Helloooo :)

If you guys read my last blog then you know I'm doing a mini instagram break right now so I'm coming back to the blog to connect with you! I'll post what I have to post but I'm trying to relax on filming my every move every day because I feel like I'm "supposed" to.

It's really been a nice way to take a step back and think about what I'd like to talk about and how I can hopefully help you guys. I love coaching and helping you navigate your fitness world so today we are going to go over 5 fitness industry myths that you (might) still believe.

I tell everyone literally all the time that I feel extremely grateful for my clients, in person and online. I feel like the fitness gods have blessed me over and over again with clients that I truly love and connect with and clients that are curious yet humble. You guys always ask great questions, listen, and then pivot your way of thinking and I think it has lead to amazing results for almost everyone.

SO thank you!

Unfortunately, this isn't the case for every trainer. Most trainers want to jump off a building because clients typically come in with an idea of what's right, what's wrong, what works and what doesn't, and refuse to trust their trainers.

To be fair, a lot of trainers out there are down right horrible BUT I know a ton of elite professionals in the fitness industry who are WAY more qualified than I am, and they have all had their fair share of clients who refuse to face the truth.

Let me give you an example. I once had a client who talked to me every single session about how she didn't want to squat anymore because it was making her bigger, she never ate before a session because felt that fasted workouts we're king, she had 30-40lbs to lose but wanted to focus on bodyweight and banded exercises, and she always wanted to do more core workouts to lose fat around her midsection.

I kept trying to pivot her way of thinking by showing her girls who had curvy, gorgeous physiques and then would tell her that they hip thrust 200 pounds, or I'd explain to her that I've had countless clients who have lost upwards of 20 pounds within 3 months by strength training, adhering to their diet and walking, but nothing swayed her.

I don't ever blame women for being afraid of weights or for thinking that crunches will burn their belly fat, and it's not my style to call people out or make them feel like a moron because I WANT to educate them. But if someone is just unwilling to hear the truth, there's not much you can do.

So with all of that said, I wanted to go over 5 Fitness Industry Myths That You Still (might) Believe, so that I can try to help you become more efficient with your training!

Your watch and the treadmill do not accurately tell you how many calories you burned.

Annoying right? I fell into this trap for a while as well. I’d finish a workout, check out how many cals I burned and think “wow. 870 cals! That basically means I burned off my breakfast and lunch!”. But unfortunately AT BEST, our fitness watches are miscalculating the calories we burn by 30%. AT BEST. Some miscalculate cals burned, also known as energy expenditure, by 93 fucking percent. HOW DO YOU EVEN HAVE A BUSINESS.

Shcherbina et al 2017, found that most wrist-worn devices adequately measure HR in laboratory-based activities, but overestimate energy expenditure (calories burned) by 27.5% to 93%

As stated above, most fitness trackers adequately measure Heart Rate and steps even, but don’t be fooled by the calories they say they burn.

Now – that doesn’t mean that you still can’t check on that number from day to day if it motivates you to work a little harder! I totally get that. And if you wear the same one everyday then it will be “relatively correct” meaning that if you burn “400 calories” one day and then “650” calories the next, then it’s safe to say you burned more calories on day 2, but I would advice you to multiply that number by AT LEAST .30 and subtract that from what you think you’ve burned, to get a more realistic idea.

You cannot burn fat in specific areas aka spot reduce.

Running will not just make your legs smaller, crunches will not be the reason you get rid of your pooch, and 800 tricep dips (please do not do tricep dips) will not be the reason you get rid of your “wings”. So before someone comes after me, if you want to get into the nitty gritty of this conversation…YES, there is a little bit of science that says you technically can burn fat in a specific area, but it is very slim and a HUGE waste of time.

Notice how I said that these things won’t be the REASON you get rid of significant amounts of fat. If you have a pooch that you want to get rid of, you need to focus on being in a caloric deficit, strength training, and hitting your NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis), which is essentially just moving around throughout the day.

This will allow you to burn more calories than what you are consuming and will begin the process of burning fat everywhere. Your body’s genetics will decide what goes first. Maybe you notice that your face always slims down first, or maybe your stomach is the first thing to flatten out – it depends on each person individually.

The reason that trying to spot reduce is such a waste of time is because you are focusing on isolated movements that don’t burn many calories. Why try to lose fat in your belly by doing crunches when you could burn wayyyy more calories by doing goblet squats, reverse lunges, deadlifts, chin ups and other big compound lifts that require a ton of your energy?

With that said – know that you CAN build muscle in spot specific areas though. Yippee! Build that booty girl.

Weight training does not make you bulky.

I know we covered this in the last post but it’s worth restating. I read every consultation that comes in from online clients and of course do a consultation with all of my in person clients as well. What’s interesting is that clients come to me wanting to do strength training but in the little area where I ask for any additional questions or comments, 70% of the time the client will say “I don’t want to get bulky”, or “I bulk up really easily because I used to play soccer”, or “I’d prefer to stick to light weights as I do not want to get bulky”. It’s everywhere.

Again, I understand your fear completely! You have access to anyone in the world with an instagram account. Chances are – you’ve seen girls who fucking LOVE lifting weights and who also look “bulky”. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, it just isn’t your style. You don’t want very large rounded shoulders, you don’t want to see your quads through your jeans in a way that they look extremely muscular, and you don’t want to feel “manly”.

I know I know I know.

So think about it this way. Would you say you want a nice, toned, lifted ass? Would you say you feel like you’ve been trying to grow your glutes for a long time and “it’s just not working?”. I get that too. Because it’s HARD. It takes proper training, proper discipline, adequate protein, sleep, stress levels and patience to grow a muscle. You don’t just easily get bulky.

Women who lift heavy weights and eat in a surplus though, tend to look more bulky that a women who eats at maintenance calories or in a calorie deficit and also lifts weights, because there is more fat sitting on top of the muscle OR because they are just smashing life, eating a lot, lifting a lot, and building a lot of muscle.

Lifting weights will develop your muscle which will give you that lean, toned look you’re going for and will help you burn more calories throughout the day.

You don’t need to “confuse” your muscles with random exercises.

Whether it’s because you’re trying to confuse your muscles or because you just want to switch it up, I promise that 90% of the stuff you see on instagram is not effective, and not confusing to your muscles.

When you do a ridiculous exercise like a single leg bicep curl on a bosu ball while you throw a ball with the other hand, your muscles don’t think “wow this is so crazy, and sooo confusing! I’m not sure what’s happening so I’m going to burn more calories now until we figure it out!”.

Your mind is probably the most confused, as well as me lol, I’m lost just watching.

While variety is definitely a good thing in your training, consistency is absolutely necessary for optimal results. You definitely shouldn’t strive to always “confuse” the muscles. Certain lifts can and should be performed week-in and week-out for your entire training career. – Bret Contreras

The problem is when every workout is something completely different, and I see this on insta a lot. Workouts start to look like this:

Workout 1 – bicep curls, ice skaters, bosu ball squats, squat to knee to elbow tap, hamstring stretch, front kick, front kick, air boxing, plank to down dog to frog jump to pulses blah blah blah blah blahhhh what is happeenninngggg.

This is excruciatingly ineffective.

You want to stick to your main lifts and focus on getting stronger at them. Pick one to two patterns a month and really focus on them in each workout and then you can add in your “variety” at the end of each circuit. So if your two main patterns for this month we’re Hinge and Push, one of workouts might look something like this:

Workout 1 – hip thrust 5 x 10, push ups amarap (as many reps as possible), single leg hip thrusts x 20, single arm overhead press x 12, deadlift x 15, glute bridge chest press x 20, seated banded abductions x 50, plank variety x 90 seconds.

Reach out to me if you are interested in getting a personalized workout plan! I have been training my clients for years and they always tell me that they enjoy how different each workout is. I take that as a huge compliment because we are literally focusing on the same exercises every single workout, but switching up time, tempo, reps, volume, or range of motion. See this post here on my insta to understand how I do this with reverse lunges for example.

Sweat and soreness do not equal a great workout:

“I sweat so much it was such a great workout!” “Yesterday’s workout was sooo good because I’m literally SO sore!”. Don’t get me wrong I love sweating during a workout and feeling sore is a nice reminder of the work I did, but it doesn’t mean that I had an effective workout.

Too many clients rate their trainers on their ability to make them sore and sweaty that it makes most trainers feel like this is what they need to do in order for you to come back. Until a few months go by and the client realizes WTF why don’t I see any changes? At the end of the day, this is the trainers fault but it’s nice when the clients understand that sweat and soreness will not get them their dream body.

Wanna get in on the secrets to sweat and soreness?

Don’t rest in between exercises = sweat.

Do a new exercise, stretch the muscle while you add load or add more range of motion = soreness. Easy peasy.

This is why walking lunges with 50 pounds will make your ass stuuuupid sore but doing hip thrusts with 200 pounds might not. When you do a lunge you’re getting a biiiig stretch in the glute at the bottom and have to come up with weight (stretched muscle with load), where as in a hip thrust, you don’t get quite as big of a glute stretch BUT you get MAXIMAL glute contraction at the top which is why hip thrusts are optimal for growing the booty.

These are the top 5 fitness industry myths that I find myself debunking. Hopefully going over them was helpful to you! If you have any questions about these myths or others that you have heard, please leave a comment below!

Love you guys!