- It’s dangerous. Sometimes people believe they will get injured strength training. A well designed strength training program that incorporates principles of progressive overload has been shown to be not dangerous, even in older people. (google the Liftmor study) What is dangerous it seems is doing nothing. Frailty and falls are just two of things that strength training can prevent.
- It’s boring/mindless. While there is a lot of repetition, there is also endless ways to strength train. No matter what I’m using, a dumbbell, a kettlebell or a barbell, I am incredibly mindful while strength training, just as much as I am in my yoga practice. I’m making a mind muscle connection, trying to determine how intensely I’m working (my rate of perceived exertion) and focusing on technique. Strength can be joyful and empowering!
- It’s too hard. Again, a grain of truth there, it is hard, especially when you first start. The feeling of it being too hard goes away once your capacity builds though. There has to be some impetus for the body to change or it won’t. So yes, it has to be harder than your real life activities but only for a short time and the result is that the rest of your life is easier once you are strong.
- You don’t need to do strength training because you are doing yoga or pilates or you walk …. First I want to say that all movement and exercise is good- most people don’t do enough – so that’s the big picture. I obviously love yoga myself and don’t plan to give it up. Yoga and Pilates can be strengthening especially at first when you are de conditioned but most research shows they do not provide enough stimulus to maintain or build bone mass. You need to load your skeleton with an external weight to build bone density. Keep doing yoga and Pilates but add in two sessions of strength training because they are not the same.
- Lifting weights makes you ‘bulky’. All I can say is – I wish! 😂 putting on any muscle mass especially as we age is tough. Lifting weights will not make you suddenly explode like the hulk. Many people say they want to get ‘toned’ but that is just the same thing as gaining muscle. Which is what happens when you consistently strength train but it takes quite a while!