I know when I do something like hip thrusters with lighter weight or jump squats for instance, my legs burn WAY more than when I work with heavy weights. So why should we work with heavy weights when it burns like hell with lighter ones?
Well - for starters, you should mix it up. Lighter and heavier weights BOTH have their place.
BUT - heavier weights make you stronger. Typically the stronger you are, the better you look AND more importantly the better you perform IN LIFE!
ALSO - I think a lot of us out there forget this point - when using heavier weights this allows you to get stronger at lighter weights and hence getting an even better and more intense burn with the lighter weights!!!! See the cycle here? :) So keep up the heavy weights too. You will not get bulky. Few of us women really have the propensity to get bulky.
It's funny when women say to me - I swear weighted squats are making my thighs bigger. My response is - are you sure it is the squats? or is it the pizza, beer, hamburgers, cookies and ice cream? And if you really are eating clean, then lets take a look at the exercises. But more times than not, it is their diet and not the workouts. People use their workout programs as an excuse to eat more and that's why they get bigger - it is NOT the weights!
I remember seeing one woman coming out of a spin class and said, phew! I think I just burned off the 6 pieces of pizza I ate last night. Sorry to say, she probably burned off two, And her metabloic rate went right back to where it was within 30 minutes of the end of class whereas heavy weight lifting elevates your metabolic rate for much much longer. Your body has to work HARD to lift heavy weights and move them around your body! Just another reason to lift heavy things.
In yet another scenario, I had another woman say to me - that she thought spin class was the best form of exercise there was because all the instructors had the best bodies. Sigh.... I said to her - do you really think all those instructors do ONLY spin? I know many of them and trust me, they BUST THEIR ASSES in the weight room. She was dumbfounded.
I asked another woman who oly did cardio and swore by it BUT was struggling with her own body - what will change your body more? Being able to do 10 REAL push-ups and 10 pull-ups and being able to squat your own body weight OR being able to run 10 miles? What do you guys think?!
Glad you brought this up. This is what I have been enjoying about metaboliceffect workouts this past couple weeks. They are encouraging me to lift heavy and they also includes plyo. Plus they are fun and creative. Along with adding a short finisher , I feel complete when finished. I have to admit that I have not been doing zuzkalight.com lately. As far as stretching goes, I do classical stretch or Easyflexibility.com
ReplyDeleteI'll use boxing as an example. The pro fighters at my club DON'T just spar, or do pad/bag work. They also do heavy squats, kettlebell work, yoga! And same goes for the riff raff like myself, who will never do any fighting outside of sparring. You still have to strength train in some way, regardless of your sport.
ReplyDeleteI use light weights when doing pilates for a burn, but I'm finding that I need more and more weights. 5 pounds used to be too heavy for me, and now I'm almost comfortable with 8 pounds! All my money is going for rent and textbooks right now, so I'll probably have to start using my textbooks. I already use them for hip thrusters and deadlifts, but I still struggle with bicep curls when I use 8 pounds, so I'll keep them. I sweat way more in 8 minutes of weight lifting than a 15 minute HIIT workout.
ReplyDeleteEven Olympic athletes change their workouts. I really doubt that all Michael Phelps does is swim and run. He lifts heavy weights and does yoga. The only area where I see cardio helping more than strength training may be the stomach area. When I did HIIT and 1000 crunches a day, I had very little fat. But now that I'm lifting, I'm finding incredible changes in my arms and lower body- it's probably because they're really fast changes- but I have lower stomach and back fat that are more resistant to change. There's some change, mainly the obliques, but I know that HIIT/cardio might be the only way to get rid of it- which makes me sad since my breast size dramatically decreases when the middle region decreases.
Totally agree on the big thighs example. I thought my body easily gained muscle in the thighs, but in fact that's where I also gain weight first. Last summer, I started Bret's glute program and felt like my thighs ballooned, so I stopped. But after going through a 2-week summer flu (which had me lose about 9 pounds), I was AMAZED at how awesomely shapely and toned my entire body looked, including the legs! So yes, I fully agree about people disregarding their overall body fat percentage when it comes to "seeing muscle".
ReplyDelete(Before that flu, my abs always looked sculpted and toned, but after I lost that weight, I looked seriously ripped. Now I'm working on keeping my body fat low and I've been loving the way it looks, but like we discussed a few posts back, the super lean look is hard to maintain)
just look at wednesday on zuzka s food journal just look and try not to cry. a berry nutbar with coffe, a peach and 10 sweet potato chips (which of course shared with jesse sure she didn't eat all 10(!) of them and thats it breakfast snack and snack no lunch no dinner.. not sure how she keeps muscle mass? just try to think how much protein that day.breakfast 10grams snack 2 grams chips 10 grams? maximum 20 grams of protein. but what if she want to eat a little more? why she keeps her metabolism so slow?
ReplyDeleteI also find this a bit irresponsible, because there are many of her followers, who try to it the same way, thinking it is the best, healthiest diet - but it isn´t and it may be very harmful for them. But they don´t see it, Zuzka is simply their idol, role model and they do what she does.
DeleteI agree ladies. I do not know how Z eats so little. My best guess is she is not a hungry person and has amazing appetite control. And seriously - she didn't eat all TEN chips?! It seems silly. And YES, irresponsible. Where are all the vegetables? Z IS a ROLE model to SO many people and she should assume responsibility for her actions and what she says to a degree - IMO. That's what I used to say about all of Lisa's elective surgeries and procedures too - being a role model comes with a higher level of responsibility. At least I think so.
DeleteHey - I love this blog just haven't posted til now!
ReplyDeleteJust wondering M, when you were poorly with summer flu, was it the same summer as when you had started Bret's program?
Whenever I start weight training, I do seem to gain size - at 5'4", 140lbs is not a good look especially as I seem to never lose no fat but when I do Zuzka's workouts - more cardio involved, the scale goes down and I lean out. I guess it all comes down to what works for you.
I know Z is Precision Nutrition certified and I get their ideas but they involve lots of vegetables, which Z seems to avoid - all her food seems beige, brown or liquid!
Yes, it was the same summer, that's what made me start the program back up again. And I agree with you about seemingly seeing results faster with Zuzka - it's the same for me too. I feel that I see results much much faster and I lean out. I still do her workouts, but I added weights on other days, and it has become easier for me to maintain my body weight since I made that addition.
DeleteHIITs work really well for me too, but don't be fooled into thinking you are actually strong. They do help you gain muscle, but for some reason I never got the impression that it's muscle I can actually "use" for lifting heavy things in real life. But like you say, it comes down to what works for you.
About Zuzka's nutrition....I remember during her BR days when she would lecture people on the importance of vegetables and protein, and now she is down to a bit of fruit and a few chips a day. I think she eats this way to maintain that shredded look, because her body is her business card. She cannot afford to look any different. I think she personally likes that look, but I sometimes wonder if she is afraid of eating more. She has experimented with so many diets in the last years (she did really well on the paleo-like one in 2014-15), I'm surprised she's sticking with *this*. And whatever happened to her keto diet? I agree with you guys that these are not healthy eating habits, but then again, at least she's being honest about what you have to do to look like her.
This got me shredded right after I was lifting heavy, so now you can see my cuts more: https://www.drmaxpowers.com/15-day-cleanse.html
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