A lot of misinformation gets floated around the gym. Everyone seems to fancy themselves a weightlifting, fitness guru, when many of their so-called facts are not quite as tight as the shirts on their backs.

This makes it difficult to recognize the myths from the truths about free weight workouts. To ensure you have only got the right information and are not being misled by some of these common misconceptions, here are 5 popular myths about resistance training with free weights.

Lifting heavier weights is the best strategy to achieve big gains.

Researchers at McMaster University performed a study that pitted lifting less weight more times against few reps at more weight. They discovered that the real key to muscle gain is exercising to the point of muscle fatigue.

In other words, as long as you are putting in an honest workout and pushing your body, you will see muscle gain, no matter what weight strategy you are using.

Lifting weights causes women to gain a big, muscular physique.

The biochemistry of men and women is different. Yet, many women avoid free weight workouts because they are afraid of bulking up. This will not happen, unless you are also consuming a lot of calories.

The female body doesn’t have the high levels of testosterone that males do, which allow them to really bulk up. Weightlifting for women creates a leaner physique and can boost your metabolism to make fat burning even easier.

Weight machines are better than free weights.

This myth stems from the idea that this equipment is specially designed and made to provide perfect workouts or movements every time. These machines are great at isolating and training small groups of muscles.

However, traditional free weight workouts have been shown to target a greater number of muscles and even promote better strength gains. A study by the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada, compared the effects of free weight squats against Smith machine squats and found that free weights caused as much as 43% more activity in certain muscle groups.

You should only workout one group of muscles a day.

Spend any amount of time at your local gym and you will eventually hear someone announce that today is shoulder, legs, chest, back, etc. day. This mentality has a lot of people adopting this strategy and only focusing on one part of the body a day. This is not an inherently bad method because muscles do need at least a day to rest, so this ensures that they get that day off.

However, if you are just casually training and not someone who is dedicated to lifting every day, this strategy may not be that beneficial. Instead of focusing on one group, compound multiple muscle groups into one day. Free weight exercises like squats or deadlifts are great for this.

If you stop lifting free weights, the muscle gained will turn to fat.

This is an easy myth to debunk simply because fat and muscle are two completely different things. There is no magical transformation that occurs as punishment for stopping your routine workouts. The muscle definition you gained from working out will start to diminish and you won’t have such a lean physique anymore, but a muscle to fat conversion does not cause that.

About Phil Slater

Phil Slater is a blogger, nutrition expert and fitness enthusiast who writes about all things relating to health and fitness. Over the years, Phil has helped many of his personal coaching clients live happier lives by helping them achieve their fitness goals.