Strength Training Myths Debunked

We tackle common strength training myths with Alliance Fitness Center owner Sarah Small, separating fact from fiction to help you train more effectively and avoid misinformation that could be limiting your results.

• Lifting weights doesn't make women "bulky" due to insufficient testosterone levels in most women
• Muscle soreness isn't necessary for progress and can actually hinder consistent training
• Fat loss happens primarily in the kitchen, not through endless cardio sessions
• Runners and all athletes benefit from proper strength training beyond sport-specific movements
• Both older adults and children can safely strength train with appropriate progression
• Machines and free weights both have benefits depending on your goals and experience level
• Stretching isn't the primary factor in injury prevention despite popular belief
• Squats and deadlifts are beneficial exercises when performed with proper technique
• Muscle cells physically cannot transform into fat cells when you stop training

Got fitness myths you want debunked? Message us on social media or through our website at alliancefitnesscenter.com!

Transcript

Introduction to Fitness Myths

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome back to the Better Fitness Podcast . Today we have a very special guest . On our third episode we have Sarah Small , the owner of Alliance Fitness Center .

Speaker 2 0:15

Thank you for having me . I'm very pleased to be here .

Speaker 3 0:19

No video as requested .

Speaker 1 0:22

We don't have the video this time . Sorry guys .

Speaker 3 0:25

Actually my new donut tattoo .

Speaker 1 0:26

That's the only video that you're gonna get um , okay , so for this episode , we're going to be talking about some common strength training myths that you I can't say that word myth , myths , very hard to say , myths um , anyway , uh , we're going to be talking about those , um , some common ones that you might have seen around social media or just heard along the grapevine . Um , so we'll just go right into it . The first one I have I have a whole list of them here um , I think it's one of the most common ones we hear , especially in the running world that lifting makes you bulky . So , colin sarah , what do we have to say about that ?

Speaker 3 1:16

sarah , you go first . Well , welcome to the show thanks .

Speaker 2 1:19

First of all , I would like to ask that person who suspects that that happens is how a woman has the hormonal makeup to become bulky .

Speaker 1 1:33

You said woman .

Speaker 2 1:35

Woman .

Speaker 1 1:35

Is it just a woman that thinks that it makes them look bulky , or is it men and women ?

Speaker 3 1:42

I'd say it probably primarily comes from women .

Speaker 2 1:45

Primarily , I believe , comes from women . I'd say it probably comes from women Primarily , I believe , comes from women . Women are worried about size . Men want to increase size often . If they're based on sports specific , that may not be true For the most part . As long as they're looking fit , men wouldn't mind increasing in size . However , women , that would be a deterrent . So I think they have to look at . You know and this is an age , age old statistic I'm literally telling you that this comes to mind from the eighties but one in 30,000 women over the age of 25 have enough testosterone in their bodies to reduce muscle mass growth . Now I am . I'd love to know how close to the truth that statistic is , but that that was something that was said yes , really .

Speaker 2 2:47

But so how , how do we get bulkier ? How , how do we physically get bulkier ?

Speaker 1 2:53

yeah , I think , you have to eat a lot and spend like 24 7 in the gym to actually like look bulky like a bodybuilder would yeah , and a lot of those people that are coming and looking that big are also not natural .

Speaker 3 3:09

They're taking steroids everything so like I agree with sarah how biologically women don't have enough testosterone to promote the muscle change like that um , and then the people that are actually looking big , who do have the testosterone , need more to look even bigger . So at the end of the day , it's just biologically not in your favor to get that big , lifting weights and kind of what other sarah said .

Speaker 3 3:39

You also have to eat a lot more to actually support that , because you can lift as heavy and hard as a bodybuilder does 24 7 but if you're under eating you're not going to get big right , absolutely and the biggest , biggest factor is the psychology and the misconception into the information that that is because there is definitely some disorderly behavior when it comes to stuff like that .

Speaker 3 4:02

As we get to kind of check into is kind of like the image of the little cat that looks in the mirror and sees a lion . But that's what you kind of want , like . You want to have that confidence and that self-perception of yourself , but oftentimes it's the other way around , where a lot of people who are healthy and should have some positive image of themselves do not .

Speaker 1 4:23

So realistically , it probably has that more deeply intertwined okay , next one you need to be sore to see results

Soreness and Workout Results

Speaker 1 4:36

. You need to feel sore , like walking out of the gym , like your legs are destroyed , to know that you had a really good leg day workout .

Speaker 3 4:44

That's probably some Orange Theory propaganda . No shade , unless you take it . I don't care , sarah , other Sarah , you go first . What ?

Speaker 1 4:54

do you ?

Speaker 3 4:54

think .

Speaker 1 4:56

I say that's false , why You're better at explaining scientifically .

Speaker 3 5:04

Well , I mean , soreness is just not an indicator of progress . It's usually an indicator of something new or the disruption of things occurring in the muscle that come with certain types of exercise . But the biggest thing that gets in the way of progress is not being able to actually work out enough . And so if you are getting sore , that means you can't work out pretty hard and that you can't actually get the quality of workout required to go and progress in strength and size or whatever it is . So the person that is getting really sore realistically can't come back in for a good workout in the next like three or four days and the person that's not getting sore can actually work out probably every other day . That person's going to get the results a lot faster than the person who's chasing soreness and sore all the time .

Speaker 2 6:00

I feel it's relative . You know it comes down to the individual . We used to say are you sore to the touch , are you sore to the movement ? And so then , because you don't want to traumatize the connective tissue , you don't want to get to the point that you're working out that hard , that you're creating that microscopic , those microscopic tears in the connective tissue . So , again , relatively speaking , if you're to the point where the soreness is that extreme , then you , you you're not giving yourself enough recovery or , and you may be overdoing it . So I think it's relative , um , the for the person that hasn't worked out in a long time , like we have a lot of personal training clients that come to us and they said well , when you haven't worked out since my high school days , well , guess what , you're going to have some soreness because you're not introducing the body enough movement .

Speaker 1 7:00

Right yeah so so there's .

Speaker 2 7:03

So that's why I think it's . I think it's relative , but to see in terms of the myth of getting fit . Yeah , I agree with you , sarah . I think it's false .

Speaker 1 7:15

Okay , um , so kind of going along with the lifting makes you bulky myth . How about cardio is better for fat loss

Cardio vs. Strength for Fat Loss

Speaker 1 7:25

? What do we think ?

Speaker 2 7:30

about that

Does Lifting Make You Bulky?

Speaker 2 7:31

Good one , because you know that people out there absolutely still believe that Burn so many calories . Yes , got to burn those calories .

Speaker 3 7:39

Burn so many calories , stupid . People are looking at the machine , looking at how many calories they burn yeah , I mean you , along with the nuance of , like hormones and bioavailability of nutrients and all that stuff . Um , you lose fat and or gain muscle or fat due to like nutritional balances in the body .

Speaker 3 8:04

That's where the majority of my money would go if I wanted to change those things . I would not look to any form of exercise to do that significantly because it's just not gonna change any of the energy scale in your favor . Maybe like five percent , but I can go out and I can eat two donuts and I can crush .

Speaker 2 8:26

Maybe like 5% , but I can go out and I can eat two donuts and I can crush the calories burned in a two hour run in two donuts , yeah .

Speaker 3 8:29

So , like , exercise is not useful to shift those scales . It's really good for keeping you healthy and strong and getting resilience and joint health and tone and size and and all those good things , which is how exercise should be viewed and the tool should be used . Um , if you want your body to change in its shape and its composition , I think that should be looked elsewhere yeah , in the kitchen , in the kitchen absolutely yes .

Speaker 2 8:59

Um , also , I come from a different perspective in in the fact that I , when I get that question , I tend to not poo-poo it right away . You know my answer may be somewhat disingenuous , but what I'll respond as instead is you , absolutely , cardio is a key component to health-related fitness . You need it because if the heart's not strong , what are we worried about the rest of the muscles in the body ? But so I kind of leave it at that because I don't want to totally deter people from doing a certain amount of cardio .

Speaker 2 9:35

I think over the years we've seen a huge shift in people doing much more strength , strength building , not like the 80s right , right , everything was cardio , cardio , cardio , the aerobic scene , um but um , I think there's a shift , but that shift has become the extreme where people are not doing any cardio , they're just doing , you know , strength training . So or they try to combine how about , what's it ? What , uh , colin , what's it called ? When they try to do , uh , strength training to the extreme and thinking , thinking that they're getting their cardio in at that time ?

Speaker 3 10:14

it's called a waste of time .

Speaker 1 10:16

Oh well I just like rushed through the .

Speaker 2 10:19

Yeah , rushing through the workouts and stuff like that , because there's like a I mean crossfit and people like that .

Speaker 3 10:25

They're like one percenters , have the ability to turn a lot of like lifting weights into almost like cardiovascular efforts yeah , but like the weekend warriors and the people taking our classes are not those people . Like you need to go for a walk if you want cardio , not lift weights .

Speaker 1 10:39

Yeah , so right right , okay , so jumping to some specific demographics

Why Runners Need Strength Training

Speaker 1 10:50

um . Runners don't need to strength train and running uphill is considered strength training .

Speaker 3 11:02

Let me chat about this . Another one right . Um , yeah , yeah , it's been a post on this about climbing , because climbers I think all sports think they're special little unicorns and they're not . Um , there's a nuance to every sport . Like baseball , I have to take a round bat and hit a round ball and ping pong you have a small paddle and things moving fast . Fishing , you have to like , climb and use your fingers , but the sole fundamental is a human who needs muscle and strength and health and some endurance and some capacity to actually go practice their sport and then the nuance can take over .

Speaker 3 11:38

So swimmers have to go into water and climbers have to use their fingertips um , but to say that it doesn't look immediately like your sports or the shapes that you make during your sport , therefore it's useless , it's just silly . Um , and it's been a problem probably since the 60s and 70s and forever and it always will be .

Speaker 3 11:57

Um , but it was a good video I just posted about michael phelps doing like some sled pushes and like trx things and it wasn't swimming but it was still useful yeah , well , there's plenty of examples of that um , so that's that thing where strength training is just good for you just because and it's been studied where strength training if you want to speak a runner's language it helps with , like , their economy and they actually run more efficiently and it's helpful to yeah , run longer and further so I think a big thing with a lot of runners is that a lot of runners are scared to get hurt from strength training , but I think the thing that they don't realize is they're more likely to get hurt from not running .

Speaker 1 12:40

Yeah or not , or and not strength training yeah , yes yeah , the most dangerous thing you can do is run , and the most extra dangerous thing you can do is run and not live yeah , because you're like and not control your programming you're like forcing your body like thousands of reps on the pavement , like multiple times a week crazy well is there a product question uh , oh , hills , hills yeah yeah and uh , I think it's more resistive yeah , but it's still not strength training , so it's still fast and multiple reps yeah strength training is near ish 80 of that , 100 of their efforts in a movement or muscle , and if you're taking 10 , 12 , 15 steps in a hill , you're nowhere near your max right , just because I feel hard , you know , but that's just because of different types of consequences happening inside the muscles .

Speaker 3 13:37

That's getting you close to your fatigue , and anytime you're close to being tired , it's always going to feel hard but , it's not necessarily true . Restraint training , yeah , so it's like one click along the spectrum towards strength training , but still nowhere near yeah , and it is going to get you stronger . Running up a hill might make the definition of stronger running is not actually stronger right so really it's a language issue with runners it gets you better running up a hill . Yeah , that's what I meant , that's what I meant .

Speaker 1 14:03

Yes , it'll make you better running uphill might seem yeah that's what I meant . That's what I meant . Well , maybe better running uphill might seem easier than to run on a platform . Climbers have the same issue .

Speaker 3 14:09

They're like oh , I'm getting so much stronger at climbing . No , you're getting better . You're not getting stronger at climbing , you're just getting better . You want to stronger off the wall or off the track or off the trail . You can still suck at running . You can still suck at climbing . The better component is still really important to get better at .

Speaker 2 14:37

It's also a language issue .

Speaker 3 14:38

That's just a culture issue for all sports . Good thing no one says it's going to was stronger at baseball . It just doesn't work . I've never had that problem getting stronger at baseball .

Speaker 1 14:51

Yeah , it just sounds dumb , right yeah , yeah , exactly .

Speaker 3 14:55

But a stronger swimmer same thing , right , really . Getting stronger , like you're learning more , you're better at swimming , you're not strong .

Speaker 1 15:02

Swimming's not strength training , it's nowhere near strength training I feel like there could be some people that argue that like swimming is strength training because the water is resistant , but how resistant yeah , you're still doing it I know , I'm just playing , I'm just bringing down advocate . I feel like some people would say that I mean how many reps of swimming can you do ?

Speaker 3 15:19

If it's more than five strokes , it's not strength training Period .

Speaker 2 15:22

Done Mic drop yeah the buoyancy factor in there too , you're taking gravity away .

Speaker 3 15:28

Yeah right .

Speaker 2 15:29

You're taking away gravity , yeah .

Speaker 3 15:31

If you can do more than five reps of the thing , not strength training I'm just playing devil's advocate oh , no because people .

Speaker 1 15:37

What about , like the water , aerobics , things you ever see , like the foam dumbbells that people do ?

Speaker 3 15:41

it's like this training because it's resistance but it's not gonna like , maybe , to them relatively so . Water about just you know , for like your 70 , 80 year old people that can get away with things that are in their 30 or 40 percent of max kind of thing , um , synonymous with like a seven-year-old kid that's looking at a dumbbell for the first time , or someone who's taken 10 years off of lifting .

Speaker 3 16:05

Sure you can start somewhere , but after a while the experienced person needs to be , you know , 70 , 80% of the max , Otherwise the tissue is just not going to respond also there's research out there that shows that adaptation to water aerobics occurs very quickly .

Speaker 2 16:26

So what strength training is all about ? Adapting or overload ? Okay , so we adapt to that overload , we get stronger . We adapt to that overload , we get stronger . So what happens with water exercise is the adaptation happens very quickly and they plateau . Boom . Where do they go from there ? They plateau so there's no there's no progressive overload , you know . But again it's let's pop quiz the listeners .

Speaker 3 16:54

What would be progressive overload for swimming or swimming ? What would be pop quiz ? Here we go interesting no yeah all right , thank you as a listener and then I'm gonna hear my coaches see if they have a good answer . What would be progressive overload ?

Speaker 1 17:07

for actual swimming , like if you're a , if you're an old lady in the water .

Speaker 3 17:11

You're , like you know , doing jumping jacks and stuff and you're in the water . What would be progressive ?

Speaker 1 17:17

overload . We used to like dive down to the bottom of the pool and pick up cinder blocks and try to swim to the top .

Speaker 3 17:22

So yeah , some navy seals go over there . Yeah , sounds like water polo things . But like , even if you get , you can't use weights and there's no floaty . What would be a way to create more resistance ? I have an idea . Let's see if you can't use weights and there's no floaty , what would be a way to create more resistance ? I have an idea . I just want to see if you guys are thinking on my level .

Speaker 2 17:41

Okay , I don't think about that either .

Speaker 3 17:44

I think it would be like you change . You would have to put the pool of syrup , You'd have to change the actual density of the liquid around you .

Speaker 2 17:51

That's the only way . That's the chip , because water stays water .

Speaker 3 17:55

Yeah , that's why , from a 20-pound dumbbell , you can choose a 25 . Right , if you're always using water , you're only using water , gotcha . So if you want a Robux 4.0 , we're going to hop in the big thing of syrup and then you can do your Robux

Age Myths: Training for Kids and Seniors

Speaker 3 18:08

. That would be really hard , it would be exactly if anyone's thought of that .

Speaker 1 18:17

You get a free day pass at AFC . Okay , older adults shouldn't lift and kids shouldn't lift , or it stunts their growth yes , continue keeping the population fragile .

Speaker 3 18:30

That's beautiful . Dominate them .

Speaker 2 18:33

Joe Signorelli , I hope you're out there listening to this with all your research , you know , with all the older population , and basically came out with you're never too old , so yeah I like to say it there's no such thing like an old person exercise .

Speaker 3 18:49

There's no kid exercises . There's certain things that they might need a little more of or might be smart like a really young kid , could use some games to play while they're growing and developing , and plastic , and it helps them learn and enhance their motor control and blah , blah , blah . Um , the aging demographic will always ask for balance exercises . I'm still not solid on flexibility .

Speaker 3 19:15

Everyone needs that I just think the age old , uh you , you don't grow old and stop playing games , you stop playing games so you just need to move more and I think the balance comes back , the flexibility comes back and all this stuff really comes back . Now the timelines are a little different . I'm not expecting someone to get as strong as an 18 year old , fully hormoned um , but I'm not going to give them a different exercise . Everyone's going to deadlift , everyone's going to push , everyone's going to pull , everyone's going to jump to some extent . Everyone's going to pull a sled , even though some doctors in this area think pulling such a bad really who says that ?

Speaker 3 19:51

no , no , it was a doctor and a client . We had one time like oh my god he shouldn't push his leg . He's old . Yeah , we won't say names , it's the public podcast , but interesting . Yeah , people are dumb anyway okay , moving on oh yeah , the kids thing too . That's a big thing . There is no information that says kids are going to get hurt while lifting the only injuries that come from uh .

Speaker 3 20:15

Youth athletes getting hurt are when the environments are dirty , when the coaches don't know what they're doing or the kids are not emotionally prepared to handle the instruction , or jumping around the things throwing .

Speaker 1 20:26

That is literally all the information that comes from the injury research for athletes and the kids are more often to get hurt from the actual sport .

Speaker 3 20:33

Yeah , if you let your kids play sports , you are letting them do the most risky , dangerous thing possible especially like three or four different sports . And then it gets even worse when you're like , oh what , we have club baseball and then we gotta go to club lacrosse , and then we gotta go field hockey and then we gotta go practice , and then we gotta go like you're just ruining your kids , like you're just beating them into the ground and I totally agree with a multi-sport athlete when it comes to the learning process and development process , but you can't let the pendulum swing so far that the fact that they have no time to even sleep yeah , and then they're getting hurt .

Speaker 3 21:02

Yeah . And then strength training for the kids . Basically they say , as long as you just throw a dumbbell at them , they're going to reduce their injury rate by 50% . Like it doesn't even have to be a good program , as long as it's like heavy in there and whatever so yeah , that's a whole , whole can of worms okay , um , machines are useless compared to free weights .

Speaker 3 21:25

I used to be this person . I used to be heavier I know heavy on the functional training , because it's not functional that talk about the pendulum swinging too far I am . Now I'm perfectly in the middle and I'm perfect now .

Speaker 2 21:39

You are so perfect , I'm so perfect yeah .

Speaker 3 21:43

I think machines are awesome . I also think things not on machines are great . It's more about Sarah said a word adaptation . The adaptation matters the most , not necessarily the thing you use to do it . So if I want to get you strong and you play soccer and you use your legs in soccer and you need a quad , I want that to get strong . I can go on the leg press and you're just gonna get strong and then if I don't hurt you there and you don't get hurt in practice and you have enough time to actually practice and learn that leg press strength will show up in soccer , both for an injury prevention standpoint and , uh , even like kicking a ball harder and all that good stuff .

Speaker 1 22:22

But yeah , it doesn't have to again look like the sport and in fact it's probably a good idea to have a good chunk of their year doing things that don't look like the sport yeah , and I think they're really good for people that are new to the gym as well , because it keeps them in a safe and controlled environment to build up that strength to be more confident in lifting the free weights .

Speaker 2 22:47

I agree , it takes out the full body stabilization which they may not have , all that core strength , yeah just put them on a bozo ball , they'll get it back that's yes .

Speaker 1 22:59

Don't do that okay , um , how about you should max out

Machines, Maxing Out, and Common Misconceptions

Speaker 1 23:08

often ?

Speaker 3 23:08

so the people that go to the gym that like try to max out like every other day at the gym the bro-y style maxing out every day , I think , is kind of ridiculous , um , because it's not always about showing your max and testing all the time . It's about working sub-maximal , so close to it , but not like super hard , so you can actually grow and grow and grow and recover and grow and and all that , or develop and progress , but to max all the time is just to risk like injury .

Speaker 3 23:42

If you're doing it too often it adds more recovery need because it just takes a lot of time to do that and it's kind of stressful in the joints and you are not in a long term big picture progressive mindset . If you're doing that , you're there just to kind of test yourself all the time .

Speaker 1 24:01

It's just not necessarily the point . Yeah , how often should you be trying to max out , Like , how often do you think you should be testing your lifts ?

Speaker 3 24:11

I mean , if you're like a weekend warrior , healthy person , athlete , maybe like once a , maybe four times a year , you know , once a quarter . It's fun to see something reasonable , maybe like your three or five rep max test is . You know , we use all the force gauges and and technology here to do it isometrically so we can test out people how strong they are without actually inducing any risk for a complicated exercise . So we can test out people how strong they are without actually inducing any risk for a complicated exercise . So we can test them more frequently um .

Speaker 3 24:39

So it's not bad to test , that's not bad to go hard , but if it's like your every other day kind of thing , your body's eventually not going to like it yeah , yeah .

Speaker 2 24:49

Um muscle turns to fat if you stop lifting that's an 80s I was , and you'd be surprised at how many , how many people believe that first of all , we're talking two different cells yeah , and yeah , one a muscle cell , a fat cell . How are we going to change that cell from being one cell to the next ? The impossible not going to happen , uh , but what does .

Speaker 2 25:18

What happens , and you know , is people that stop lifting or working out in general , but do not change their eating habits will continue to eat whatever they want to eat . You know that it's all . It's all about movement . It's all about calorie expenditure and , and uh , muscle strength building . So , yeah , no false big . But for the people out there , god , I hope . I hope in this day and age , people are not believing .

Speaker 3 25:49

I feel like I've heard it not too long ago yeah , yeah , it might even be like when you look at at like a really old bodybuilder , I think sometimes too , like they basically expanded their skin to that of like a balloon and so when the muscle slowly goes away , you get like the droopy skin and they're they eat a little bit more cheesecake and have a little bit more beer now that they're not eating .

Speaker 1 26:17

And so they're like oh , where'd all that muscle go ? It must have turned to fat . No , it's just reduced in size and fat moved in .

Speaker 3 26:20

Fat moved in , but muscle does not physically shift its cellular biology to a fat cell .

Speaker 2 26:25

No , that's a good one .

Speaker 3 26:27

No , that doesn't .

Speaker 1 26:33

It's funny .

Speaker 3 26:36

Squats are bad for your knees and deadlifts are bad for your back . No , it's bad for your back sitting on the couch all day boom , not deadlifting and squatting boom .

Speaker 1 26:42

I guess I can be nicer about that um I think squats are bad for your knees if you do them poorly , yeah oh right there you go .

Speaker 3 26:52

It's like anything apart if you do it too much too soon , or ?

Speaker 3 26:56

if you go into a position that just puts a lot of stress on your body . So like uh , the one I guess I'll put on there . But like knees over your toes is bad kind of thing . When your knee goes over your toe it's just extra torquey and extra hard on the knee . Some people can really tolerate it if they have healthy knees or they've given themselves six months to work themselves up to it . But yeah , if I'm getting a brand new personal training client , I'm not gonna back squat them on day one , I'm not gonna let their knee go over their toe on day one , maybe day 90 , you know . It's more or less that kind of thing . And like a deadlift is a back exercise .

Speaker 3 27:27

I like , uh , someone put it , everyone loves when their abs hurt loves it , it's like fantastic , but as soon as someone's lower back muscles hurt , it's freaking muscle too , like it's all the same it's all the same like trunk right and that deadlift is a back exercise period if you put things on there that show your muscles on or off , very , very on , and so it's totally fine to do that .

Speaker 3 27:55

Now you don't want to be like whatever super , uh , rounding your back's fine , but like , not like using your back to do a weight that your legs are more capable of . Right , there's this unison , there's the synchrony with the exercise but yeah , it's totally fine to feel on your back .

Speaker 1 28:12

So deadlifts , you think they're more of a back exercise than a leg exercise .

Speaker 3 28:16

You could probably put them in like an equal category .

Speaker 1 28:18

Yeah .

Speaker 3 28:19

Because you got to bend over and if you're holding 600 pounds like 600 pounds is being held up by your back , it's being moved by your legs but it's being held by your back , so yeah , that's why people who are really big deadlifts .

Speaker 2 28:30

You see their backs like gorillas , yeah , oh yeah , you don fucking gorillas . Yeah , oh yeah , you don't see little back people dead lifting a lot .

Speaker 3 28:41

Let's put it that way , so it's okay for backers ?

Speaker 1 28:43

well , I question for you that soreness likely soreness well , yeah , if you're like you said , if you're lifting , like if you're 300 pounds . Of course , your back is going to be sore a little bit .

Speaker 3 28:50

The next day you shouldn't have a herniation right right okay , so .

Speaker 2 28:58

So tell me about this bit back again , and I go way back before you guys were born , um , but they used to . In the 80s , everything was like soft knee , soft knee , soft knee . You couldn't , you couldn't extend that through , that , that joint yeah , all right especially , especially when you're dead lifting , or you know so .

Speaker 2 29:21

Then , all of a sudden , the the question came out well , wait a minute , if you're forever in that position and protecting those knees by remaining soft , what about when we walk ? What about when we do anything and go into full extension ?

Speaker 3 29:35

right , yeah , you know it was probably one person with hypermobile knees that like exactly they got hurt and like oh my god , they're knee bent backwards , yeah , where most likely . Most people's anatomy is not going to allow that to happen yeah , um there's control through the range of motion . That's definitely important . You know , a little bend in any joint does allow the muscle and the tissue to help stabilize it better than if it's like fully locked out . But it doesn't mean the lockout's bad , it's just part of the gym , exactly , exactly good um heard that one the other day too .

Speaker 3 30:06

Someone on leg press was asking me like oh , I'm not supposed to lock out .

Speaker 1 30:10

Well , don't do it aggressively like don't be an idiot , but you know right , um , let's talk about stretching real quick

Stretching Myths and Injury Prevention

Speaker 1 30:19

. Um , you have to stretch before you lift or you have to stretch after you lift , like what ? Like stretching in general ?

Speaker 3 30:26

oh , a rabbit hole yeah , that's huge , just a one good statement of stretching from colin would be uh , you probably are more flexible than you think you are , because I get way too many people coming in thinking they have no range of motion and I can put their foot in their face . It's more like a sore fatigue feeling that they're feeling rather than a limited range of motion . I still think range of motion is important and stretching is useful . It's more or less an individual recommendation than a blanket statement .

Speaker 3 31:00

Um , sometimes , for most people , you can get away with what will keep you alive and give you quality of life by just going through some good full range of motion during your workout . Um , you don't need like a 30 minute dedicated stretch routine every single day . If you're an athlete or you have more range motion requirements like I'm a rock climber , I gotta do some crazy things . You know that's in my alley , to get a little better than there . But if you're someone that just wants some quality of life to go from the couch to the garden to play your kids and this and that you probably don't need to learn how to put your foot behind your head I .

Speaker 2 31:32

I think the noticeable thing that I have seen in the industry and I'm not sure if it was Tom Purvis , but I think it was Tom Purvis that came out with this is early in my fitness journey , everything was about you needed stretching for injury prevention . Constantly Stretching was the only means of injury prevention . If you didn't stretch , you were going to get injured . Well , that mess was busted . Was people used it as protection ?

Speaker 1 32:06

oh , my gosh , I gotta stretch .

Speaker 2 32:08

But then you still feel like that though people still believe that , especially runners they're like oh I got injured , oh , I didn't stretch yeah , that is just a fallacy , big fallacy , and I remember when that was talked about , a lot is like let's make sure we , as fitness professionals , are not using that as a crutch . Okay , you gotta stretch . Well , you're not going to get injured if you , if you keep stretching . You're not true ? Not true . You know it's necessary , but it's not the end all to protect you .

Speaker 3 32:39

That's not what protects you from injury right , no I agree , it's still , even like athletes , I would say I should probably be stretching more , like or not , you're probably fine . There's need to be strength training , I mean you know yeah have the range of motion you need and then make it strong .

Speaker 1 32:53

So yeah , that doesn't mean don't warm up . You can still do a dynamic warm up , but you don't need to be static stretching before a lift . That's not going to help you .

Speaker 2 33:04

Interesting point , I think . If I can remember correctly , I think that's when dynamic stretching really became popular . You know , it's like , okay , let's talk about this . Static stretching all of a sudden went away , you know , because that's what people thought . I had a static stretch for 15 seconds , 20 seconds , as injury prevention . Well then , dynamic stretching came about . So , yeah , good point .

Speaker 1 33:32

I remember when I played softball , our warm-up , like before , before we started throwing the ball around and stuff , what we did , we all gathered around a circle and we just did the , we counted out loud and then we did these , the arm stretches and then the quad stretches and stuff . That was our warm-up .

Speaker 3 33:53

We help a lot of teams make better warmups . Yeah , some of you can't do that , but you're missing the point of a good warmup if you only stretch .

Speaker 2 34:01

Right , right yeah .

Speaker 1 34:03

Good stuff ? All right , I think that is . I think we have everything that I have written down . We nailed everything . Anything to add on ?

Speaker 3 34:15

No , that'd be good , I think . If anyone wants to add or send us some specific questions , that would be fun . We kind of got these questions from the general infrastructure webs and things that we've heard in our gym a lot , but yeah , if you send us questions through our email or Instagram . So adelinesitnesscentercom , or what email works these days ? Which one ? The info and app , both of them work .

Speaker 2 34:43

All right , both of them work .

Speaker 3 34:44

Go to our website alliancefitnesscentercom .

Speaker 1 34:48

Just message us on Facebook .

Speaker 3 34:50

Yes , whatever Come knock on our door , absolutely .

Speaker 1 34:54

All right . Well , thank you guys . It's been fun . Thank you for having sarah on here . This was fun and we will catch you guys later .