibres, much as you would in a dumbell flye.
This can happen with the pec major as it has a fan shaped attachement to the chest. The rectus, by comparison is very linear and simply attaches at one end and another, with a very straight ‘pull’. Having said that, when doing reverse crunches with no hip flexion, and with the hips in a balanced position (so it can’t be the hip flexors) I can feel a higher degree of strain and fatigue than I can when doing normal crunches, so go figure.
I wonder if someone can be bothered to check whether there’s any EMS data for this activity? I bet Stuart McGill has done some, somewhere…
I’m trying to learn more about fitness in terms of what is correct and what is incorrect, similar to what you have talked about in this post, and I think you might be the person I was looking for all along. Would you happen to have any good resources or educational information for free?
Oh my goodness!!! I am so relieved I am not the only one that has this pet peeve about “fitness experts”. I may be fat and frankly not fit, but my brother tells me all the time that I know more about nutrition and exercise than anyone he knows or has known or will know. ( I think I thought if I read about it would happen… he he) Anyway, thank you thank you for this post!!!
My husband is the only weight lifting instructor I’ve had, and he’s absolutely awesome! He has done a lot of research on weightlifting, has received a personal trainer certification in the past.
Our schedules are such, however, that I find myself at the gym without him often enough to have the annoyance of men walking over and giving me unwanted advice. I lift the “big boy” weights because I’m strong. Of late I’ve had sciatica issues completely unrelated to lifting at the gym (I’d actually not been to the gym at all when my latest flare up happened–Bad Tara–weight lifting helps me strengthen and keep supple supporting muscles), so I am very careful of all movements I make to include how in get on/off benches. It irks the heck out of me to ask someone for a spot only to have them tell me “if you do it this way… xyz will happen.” Generally, they tell me to do things that would cause stress to my lower back which in turn would cause pain.
So, in order to diminish the annoyance, I’ll use the Weider and Nautilus machines for the free weight items that would require a spotter. I still get unwanted advice. I guess girls just aren’t allowed to use big boy weights by themselves without advice.
Screw them. You do what you CHOOSE to do and don’t let fear of busybodies keep you from using the freeweights!
You could talk to the gym management about unwanted commentary from spotters and ask them to create a policy about not giving out unsolicited advice. And if you do get a spotter who makes a suggestion, you might try saying, “Thanks, but this works for me,” and just leave it at that. If they can’t take no for an answer, then you can confidently tell them to go about their own business, that you’ll find a spotter who respects your choices. The more you do it, the easier it will be to say.
Not trying to invade your underpants – just offering my thoughts.
*sigh* The previous comment is actually from me, not umkcmswso. I was signed in on the wrong account.
It’s a military gym, I try to avoid management because it can lead to more ridiculous rules or at least rules that don’t address the issue.
You’d think with it being a military gym they’d leave you alone. Maybe it’s the difference between Army and AF? (We’re AF but at an Army location)
Generally the only girls using the big boy weights besides me are super buff workout fanatics. I haven’t noticed them get bugged by the boys. And if there are buff ladies working out I’ll rock my regular routine and ask one of them to spot me.
That’s why I always wear headphones. “THAT’S NICE! UH HUH! BUH-BYE NOW!”
Unfortunately, I do hear all of these things regularly at the gym. What do you think about the “pull the belly button to the spine” comments during Pilates “so you won’t build out?” I always thought it was weird that your muscles, while doing the exact same thing, would build differently depending on how you held them. :/
Hi Shreen,
When you pull in your stomach you are actually activating your your transversus abdmoninis which sits behind the rectus abdominis. I think that this is important to do because when this muscle is activated and properly trained it helps to stabilize your spine (it’s part of the core muscles that are the focus on much of pilates). Regularly working this muscle can improve posture and make the stomach appear flatter – it’s nickname is the corset muscle – but for me it’s more important that I engage it to strengthening my core and support my spine. Hope that helps.
~Ragen
Thank you! That’s the best explanation I’ve heard: you’re using a different muscle you can only access when you pull in the stomach. Thank you!
You don’t ONLY work the TA when you pull your bellybutton in, any more than you only work your biceps when you do a bicep curl. It’s a stabilizer so it will stabilize when called upon to do so. But, if someone is sedentary with poor posture, they are not likely to call upon the TA often. The same way you are not likely to call upon your biceps if you don’t usually lower yourself using your arms, or pull yourself up.
However, pulling in your belly button is like doing a bicep curl: a specific action directed at that muscle with the intent to contract it and provide more resistance than you would with normal daily activities.
OTOH, many women pull in their stomachs all the time–to the extent that they can’t take a full deep breath. When I teach a deep breathing relaxation exercise there is always at least 1 woman in the room who didn’t know her stomach was supposed to move out a bit with each inhale. (Pulling the diaphram down to create a vacuum that draws air into the lungs.) Just another place where using your full range of motion is better
My daughter was thinking about applying for the police exam and wanted to get in better shape for the physical. She joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. Luckily she doesn’t listen to everything the trainer tells her…like to restrict calories to 1300/day while working out and doing a physically demanding job. She tried it for 3 days and people asked her why she was being such a bitch so she resumed eating appropriately. She has not lost a pound but her body fat % has decreased as has her endurance. Her well-controlled asthma is easier to manage. She’s also lifting heavier weights with lower reps because she simply enjoys it. She likes competing with the guys AND large numbers of reps are boring to her. Sadly, she has determined she will never meet the BMI requirement for the local police force. They have a body fat % alternative, but she’s not willing to quit menstruating…or do what it takes to get there (smart girl!).
I’m really horrified to hear that a LE department is using BMI and/or body fat % to determine “fitness.” I hope that perhaps she can find another branch which doesn’t. Last I checked (my husband was considering applying for corrections which is the same academy in our state) here they didn’t have that, just strength and endurance testing which I think is how they should do it..and it sounds like she’d ace. This is part of what always gets to me. Forcing a body smaller always weakens it. I don’t want the LEOs who are protecting my people to be weaker.
Any fitness measurement should be performance based. can you run for a mile under a time limit?(catch the baddie) Lift an amount of weight? (offender doesn’t wish to move)
After that, size and shape don’t matter (although if you say that the person has to run a mile in under 5 minutes, you’re going to be left with a certain bodytype, with a few surprises on the outliers)
Perhaps she could talk to the local police chief about the options. They may need to rethink their arbitrary standards if she can prove that she’s got all but the BMI.
I don’t think she’s up for trying to change the system, and is now looking at law school. It’s really a shame. This same kid was accepted academically to the Coast Guard Academy but wasn’t able to go because she landed in the hospital with an asthma exacerbation caused by influenza when she was 16. Not even a missed day of school before or since but that took her out of the running. Had she gone they also would have required her to get lasik to have 20/20 vision or better. Silly if you ask me since she’s 20/20 (or 20/15, can’t remember) with contacts. It’s really a shame. She’s the kind of person that nearly everyone both likes and respects, plus tough as nails. She played football with the boys in high school–as a defensive tackle!
Your daughter might want to read about the Law School Scam when she considers law school.
Is that Coast Guard Academy vision requirement new? My brother-in-law went there, and he has terrible vision. He was not allowed to wear contacts though, so he had to wear super thick glasses every day.
She’s aware of the pit falls of law school. Luckily she has a BA with $0 debt and can continue on scholarship if she chooses. She’s also looking at getting a paralegal certificate for now after verifying local demand. As for the Coast Guard vision thing, she graduated high school in 2007 and it was in place then. Don’t know about before or after…
Thank you! I left the industry out of frustration because I was there to help people (especially women) get STRONGER but the gyms I was applying to all wanted me to focus on getting people (especially women) SMALLER. Obviously, this doesn’t work well together, when someone temporarily loses weight, a good bit of that will be muscle, after all. The whole preaching fear of size also including fear of muscle is probably one of the things that woke me up about this whole weight-loss paradigm fallacy.But I felt alone then. I came back because I found the HAES movement and knew I was not going to be alone this time in offering fitness rather than weight-loss.
I really believe it should be about getting strong and functional….and having fun. Through the day, due to industry contacts, I see such a focus on weight-loss that it gets depressing still. It’s so not strengthening and it’s so not FUN. What’s the point?
Unusually good post–even by your high standard. It’s always great to see solid info making its way out into the world.
Great post! About spot reducing though, I have noticed a change in my torso’s appearance from core strengthening – my waist is smaller and curves seem more pronounced even without losing weight. Does adding muscle change the way the fat drapes?
You could have better posture (because the core is what affects your posture) which definitely changes the way fat drapes.
when i first joined my gym, my then-employer was holding a “use these parts of your health benefits” fair, and this gym was offering a discount to this company’s employees. awesome.
the manager of the location was there. he was PSYCHED that i joined, and promised me, “if you give me eight weeks, i will give you RESULTS!”
in his eyes, i was the perfect “before” picture. i gave him eight weeks. my stamina improved, i could lift more, i learned muscle groups, and i was stronger. but i was stlll very fat.
when i’m able to go — lupus and fibromyalgia make it difficult to find a good day and enough time — i avoid the trainers unless it’s absolutely necessary. i once overheard a trainer tell a customer to eat almonds instead of cashews because they’re lower in fat, and to not even look at a macadamia nut or a peanut ever again. *shudder*
Nuts are my primary source of non-meat protein for snacks. Cashews are the greatest thing ever.
I work out at home; I am fortunate enough to have an elliptical there (love that thing) and I do bodyweight exercises. I’m in physical therapy for back pain so I do a lot of core work (planks are from the devil, just in case you were wondering), and wall squats and pushups, etc. It’s nice not to have the judgmental crap from the gym, plus I can feel myself getting stronger all the time, which is awesome. I may not be a great weightlifter, but I can lift me, and that’s pretty substantial!
Ooooh I hope you laughed at the gym people. It’s not nice, I know, but then I’m not nice and I would have laughed like a drain at the man with the ‘before’ pictures in his eyes.
The nut thing – whaaaaaaaat?
Thank you! Again!
I’ve been having back problems and am going to a special back class at the gym. They never talk about looks or body shape – they talk about reducing pain and improving strength and mobility. Those goals are exactly what I need. I would no never trust an instructor who put looks first.
If I’m exercising, I want to get stronger or more flexible or help my muscles support my weight more efficiently. I’m not exercising to be erased.
It’s possible that one exercise or another will make me lose some weight, but that’s a side effect, not the goal.
Trainers everywhere, learn you muscle groups and don’t verbally disappear me. My body is not a problem to be solved.
You have a way with words. I love “I’m not exercising to be erased.” and “My body is not a problem to be solved.” Hope you don’t mind if i borrow them.
Share and enjoy!
I have found that the newer the training certificate, the worse the line about weight loss. I’ve gone through 3 trainers now and have found that over time and with experience a good trainer will listen to me, work with my goals and my body, and eventually lay off the weight loss talk. (HAES vs. diet – resistance is futile!!) Of course, right about that time, they decide they want health insurance, to go to grad school, etc. and I start all over again!!
This really speaks to me. I watched as a good friend went from a very sedentary lifestyle with poor nutritional habits and a generally depressed attitude toward her body to discovering a love of hiking, turning into a boxing NUT, adding lots of healthy foods & water to her everyday diet, and generally becoming really joyful and happy with herself. Her body and the way she moved really changed as she become stronger and more confident…she definitely seemed to embody the idea of being fat and fit. Then she kind of fell in with a youngish trainer who was hyper focused on getting her thin…she moved from boxing and hiking to throwing around medicine balls, tons of exercises like lunges and running on a treadmill…which blew out her knee. Now, she’s struggling to stay active and dealing with a doctor telling her to lose weight before a knee replacement. Very sad.
It seems that trainers do LOVE to make us fatties do “knee friendly” exercises like lunges, stepping up an a 2 ft high weight bench while holding dumbbells, and running on treadmills. :eye roll:
I don’t know what it is– I can do walk on normal ground and do squats forever in good form without my knees hurting. I’ve even found that jogging or squatting a bit can help my knees feel better if they’re cranky, but nothing fucks my knees up more than weighted lunges and running on a treadmill.
It’s because you are not moving your body weight through space, you are racing to keep up with the ground, which is moving beneath you. That means you have much less control over how and when your foot strikes the ground, and the “sensors” (proprioceptors) in your feet and legs have to work overtime to adjust and stabilize you so that you remain upright.
And weighted lunges require you to balance differently than squats. They are actually quite difficult to master and the addition of weight makes it harder. People should not do weighted lunges until they have mastered them without weight (meaning no wobble or balance checks during the exercise) and then they still have to learn to compensate for the addition of weight. I hate lunges, with a passion.
I’ve been mulling over this article from the UK for a couple of days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18747137 So, we’re told exercise is useless unless we lose weight but also that we shouldn’t get muscles. Exercise must be joyless and precise and of course it’ll have the same effects on every body. Although, wait, Zumba. OK, exercise is another fad activity, like diets. Got to be doing the right one!
Love this post! I decided to get stronger since we’re thinking about having kids soon, and I figure that having a stronger body will help with pregnancy, labor, and trucking babies around. Also, I love me some compound lifts. I seriously live for squat variations. But it is sad that I’m often the only woman in the free weight room at my gym. I keep trying to convince my friends to join me, but so many of them are, like, “Oh, I’m not very strong. I could never do that.” Sadface.
When I was obsessed with working out in the 90′s, I used to say “I have a great body, it is just covered with fat”. It was true, I had great muscle tone, I was strong, etc. but I was still covered in fat. I was able to lose some weight, but was still fat. I like to have a strong body and strong core. But I dont have the time to devote to it like I used to.
SING IT. It hurts my heart to see the look on a client’s face when they ask me to help them make their arms/hips/legs/butt smaller and I have to tell them that it doesn’t work like that. Somehow it seems less important to them that I can help make their arms/hips/legs butt FEEL awesome. It’s an uphill battle but I am right there with you.
Nutrition misinformation aboundsfrom gym trainers and chiropractors–two groups notoriously misinformed about nutrition! I’ve heard fallacies about blood calcium levels (which has nothing to do with dietary calcium intake in healthy individuals) and incorrect guidance about target heart rates and calorie burning. Uggh!!!
Its why I love yoga and my yoga instructor. He has the room almost dark so no one can compare themselves to others and no mirrors either. He’s says every body can do yoga but every body is different so he will adjust if an asana doesn’t suit a particular shape. And he always says yoga is about health and flexibity and mind not shape.
I would love to be in that yoga class!
No such thing as lower abs! I’ve been lied to by everyone in the universe! How did I not realize this before?
The myth of “toning” is the one that gets me ranting. You can gain muscle, and/or lose fat– what is this “toning” thing?
I’m a woman that does bulk up– and I love it! My back and arms are amazing after a year or so of lifting heavy, plus I have the benefits that come with being strong, like being able to lift heavy boxes when I move house. It’s very useful.
Very much agreed. I haven’t lifted anything (in the form of gym weights, I mean) in years. Yet, guess what? I bulk up simply from lifting my own self.
Perfect sentiment. You’re “spot” on.