I work with and train women every day and one thing is common among most: they all have preconceived notions about fitness that are usually skewed from reality. It's not their fault though, over the years women have been bombarded with so much about fitness and nutrition that it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Here are my top fitness myths that I feel need to be debunked.

Do crunches for flat, sexy abs
This is the area most women wish they could change, and it can be one of the more difficult areas to lose from. Despite all the hype with products and gadgets promising that if you 'rock back and forth for just five minutes day,' you will not lose weight in your midsection simply doing ab work. Why? Well, even if you develop amazing ab muscles doing all those crunches, if you haven't lost the layer of fat sitting on top, no one is going to be able to see them. In order to have a sleek, sexy tummy, you need to lose weight all over — there is no such thing as spot reduction. Combine strength training and interval/cardio work and you'll be well on your way.

Doing the same routine will yield the same results
Our bodies are extremely adaptable and are always changing to meet our demands. While this is good for some things, it also means that we need to change it up to keep seeing results fitness-wise. When you first begin something new like resistance training or running, your body isn't used to it and you expend a lot of energy completing these activities. Over time, your body adapts and becomes better at performing these movements and therefore is able to do the same amount of work while consuming less energy. Most people know this as 'plateauing.'

For instance, if you are just getting into weight training, you may find using 10-pound dumbbells to be a struggle to do overhead presses with, but over time you'll become better at the exercise and 10 pounds won't be so hard. Same thing goes with running: in the beginning, running 2 km might be a challenge, but soon 2 km feels like a breeze.

This means your body has learned and adapted to that weight/distance and it's time to challenge it again. You can do this by doing changing up the rep pattern or adding more weight in the gym and by running further or faster and changing things up outside or on the treadmill.

Lifting heavy weights will make me bulky
This is one I hear all the time. I'm not sure how or why this myth started, but it needs to stop. Lifting heavy weights and performing big movements like squatting, deadlifting and bench pressing will not make you look like Schwarzenegger. I don't think women realize how difficult it is to put on and maintain muscle the way that men and bodybuilders do. Women aren't built to naturally gain size the same way as men, and female bodybuilders have to work extremely hard and eat a certain way to look the way they do. Since I began lifting heavy four years ago, I have lost weight, leaned out and never looked better (just to give you an idea of what I mean, I'm 130 pounds and can deadlift over 270 pounds). Plus, lean muscle is something we should all want, as more muscle means a higher metabolism, which means I burn more calories sitting on my butt typing this out than someone who has less muscle mass.

It can be tough for women to navigate through the world of fitness and nutrition with all the crap out there, which is why I think it is important to set the record straight. If you have any fitness or nutrition questions, drop me an email: chelsey@powerhousetraining.ca.