Q: Dude. Did you see Oprah today? Gwyneth Paltrow's trainer just said that no woman should ever use more than 3 lb weights. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! (video of Oprah segment)
A: I actually really enjoyed that clip! Maybe I've become a little too fascinated with celebrity fitness. :-)
I agree that no skinny woman who wants tiny Gwyneth arms should use more than 3-5 pounds. She maybe got a little carried away with saying NO woman should EVER lift more than 3 pounds (crimeny!), but if you're a lean actress trying to get rock solid but without Linda Hamilton striated delts and horseshoe triceps, that calls for absurdly low weight. Those women are already so lean that ANY added muscle is going to pop. Not a problem for the rest of us.
I've done my own experiment with backing off on the heavy weights. When I did Valerie Waters' Red Carpet Ready for 6 weeks, I used mostly 5 & 8 pound dumbbells for upper body and no weight for legs. It was challenging in a totally different sort of way, an owie gasping burning endurance sort of way. I did get smaller. My skinny jeans got noticeably looser in the thigh and butt when I quit using a 100 pound dumbbell for sumo squats (probably a big duh there).
BUT I missed feeling strong, so tiny actress arms are probably not in the cards for me. Still, I respect the amount of work it takes to get them. Turns out it requires a weird, painful and time consuming amount of effort to get perfectly "toned" arms with no size. Who knew?
I have become a little more attuned to the fact that you look how you train, and so you should adjust your volume and load accordingly. Don't train like a bodybuilder or power lifter if you don't want to look like a bodybuilder or power lifter. I happen to enjoy my smaller circumference thighs and looser jeans, so I don't intend to go back to heavy squats and deadlifts. I like fit arms, but I don't like big bodybuilding arms. So I won't be doing a bodybuilding training split or vast quantities of heavy isolation exercises anymore. I'm on a kettlebell kick lately because I love both the workouts and the look. It's wiry, springy, fit, and functional - strong but not big.
Personal preference is a huge part of it. I've removed the "women can't get too bulky" line from my vocabulary. What I consider small somebody else might consider huge. What somebody else considers bulky I might consider twiggy. A person's "look" or fitness ideal is such a personal thing. So, I've quit taunting the 3 pound weight girls. There is (sometimes) method to their madness. I've also quit questioning strong bodybuilding women because 1) they could snap my spine, and 2) if they like the way they look and the way they train, I should just shut up. LOL
Anyway! I've had a lot of caffeine today. Can you tell? Thanks for the video clip. I was totally completely fascinated with it even though I have no intention of doing the 3 pound dumbbell, skipping around the room, stretchy band workout. I hope to hell that show recorded on my DVR. I'll have to go look!
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