In this episode, Lucy and Cal debunk common misconceptions surrounding women's strength training. Join them as they challenge stereotypes, share empowering stories, and provide evidence-based professional insights to help women navigate the world of strength training with confidence and knowledge.
We would be thrilled to hear your gym experiences! Share them with us to have them featured on the show. Send your stories to thatgymcouplepodcast@gmail.com or find us on Instagram @thatgymcouplepodcast.
To collaborate with Lucy, visit her website and share your goals: www.lovelucyonlinecoaching.com.
To collaborate with Callum, visit his Instagram page (@coach_caltreacher).
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Hello everybody welcome back to that during couple four class hosted by Calla and Lucy. In today's episode we're going to give you a little bit of an update on our goals lifting running and where we're at with that. We've got some story I guess from one of our listeners thank you very much for sending that in we'll get into that later and the sort of main chat we're going to have this week is more about sort of women and their misconceptions with strength training um and I'm going to be asking Lucy some questions to get her opinion which I think it's going to be quite interesting okay amazing let's get in. Wow wow we've done it again mix things up we're now recording on a Friday we have no schedule right now yeah we used to be so good podcast recording Tuesday yeah and the episode is released on Thursday and I think that's why it doesn't feel like Friday today but it is Friday it is Friday they got that Friday feeling and we are going away tomorrow which is really exciting not till the evening which is a bit annoying but you know it is annoying but also I'm kind of like at least we can get up we don't have to rush yeah pack we can clean the house and then leave as nice as like a early morning flight is sometimes you're like panicking the night before because like if I got everything I'm going back to everything we've tomorrow we've got a nice easy morning no stresses really just make sure everything's good we've got everything we need can I have some breakfast I have a bit of lunch later on and then head on head on over to the airport I do love a morning flight they're like you're so because I'm actually quite an anxious flyer yeah if I and I wake up and I'm so tired if it's like a 7am flight by the way I'm just going to quickly interrupt myself by saying if I sound funny yeah Lucy's picked up a lisp in the last week I can see you looking at me funny and I know that I don't sound quite right I didn't I was going to bring it up but I was like I'm going to see you know I keep my seeing you looking at my mouth it's making me really insecure sorry yeah so I've gotten busiline it's just don't feel right I got a busiline fitted a couple of days ago and I just haven't quite got used to it yet so if I sounded a little bit lispy that's why anyway that's the story yeah I'm a really anxious flyer so if it's an early morning flight I'm so deliriously tired that it doesn't really I don't have the anxiety that we're flying like my brain just doesn't have the capacity to think about the fact that we're flying and then I'm so tired on the plane that I sleep most of the way and then I wake up and it's like yeah you've got the whole day as well yeah and you have the whole day that's always quite especially if we're flying like to the east of the UK so obviously because of time zones we end up going ahead in time most of the time yeah I mean we're going to Portugal so fortunately same time zone but you know if you're flying you know France Germany Spain you know a lot of them like two hours ahead so it's kind of frustrating because you do lose those two hours yeah so if you've got an evening flight and then you don't land till later on it's actually quite a lot later and sometimes you're not actually that time you'll be like I need to get down I need to get my head down or an afternoon flight and then you miss the day it's kind of yeah I think as well I know this is like really ridiculous to be worried about but I because I'm because I am quite scared of flying I always think if something if the plane crashes I would way rather it crash in the daytime than the nighttime like I already hate the dark and the thought of like not that I can't even fathom the thought but imagine like crashing into the sea in the middle of the night not that it's not that they'd find any living people anyway so I'm sorry that's awful I'm really scared anyway so we've got some yeah it's going to be quite nice and relaxed but also we've got some runs a couple of gym sessions planned yeah might play a bit of paddle yes bigger fun but yeah we whenever we go on not whenever we go on a little bit but particularly when we go to Portugal because well obviously we've picked up running so this is exactly why we wanted to do running as well so that we could just take our running shoes and just run like you don't have to join a gym or which we probably will for the week anyway but you could just go out and run but we have a really nice balance when we go away I think like we will have a few drinks we will eat out a few times but also we really love having the time to go and train and move our bodies as well we're not really having people to just lie on a sunbed bed yeah I can't I can't do that just get a bit too bored don't we like a little hike or something like we explored quite a bit last time we were there yeah actually do you know what I've never done a hike in Portugal that would be quite fun it would be really hot let's not do that okay maybe not running is running to push yeah speaking of running yeah should we update them on how it's going this week so I think last week we were both like yeah it's been such a high so good we did a so we recorded I don't know what day we recorded but we did three runs last week two five Ks and a seven K and they all went so well yeah I mean I wasn't expecting them not to it's it's just daunting when you're first starting to run and you've you've got to make that make that sort of progression and you know doing the seven K we're doing these five Ks and you're like okay cool we've run five Ks so then you've got to do a seven K and then this week we've had two five Ks and we've got an eight K on Sunday which will be in Portugal which would be quite nice and I don't think we were expecting though those ones to go so well so quickly I think we thought that which you know I don't think I don't think we had expectations I think this is what I said to you yes there wasn't it we had no expectations for those runs last week and we just kind of thought let whatever happens happens because they were easy pastes because they went so well this week has been awful yeah Tuesday was was probably the worst for both of us because it was about 27 degrees yeah roasting hot and really humid as well that was that was why it was hard it wasn't hard the run itself wasn't hard yeah which was really annoying because I feel like last week the runs went really really well but I had a bit of pain yeah and then this week I've not had as much pain but it's been really like just difficult yeah you you were struggling with your your ankle as well was giving you some days run I just yeah I think we we haven't really run in this heat yet it was just different I don't know but then also I'm going to speak in which you're wearing a full black track suit and I've gone no I know but it's a little bit chillier today don't you think um I know it sounds really stupid but I've had a spray tan because I don't really tan that well on holiday I just burn and I really like to be brown when I arrive so no and I just don't like the stress of having to sit in the sun do you know what so much as I love the sun being out I'm actually not that good at sitting in it so if I'm already tan I can just chill in the shade read my book love it anyway so I'm wearing all black tracks because I haven't washed it off yet so I look weirdly dark and I don't want to wear let my nice gym sets that I'm taking away okay so I'm just wearing black trackies I can get tan over and it's okay I am quite warm right now having said that but it's quite it's quite hot in here it's hot in here oh I'm not that's our house apartment our house gets hot yeah it does but I think yeah hopefully hopefully it stays warm in the winter because we have another winter yeah that's true as long as it's warm in the winter it's not too bad but yeah I think in terms of running like do you know what it's the strangest sport and actually it's probably quite similar to to the gym like we were saying this week how how is it that last week you feel on such a high you feel like oh my god like we could actually do this half marathon and do quite well and seeing how much how much progress we've made in the space of a week it feels amazing and then all of a sudden you feel like you've gone 10 steps back this week I said that to yesterday after the run denied you're like it's just so difficult to say it's just like it's not fair and I was like I actually screamed on the run yeah but that's what I said to you I said to you don't know I was like it's the same as a gym session yeah you know not every session is going to be the same not every session is going to be great and I think what's quite telling is we're both very burnt out today yeah and we did train but it was not not a massive capacity no the volume is quite low for a lot of things I actually did like two sets I'm like that'll do yeah I think I think that's from the heat and that's from the tiredness from from this new training the running we've got to try and sort out like we've got a program that we do so it's basically we've got three runs a week four gym sessions a week which is a lot it is a lot and it's a lot to start out with but we didn't want to compromise on our gym sessions did we so we both used to do in five gym sessions I think dropping down to three would have been really difficult for us to to do mentally yeah so I think we both are going to have a look at our program and kind of work out a day where we could run potentially run and train on the same day yeah because right now we've not got a rest day yeah so technically the runs are rest day runs yeah like some clients would do cardio on their rest days there's nothing necessarily wrong with that but the runs are quite physically demanding on our body yeah of course they are especially we're not used to them so it's you know it's it's not as much as it is low intensity cardio it's also not because it's new to us and also each you know we don't have that day to rest and relax so we sorted out our plans so rather than doing I think you were doing a pushball life split well well I think we're going to do a full episode on this so let's not go into it now because I think when we've I think when we've done it for a couple of more weeks and we've really figured out what works well for us in terms of balancing lifting and running we'll probably do a full episode on that yeah because I think that's quite there's a lot of people getting into running now who also lift and I think it'd be quite a good topic I've had quite a few questions already like how are you splitting your training yeah like loads of people are saying that they're finding it really hard to get a balance it's hard it's very hard yeah and we're only a couple of weeks in and everyone's everyone's going to be you know in a different position and have different commitments and different flexibility to train and run when when they can in the week so but that girl that commented on my video saying I'm trying to balance three runs four training sessions and five cardio sessions I was like yeah how are you doing that well start as your runs are your cardio so yeah stop doing that many cardio sessions but yeah we'll catch up on that so let's dive into a little gym story oh okay yeah let's go for it I've actually got I've got a story you're always the one bringing the story as well as no one messaging me I've got a story and a question okay great so it's a separate thing yeah thank you for sending them in we love to hear them here's a funny gym story for you I determined if it's funny but one day at the gym a newbie decided to try out the treadmill for the first time excited and determined she hopped on the machine and started jogging everything seemed to be going well until she accidentally hit the emergency stop button instead of the speed increase button suddenly the treadmill came into an abrupt halt causing her to lose her balance from full flat on her face to make matters worse her water bottle flew out of its holder and landed on the person running on the treble behind her dreching them in water in paris and sight improves the newbie got up apologized profusey to the soap treadmill runner and sheepishly made her way to the weightlifting area to avoid any further treadmill mishaps oh despite the awkward start the newbie eventually mastered the treble and became a regular at the gym always double checking which button to press before making any moves the incident became a running joke among the gym regulars running joke reminding everyone to stay mindful of the surroundings and equipments at all times so funny that newbie was me i mean i can't say i've seen anything quite that bad on a on a do you know what there was easy to do especially because some of the emergency stops have like that string sometimes my hand hits the string and you know you're supposed to attach that on you oh no i didn't you didn't pull the string you attach it on you so if you go too far back i don't mean to pull the string i just accidentally do if you go too far back it pulls the thing so it stops they could have really hurt themselves yeah and the person like them what kind of treadmill do they have because they like how did the water bottle fly out of the holder i guess they maybe like knocked it or something as they went down but also the fact that the lid probably wasn't on properly jesus i would say we've all been there but that is quite extreme but we have all i've done something sheepishly move my way to the weightlifting area to avoid any further treadmill mishaps yeah i love the bit at the end that newbie was me oh i hope you didn't hurt yourself too much but that is a good story these as embarrassing as they are they do make good stories they do yeah and and we enjoy reading and listening to them we absolutely do also remember back in the day you guys used to send us like your gym crush stories i want some more of those yeah they were good so like if you've got a dilemma about a gym crush or i don't know anything it doesn't even have to necessarily be training related obviously it'd be great if it was but we do like doing more like relationship type stuff as well so i've got i technically i've got i'll do two questions because i've got two that i can do um how do i know if i'm using proper form when lifting weights it's a good question um film your sets yeah but film your set yeah and then either like find someone that you actually trust who knows what they're doing or even if like you might know what you're doing you might know what a proper squat looks like for instance and i i do all the time like film my sets just to check my form because the amount of times that you think you're doing it right and then you look back and you're like oh i was so wrong yeah or if you're just like i know i'm doing all of this right but i'm just something doesn't feel quite right but you can't tell so filming it you might be like oh i i don't know my foot changes yeah my knees come in or something um if you can't if you know i i understand as well some people get a bit sort of conscious about getting sent up a tripod and a camera and or phone in the while they're training um you could just ask someone who works there or someone who looks like they know what they're doing um arguably is more scary than just of course it is of course it is but you know if you're a gym that you've been going through for what i'm sure there are people in there that you know or have had interactions with or you know there's so much free content out there but that's to say make sure it's someone that actually does know what they're talking about but you know necessarily tiktok but youtube like there are loads of people talking about stuff on youtube you could probably find a good video talking you through the correct cues um like form cues on certain exercises because certain exercises you know there are things to think about like an RDL you know like um but in all honesty it's like a catch 22 situation if if you have a little bit of gym anxiety because you feel like you look silly nine times up ten people that say they feel like they look silly is because they're not sure if they're doing something right so a good thing to do would be to get your camera out film yourself and look at it look back at it and then do it again the next week look back look back and let's see if you've improved that's the only way you're not going to feel silly anymore and try different try different angles out i know i know it's again it can be a bit daunting but you know don't just get like a front on shot if you know or if you still feel like you're not good like not doing good form but you've just filmed yourself from the front you've checked it and you're like oh that looks okay still film it from the side maybe from the back but also remember people saying oh that looks okay they might not know what yeah actually like i see people in the gym who look really really confident in what they're doing and i'm like that is so wrong and i'm not judging them but i am like i can tell that they think they're doing it right so you need to actually check what you should be doing first but also remember that we all start from somewhere and like your form probably won't be right straight and everyone's everybody's bodies are going to move in different ways like there's so many factors that come into it with the biomechanics of the human body and yeah you know some people have longer femurs some people have longer arms shorter arms like longer torso so there's so many things that it could be and some people might be doing a variation to target the glutes or target the quads more and just do a bit of research and i would always say and i'm not trying to like say go and spend unnecessary money but work with a personal trainer or get yourself a coach who will give you that support and one other thing i would just quickly say is don't go in if you're not sure on your form don't lift super super heavy because you will just cause injury start off really really light even body weight if you can get the form right and then start building the weight up which leads us quite nicely onto the second question how do i know when it's time to increase the intensity intensity of my workouts another good question so i would say i mean you know by this point i guess if you're this far into listening into the episode this might be your first one if so hello um you should probably know about sets and reps by this stage you know you're training in the gym okay bicep looks super pumped right now um thank you wow so you should probably know about sets and reps by this stage so the way you set up your program will completely depend on the sort of goal you have and in terms of the sets and the reps that you have in your exercise program will also depend on the sort of program you've got for your goals um reps are a target not a it's it's sort of like no it's not set in stone so if i'm programming for Lucy for instance and she's doing a shoulder press i would set her a rep range instead of a solid number so rather than saying lusia i want you to get 10 reps for three sets and you have to get 10 reps you have to get 10 reps i would say lusia i want you to get eight to 10 reps over you know over the three sets you've got so the first set she might go and she might do 10 reps the second set she might do nine reps the third set she might do eight reps because i'm getting more fatigued throughout the exercise it throughout the sets if by like three or four weeks in she's done three sets and she's hit 10 reps on all three up up the weight or up the rep range so then maybe you could go she might be lifting 16 kilograms you know go up to 18 or you know rather than doing eight to ten you could go you could do 10 to 12 reps if you wanted to up the rep ranges i've said reps every time well well yeah i guess what we're talking about here is progressive overload yeah and progressive overload we should do an episode on terminology like yeah that's a good maybe we'll do that yeah because there is a lot of terminology out there like i'm right like people don't know what it is so we we'll do that um but yeah progressive overload is like the number one thing you really want to be working on and that doesn't necessarily a lot of people think that progressive overload is just lifting heavier or adding more weight to the bar but it doesn't have to be it can be doing more reps so if you don't feel ready to go up and wait yet let's say you're doing a shoulder press do a few more reps that's still progressive overload and and that again it's a rep range at the end of the day so as i said it's not necessary that you do it that way but i would advise that because it makes you feel like you're still progressing if i was to say to Lucy hit 10 reps and again that's all you had 10 reps for three sets three sets of 10 reps and she did 10 nine eight over the three sets you're probably going to feel quite demoralized by the end of it because you're going oh my god i'm like i'm no one or even less you might do 10 eight four so by the by the third set you're going my god like i'm just i'm nowhere near like hitting that like i feel so bad like i'm not able to train as hard as i should be blah blah blah but if you were to hit say eight eight eight you've got room for improvement you're still within the range and you're not going to feel bad about not not doing the getting to the 10 and as soon as you get to the 10 you know okay cool next week i'm going up up and wait yeah and i think like you know you have to like listen to your body in that sense like we're all different but if you're getting to eight reps and it's easy and you think you could go to like 20 you're not lifting heavy enough like a lot of my clients will ask how do i know what way to start with and it's a really good question but i don't know your take on this but for me it's like well you have to figure that out sort of thing you have to pick up a few weights and go if you pick them up and you're like oh my god i can't even get one rep it's too heavy if you can do 20 reps easy and you're not even feeling tired it's too light yeah find the medium where you can get to maybe eight the last two are you should be struggling on the last two reps it should be a challenge for you i mean we're going to figure out we're then moving into like RPE and stuff like that so we'll go through that in a future episode but that that exact sort of thing has happened to clients in mind before where they've been you know going one of my clients was um was bench pressing he was using dumbbells and he was stuck on a certain weight for ages and i was like he was like i just can't get higher than i just can't progress beyond it and i was like have you tried like have you tried like have you picked them up and tried and he was like oh no because i can't hit the reps i can't hit the desired reps on this weight so how am i going to hit it on that one and i was like let's see let's just go up just go up by two kilograms let's see what happens and he did more reps than he did with the lighter weight and i think sometimes there's a mental block a hundred percent yeah like we are so much stronger than most women as well yeah are so much stronger than they think they are they just don't even try it to know yeah so you know even if you pick up the heavier weight and you only manage four reps at least you've tried it that's now you know you're kind of baseline for that and then you can maybe do that first next week and then drop the weight down for the next two sets it gets all getting it gets a bit confusing but you have to try it's lift heavy you can't just stick with that weight and go yeah that's what i left every week so to wrap it up i guess um find out weights that work for you start with so find out a weight that you can push yourself hard enough with find a rep range which is challenging um don't have a whole number as the rep do a rep range so whether it's eight to ten or whatever you want to do and once you hit that top number the next week you increase volume whether it's weight or reps or get yourself coach who will program you in the driving program yeah absolutely right let's get into the meat and potatoes yeah into the tofu as we said last week and um other oh my gosh are the vegetarian supplement vegetarian vegan supplementation is available no sorry before we get into that we have to just update our listeners about how clumsy i've been how clumsy we've both been this week yeah we've told you i'm pretty sure we've told them before about how clumsy i am but oh my god like it's rubbing off on him now and it's so bad what do i do this week so i picked up this coffee table trav-a-teen coffee table which i had handmade i designed it myself and i got it handmade you know i'm very precious about it and it's really heavy in a rush i picked it up to move it and i cracked it like there's a whole corner yeah whole corners from trav-a-teen then you've smashed i smashed a lantern yesterday but that wasn't really like it's important to me no it's not really big it's like an outdoor lantern then he just picked it up and smashed it no i didn't pick it up and smashed it it was behind the outdoor furniture and i just pushed the outdoor furniture and didn't see it and it fell over that was all the other thing i've done two other things as well i had a drink up on the side your electrolytes my electrolytes before i run and i knocked it over and it's like a dark almost it looks like coca-cola almost and it just spilled all down the white wall like literally all over the white wall thank god it has come out and then yesterday i walked in the front door swung the door open and i took a chip out of the wall a massive chunk out of the wall like someone just you know sought me out it's awful i i don't know why i went on to that that was relevance to that but i can't really to be honest you just instructed and said that no that was something i was gonna there was a reason why anyway carry on yeah lucy's clumsy basically but like beyond the state of just oh oops like it's just every day there's a new tragedy i did say it's a column before we moved in together he was like oh i just find it so endearing it was do you know what it still it still is sometimes like sometimes when you do things i'm just like oh goodness sake well why no it's not endearing anymore because i'm ruining things that like in a week you've just yeah in a week i probably lost us our deposit at this place so on to the last sort of segment i guess um i just got this little like introduction bit because i wanted to kind of preface this a little bit yeah so there are several misconceptions surrounding strength training for women that can deter them from incorporating it into their fitness routine um i'm gonna ask lucy i know we've touched on some of these before in previous podcasts but as a woman who's strength trains i just thought it would be nice and because the vast vast majority of our listeners are also female um to hear your perspective on these misconceptions and kind of maybe give some clarity around it obviously i can i can help yeah i mean i don't know these questions by the way i'm definitely being part of the spot here she seems a bit nervous about it beforehand yeah but i mean one thing i would just say is if you are thinking about getting into strength training like i hope you do listen to this episode because it's the best thing i've ever done in my life like it is the best thing in my life and it is the best thing i've ever done so i hope that you can listen to this podcast and it will you know give you that little push that you need okay well i don't need to ask questions now so we need you to know yeah so uh the first one is strength training will make me bulky so i i've had i've had that a lot personally like i'm sorry to do the excite working in a gym um you know we members come in or new members and they'll sign up and and you do quite often here when we'll be like i don't want to get too bulky by training weights where did this come from like where did this start because i'm pretty sure the women that are saying that aren't following body building like bodybuilders on instagram is it because men get really muscular yeah do you know what i think it's a shame that they will i think that's what that i think it's slightly from that and i think there is more of a um the sort of feminine shape has changed so much over the last sort of decade two decades um what is still is yeah of course of course it like changes changes year on year like what's what's accepted and exactly like you think about the early 2000s women that was the whole like that was the start of the the whole big butt era it was it yeah when was the thought so you just spout all that again oh my god i'm like this list is horrendous no we're keeping that in that's the one was the thigh gap the side of 2000s well if you think like you said well maybe like maybe sort of i think the big mom is later than that yeah maybe like that was like 20 2005 to 2010 maybe but you're i guess because like early 2000s you had like all these really slim um you know late 90s early 2000s very slim women who were you know did the thing about the spice girls and stuff like that like very slim very sleek looking i remember being a teenager and like standing in the mirror and like trying to push my bum back to see if i had a thigh gap i remember doing that and i only really remember wanting to have a big bum in the last probably five years yeah no it's definitely been around longer than maybe i've been training like eight years you know like Beyonce and stuff you know what i mean like when she came around on to the scene things like that yeah you know i mean but basically gone off track a little bit here but i think that i think you're right i think that that's happened that it's changed a lot and i think women potentially see men make gains quite quickly and build muscle quite quickly and bulk up quite quickly i think also though as you said there's been a change and it's kind of gone from women want women wanting to be as skinny and as thin as possible to as like not as strong as possible but they want to be strong and to someone who is a very much beginner in the gym i might they might think i'm a bulky like i wouldn't say i'm bulky but if you were to look at my instagram and you know you see me posing with my arms up i have got quite big shoulders and biceps right after a training session and they're pumped and my lats around whatever like trust i like better most people i'm not big but like that actually probably is not attractive to a lot of women they probably think i don't want big shoulders i don't want big biceps i don't want big back but i do so i understand why i wouldn't say that the way that you wouldn't the way that you say you do want a big back and big but you know lots of muscles and stuff not to the extent where you know you're stepping on a pro bodybuilding stage no but that's like but i highly doubt that's what big like the gen pop are thinking about but i think they do see that i think they do see that more often than i i think it's scale though wasn't there like yeah what i think is bulky yeah of course but you're completely different it's because you're around it aren't you yeah like for me i don't think i'm bulky but like i understand that i would never want to take it as far as some people that i have seen on social media who obviously take steroids because it's ridiculous and i don't i don't personally would like to look like that but then to someone who's here they might think i'm bulky so it's yeah i mean sorry we've gone off track again but like as we have said before it takes for women to build muscle and the muscle that you would need to what i would think be bulky would take you years and years and years i have been training for probably eight years now i don't have the muscle mass on me that i want it takes so long to build muscle and you have to be in a calorie surplus you have to really commit yourself to a training program to progressive overload yeah like beginner beginners gains like you you might build a bit of muscle but to get bulky oh my god you would have to really really commit yourself to probably a year if not longer to a proper building phase where you're in a calorie surplus you're training hard and you're really really focusing on building muscle yeah it's really difficult to build muscle boy men build muscle typically easier than women because they have higher levels of testosterone that's why it's harder for women to build muscle it's hard for men to build muscle but harder for us women yeah i've had people say before like oh well i don't want to get too big i'm like don't worry like don't don't worry and i mean that in the nicest way like yeah your your definition of too big like it's not that easy to put muscle on if it was there would be a lot of people out there who would be ginormous like ginormous people let's just bear in mind that strength training is not just to build muscle there are so many health benefits to we'll get on to them we'll get on to them so shut down um i'll just kind of yeah so in reality i've got kind of got like little kind of snippets after these as well so just kind of make sure that we're on the right page if you know i mean so strength training will make me bulky uh in reality women i've lowered levels of testosterone compared to men making it making it more difficult them to build large muscles strength training can actually help women achieve a toned and lean physique so just not listening when i said no i did that's why i was wrapping up with what i've written down so cardio is more effective for weight loss oh this is another misconception because i was gonna say ways yeah you're not just saying that as a fact are you no it's not lifting weights is one of the best forms of exercise for fat loss there's been so much research on that um cardio is a great tool it can help towards it but yeah weightlifting i would always prioritize for fat loss yeah so while cardio can help with weight loss strength training is also important for building muscle mass muscle burns more calories at rest than fat so increasing muscle mass through strength training can help boost metabolism and aid in weight loss and also are you said we're going to see other health benefits but like yeah do your bones like well you need to stronger bone density level when you get older like do you know what i love is that i've started to see so many more older women in the gym some you can tell that they've been training for years yeah yeah yeah yeah you can tell they're new to it but even older women now are like seeing a benefit and a lot of them will be from you know doctors orders and they'll be coming in and getting themselves getting themselves you know they're picking up the dumbbells you know just have two kilograms four kilograms what they're they're doing something yeah um but obviously again it depends like excuse me like where you're at with your journey like if you are trying to lose a hundred a hundred pounds i don't know like if you're trying to lose a lot of weight you might want to just start by just going on some walks and being in a calorie deficit and then like slowly get into weight training yeah it might be a bit much to can be very daunting but just maybe just buy a couple of cheap dumbbells or really like dumbbells or a kettlebell at home and just pick it up every day yeah just start something pick it up once a day and then you'll probably get to the point where you're like do you know what i want to lift heavier i want to i've seen that machine on instagram i really want to do that like then you'll join a gym and possibilities are endless so next one i should only use light weights some women believe that using light weights and high repetitions is the best way to tone their muscles oh god let's even begin um this is kind of a tough one actually because going to the gym and lifting weights the sole purpose does not need to be to go in and lift the heaviest weight that you can no or try and be the biggest strongest person in the gym i think you've got to do what you enjoy and there are different styles of weight training we've said as well it depends on your goal like in a when i've been in like a building phase and really really trying to build muscle and get stronger i am lifting heavier the goal is to lift heavier at a lower rep range but there are different types of training but maybe that's related to women thinking if they lift heavier they will be bulky yeah possibly but i mean that in some some ways there is like some research truth to the fact that women benefit more from higher repetition training but that's not to say that women will get toned yeah women will get toned from it um i mean you're gonna get toned for the word tone the word toned is a is a is a kind of a misconception because people think like if i lift yeah exactly so basically what they what most women what most people mean by tone it's not just women obviously what most people mean by a toned physique is they want some muscle and to be generally lean so to tone to tone up to tone up is essentially build some muscle mass and and lose some body fat yeah which is quite difficult to do in itself unless you're a beginner yeah but even then it even then it's still quite difficult to balance the the being on a calorie deficit and yeah but actually i find that sometimes with beginners and and newbies well not even newbies but people maybe have been away from training for a while when they then come and sign up to my coaching getting them on a structured training plan that they are following week in week out whilst also losing body fat typically you are going to build a little bit of muscle but also actually what's probably happening is we're losing body fat so that we can see your muscles a little bit more exactly there's not as much fat around muscles so you do look more toned yeah because let's be honest if you see people on social media that have a six-pack is that they have a very either genetics or they have a very very low body fat percentage yeah and it's and it's probably just a snapshot into one day of their year yeah 100 and like when you see people posing on social media it's probably after a training session they're very pumped well they've done a photo shoot or yeah okay next one i will get injured if i lift weights well yeah if your form is wrong and you go in and try and lift too heavy you will probably injure yourself so start light do your research like everyone has to start somewhere and i probably had absolutely horrendous form when i first started but you get better you know yeah you have to keep going back practice makes perfect and the more you practice but i think it's like same with running like everyone's saying to me just start slow otherwise you'll get injured same with lifting weights really just ease yourself into it i would say form is probably the the main reason people get injured is lifting too heavy with bad form i think as well lifting actually prevents injuries and other aspects of your life because your body gets stronger your muscles get stronger and they're able to cope with certain loads and certain movements so where your you might have you know knee pain previously yes of course lifting with bad form or lifting over time can cause damage in some areas but it's also for for your general population it's going to help with joint issues because you are strengthening the muscles that support that joint so it makes things easier yeah and also don't let that be the reason you don't do it because that's just letting something that you know don't let a what if stop you from doing things like what what if it doesn't work out what if i get injured what if what if what if just go and try it be careful be sensible and you know if you if you're not sure you know if you're about to lift a weight and you're worried get someone to spot you get just have that support behind you and yeah just to see how you get on you can't it's like i had a bad knee and it is a real mental thing like being too worried to lift that weight but you've just got to get past that mental fear and give it a go and see how it feels yeah next uh this last one so it's it's less sort of on the strength side of things but more just obviously gem going in general i need to do endless cardio to get toned or i guess instead of toned we should put lean there well i guess we've kind of already covered that yeah um you need you need to be in a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight first and foremost but you definitely don't need to do endless hours of cardio that is a yeah that's a very big misconception but then i guess depends what you're training for like if you're training to step on stage but that's the point if you are just if you were just training to get lean then yes in some regards it will help is as Lucy said earlier a tool for weight loss it's not the be all an endle um you know what's the phrase abs are made in the kitchen you know it's a calorie deficit or you know some form of less food is going to make you leaner but you can supplement that like you could supplement your protein intake with a protein shake you can supplement your weight loss with additional cardio but you have to be careful that you're not doing too much to this detrimental to your other training your other goals your overall well-being your mental state your you know yes the body the body the body can get really burnt out and if you are doing endless cardio the chances are you'll be putting way too much stress on your body and sometimes the more stress and fatigue that builds up in your body the more water that you hold so then you'll be feeling quite bloated quite uncomfortable and the scale weight yeah scale where we're going the opposite way if anything and um you need to try and find a balance that works for you you know if you're going to the gym and you're you know how often do we hear people are struggling to get there i'm struggling to get all my sessions in i could just don't find i've got the time and you know i can't do my cardio today because i was already at the gym for x amount of hours or i couldn't get this done because i had to do cardio as well so it's finding a balance that works and i don't think you know for a at your typical lifestyle coach like we'd never i'd never sort of push someone really beyond maybe half our 45 minutes tops cardio but even then that's a very i do if they've got to drop the weight i think that's a very in-between in one session or per week in one session oh right yeah like i thought you meant like one session per week no no no so you know it completely depends obviously it completely depends on the goal like there will be some potentially down the line where that is that is a necessity or that's what they feel they really want to do fine you know we can support that but there's better ways to go about it yeah and that you say most of our clients are mums or dads or have jobs where they're working 12 hours a day like they don't have time to come in and do a 45 minute weight session and then a 45 minute cardio session after and we totally respect that like we know that yes technically we all have the same 24 hours but we also know that we don't like we're not doctors or nurses doing 12 hour shifts or parents who then come home and have to make dinner like we really as lifestyle coaches try to put ourselves in our client's shoes and think what is going to be possible for them and also how can we make it so that they actually still enjoy it and it's not something that they absolutely dread throughout their whole day like we want it to be something they look forward to and as you said doing endless cardio is not going to be good on your mental well-being or physical really so yeah you just got to balance it as best as you can yeah that was it those are the more common misconceptions of women I think it's important to to go over them as I said at the start if those were some of your concerns hopefully we've helped to kind of what's the word like minimize your worries on it I think you should ask me some in a future episode about misconceptions for male training yeah I think I think the I think the other way around would be quite I open into a lot of our listeners who don't know much about sort of men's training because a lot of people think it's just our men just go to the gym and they just put muscle on there's a lot more to it than that tell you a massive misconception I had was about steroids oh god yeah so much about steroids recently yeah and like god my my my idea of people taking steroids was so wrong yeah it's crazy isn't it so yeah yeah we'll definitely do that in the next episode but hopefully you've enjoyed it as always if you do have any questions or stories or dilemmas anything you want to send in please do send in because we love to hear them please send her something to Lucy I think she's feeling a bit left out actually like why's no one's sending them to me I don't know it's not great yeah and yeah I hope you have a lovely week whatever you're getting up to if you're lifting weights if you're going for a run if you're trying something new good luck and we'll catch you in the next episode thank you bye you
