No Paperweights

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Maybe Your Pink Dumbbells Aren't Really Pink

As I've mentioned before, the inspiration for naming my blog and my fitness boot camp came from a great Bill Hartman blog post, which you can read here ==> Too Much Pink

Back when I named them, it was rare to see anything other than very light dumbbells that were pink- one, two, maybe three pounds, but that was about it.

Nowadays, although I still don't see many heavier dumbbells in pink, there are kettlebells...



sandbags...

weight plates...

etc. that could get you into serious shape if used properly.

So, it's important to understand that when people refer to "pink dumbbells", it's not about the actual color of the weight; it's more of a shorthand way of referring to light, non-challenging resistance.

Although I've never been to a gym that had 10-pound pink dumbbells, I'm sure they're out there. Let me say again that it's not about the actual color. It's not even about the specific number on the weight you use; it's about the workload on your muscles.

It's all relative. A 5-pound weight may be enough resistance for a beginner or on certain exercises. The point is to challenge your muscles. As a general guideline, use a resistance you can only perform 6-10 times. Contrary to the "light weight, high reps to tone" myth, doing 25 repetitions using 3 pounds is not an effective or efficient way to achieve the body you want.

When you can do 10 reps with good form, increase the weight slightly at the next workout (this is where Plate Mates come in super handy if you use metal dumbbells). As long as you can perform at least 6 reps with the higher weight while using correct form, you're good. Then, just continue to increase your reps as you're able, until you reach 10. Once you can do 10 reps, repeat the process. For best fat loss and strength results, you should always be striving to increase your reps or your resistance (always with good form, of course).

So, as long as the weights you use challenge your muscles, don't worry about what color they are. (The 1-pound dumbbells at Body & Soul Fitness are blue.)

You think anyone's going to tell this woman she's not working hard?

 
If you're seriously interested in dropping body fat, getting fit, and reshaping your body, check out Rachel Cosgrove's new book Drop Two Sizes: A Proven Plan to Ditch the Scale, Get the Body You Want & Wear the Clothes You Love!or Craig Ballantyne's TurbulenceTraining program.

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No More Pink Dumbbells

I recently came across the post below on the Fit Freshman blog.

Although there aren't a lot of posts there, much of the info is worthwhile.

No more pink dumbbells

I am about to go on a rant regarding how fat loss and weigh training is usually depicted to young women.

Fat loss follows a pretty simple formula, here goes.

1: Eat higher quality foods more often
2: Engage in moderate to high intensity conditioning a few times a week for at least 20 mins
3: Train with weights at least 3x a week with a focus on progressively increasing the resistance or intensity
4: Rest properly

Thats it.

Now if you have noticed , the majority of books, tapes and magazines have women doing the exact opposite. They recommend:

1: run or engage in low intensity cardio like jogging
2: Eat small portions of foods that will stop your fat loss like granola and yogurt
3: Train with weights a few times a week with (you guessed it) pink dumbbells
4: No mention of rest

Remember the body needs to be constantly challenged if it is going to change. Pink dumbbells are not a challenge.

That's all

Women Should Not Lift More Than 3 Lb. Dumbbells, Part 2

In my original post, which you can read here, I didn't mention the specific trainer, celebrity or even the show but everybody else on the internet has so it's no secret.

Apparently, I'm not the only person appalled at the advice that Gwyneth Paltrow's trainer gave during her taped segment on Oprah recently.

Check out the posts at Oprah's own message board which is filled with exercise aficionados and fitness pros alike taking swipes at the notion that woman should never lift more than 3 pound dumbbells. As many people pointed out, most women carry purses, grocery bags, children, etc. that all weigh more than 3 pounds.

Let's be clear here, sometimes 3 pounds is the right weight for starting out on certain exercises or for deconditioned folks or exercise newbies. However, saying that a woman should not increase her resistance above that is ridiculous.

Strength, fat loss and bone building all require the body to be challenged with more resistance as our bodies adapt.

You need weight bearing exercise to help prevent osteoporosis. And, how is doing hundreds of reps with a 3 pound dumbbell going to help you lift your child or grandchild, or help you get up if you fall.

"But, but...what about toning", I imagine some of you are thinking. Read this from Craig Ballantyne.

There are some knowledgeable trainers out there who believe that lower weights work better for women. Valerie Water's Red Carpet Ready is one such program. However, Valerie uses challenging bodyweight exercises, doesn't restrict women to 3 pound dumbbells, and doesn't expect her clients to work out for 2 hour sessions, 6 days a week in 80 degree heat. (Remember, we're not talking about getting in super shape for a role, this is Gwyneth's and supposedly Madonna's regular exercise schedule.)

Not to be totally negative, I do think Tracy's resistance band set-up at Gwyneth's house looked interesting and would be worth exploring more.

If you want to read what others are saying about this, check out the links below. Warning, although highly entertaining, some of the blogs contain course language so if you are easily offended stay away from the last two.

Clothes Make The Girl

Daily Spark

The Fitness Fixation

Boston Herald - Tony Gentlicore blog

I love this quote from Tony Gentlicore:

I’m pretty sure if she were still alive today, Susan B. Anthony would shit a pink dumbbell if she knew there were women still walking around with this “I’m a frail, delicate creature” mentality.

Amen, Tony.

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Women Should Not Lift More Than 3 Lb. Dumbbells

The name of this blog tells you that I totally disagree with that statement but I actually heard a celebrity trainer say that on T.V. recently. Unbelievable.

I'm not going to post the trainer's name or those of her star clients. I googled her and found her website but, not surprisingly, it listed absolutely no exercise credentials. Then again, maybe she has a degree or a certification and just didn't bother to mention it (although I did find multiple comments around the internet claiming that she had no certifications or degrees).

I'm also the first one to say that there are trainers out there with alphabet soup after their names who say / believe some pretty stupid stuff. So, I'm not automatically dismissing this trainer's opinion strictly due to her lack of formal education. I'm slamming it because it makes no sense.

So, what's her magic formula for a killer body?

Two-hour workouts 6 days a week doing hundreds of reps using no more than 3 pound dumbbells.

Are you kidding me?

1. Who has the time for this?

2. How incredibly monotonous to be performing moves over and over and over and over, all because of the irrational fear that actually challenging muscles with some decent resistance will "bulk."

I would think that even most celebrities have better things to do than spending 2 hours exercising every day. Oh, excuse me, it's not every day- it's "just" 6 days a week.

Many actors spend months at a time working 12 hours on a T.V. or movie set. Two-hour workouts are an incredibly inefficient use of time. They could use those wasted hours playing with their kids, enjoying a hobby, reading, visiting friends, or a million other things.

Any of my clients who could workout for 2 hours straight are not working hard enough. Period.

You want the kicker? During the clip, the celebrity said that because she carries her child around in her one arm that her trainer makes her exercise the other arm more because the arm that she carries the kid in is in better shape. Did you follow that run on sentence?

The arm that lifts and carries the obviously heavier than 3 pound child is in better shape than the other arm!

Can you say contradiction? Too bad it's lost on this fitness "guru" who's making a tidy sum bilking uninformed celebrities and other moneyed clients.

If you're in the Lancaster, PA area and looking to drop body fat, get stronger and improve your health, call Mickey at (717) 509-7777.

If you're not close by and you're not afraid of quick, challenging workouts, check out the programs listed below, all of which were designed by knowledgeable, reputable fitness pros.

Turbulence Training

7 Minute Muscle

Fighter Workouts for Fat Loss

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Should Men & Women Train Differently? by Mike Geary

I received this e-mail a few days ago and wanted to pass it on. It's a must read for women who are afraid of "bulking up" and for guys who think that 1-rep maxes are the way to build muscle.


Should Men & Women Train Differently? 
by Mike Geary

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in the fitness industry... So many men and women "think" they need to workout drastically different from one another.

For example, many women think they need to do 20 or 30 reps per set of every exercise with little pink 3 or 5 lb barbie weights, because if they actually lift heavier weights, they falsely believe they will "bulk up".

Also, many men think they need to do 1-rep maxes to build muscle... this is simply not true... overall training volume and a caloric surplus builds more muscle than does 1-rep maxes... although I'm not saying there isn't a time and place for 1-rep maxes.

One of my biggest frustrations over the years when I was training lots of females and I would show them the workout I wanted to take them through... they would say something like... "I don't want to do those exercises. That looks like a man's workout!"

And they would go back to their little pink 5 lb dumbbells and endless cardio routines and keep getting NO RESULTS at all for months or years.

However, the females I trained that were open-minded enough to trust me that if they used heavier weights they would not "bulk up" (as long as their caloric intake was in the correct range), always got tremendous results.

As a matter of fact, some of the leanest females I've trained over the years were the ones that actually trained with the heaviest weights. I had a few female athletes that could deadlift 175 lbs and they were VERY lean, and NOT overly-muscular. In fact, they had very feminine, but lean bodies.

They lifted HEAVY weights in relation to their size and they NEVER bulked up.

Another example is that the majority of females that I trained thought they couldn't use more than 5 or 8 lb dumbbells for an overhead dumbbell press or a dumbbell chest press. However, when they were open-minded enough to actually try to train their body under more resistance (and thereby create a REAL stimulis for change), most women were almost always able to press 20 or 30 lb dumbbells instead of the 5's or 8's they were used to using.

So my rant in this email is for us all to please stop with the insanity of thinking that we all need to train so radically different whether we're a man or a woman, but rather realize that we are all HUMAN BEINGS.

I don't care if you're a man or a woman... the laws of exercise physiology will always show that variations of squats, lunges, deadlifts, presses, and rows are some of the best exercises for humans, regardless of gender.

And this applies whether your goal is fat loss or muscle building!

Yes, even if your goal is just fat loss and not muscle building, you still need to train your body under progressively heavier resistance (relative to your current strength) to stimulate your body to actually want to change over time.

*Note - when I say "heavy training", I mean heavy resistance in relation to your individual strength level. For example, a heavy resistance in a particular exercise such as a deadlift or squat may be 300 lbs for one person, and only 60 or 70 lbs for another person. All that matters is if the weight that you use is challenging for you.

Now I will concede that I use slightly different styles of training whether the goal is fat loss or muscle building (notice I said different styles, not different exercises per se), but the bigger factor is actually your caloric balance...

Creating a caloric deficit for fat loss or creating a caloric surplus for muscle gain, while still training intensely for either goal.

So I say let's all stop training like men or training like women, and let's all start training like human beings in order to get RESULTS!

If you haven't already done so, you can gain access to my extremely effective training program for HUMANS for a special $4.95 trial offer at this page: http://truthaboutabs.com/trial-offer.html

And you will see why over 100,000 humans, both men and women, have gotten tremendous results by following this program.

Til next newsletter,
Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - http://TruthAboutAbs.com

PS - if you liked todays article, feel free to fwd this email on to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that would enjoy it.



If you're looking for gimmicks or a bunch of traditional ab exercises, skip Mike's program. If you're serious about getting 6-pack abs through good nutrition and challenging exercises, check it out.

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When Pink Dumbbells Aren't Pink Dumbbells

Today I happened upon a post on a weight loss forum regarding "pink dumbbells." The woman was questioning whether she was welcome on that forum because of the staunch beliefs of some of the members regarding weight training and ongoing, sarcastic comments about using pink dumbbells.

I can't speak specifically to the tone of that forum because I'd never visited there before and only read that particular thread, which I found totally by chance. And, although I certainly don't like people feeling demeaned in online forums, I have to say "Yea!" that more women are getting the message about how to get the best results from their strength training routines.

That being said, I was concerned that some of my readers may also be confused about the whole "No pink dumbbells" theme of this blog so I decided to explain the training philosophy a little more in depth.

When people refer to "pink dumbbells", it's not about the actual color of a dumbbell; it's more of a shorthand way of referring to light, non-challenging weight. In fact, the original poster was partially upset because, at her gym, the pink dumbbells were 10 pounds and she felt that she was being ridiculed even though she was using a weight that was challenging for her. (As the replies came in, she realized that was not the case.)

Although I've never been in a gym with 10-pound pink dumbbells (it's usually the 2 or 3 lb. home weights that are pink), let me say again that it's not about the actual color. It's not even about the actual weight you use; it's about the workload on your muscles.

It's all relative. A 5-pound weight may be enough resistance for a beginner or on certain exercises. The point is to challenge your muscles with a resistance that you can only perform 6-10 times. Contrary to the "light weight, high reps to tone" myth, doing 25 reps using 3 pounds is not an effective or efficient way to achieve the body you want.

When you can do 10 reps with good form, increase the weight slightly at the next workout (this is where Plate Mates come in super handy if you use metal dumbbells). As long as you can perform at least 6 reps with the higher weight while using correct form, you're good. Then, just continue to increase your reps as you're able until you reach 10. Once you can do 10 reps, repeat the process. For best fat loss and strength results, you should always be striving to increase your reps or your resistance (always with good form, of course).

So, as long as the weights you use challenge your muscles, don't worry about what color they are. (The 1-pound dumbbells at Body & Soul are blue.)

If you're seriously interested in dropping body fat, getting fit and reshaping your body check out The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess book or Craig Ballantyne's TurbulenceTraining program.

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