This list exposes all the facts and myths about strength training. We will be adding more information to this page over-time, also feel free to reply with suggestions as well, this is where we expose the truth on strength training!

1. Quality not quantity! All factors considered, the “quality” of the strength-training exercise you perform is much more important than the “quantity” of time you spend strength training. If it wasn’t, the person who spent the most time in the weight room would always be the strongest — which is often not the case.
2. Eliminate competitive training. Although having small competitions with your friends at the gym may be fun, do not take it too far! Strength training should not be a contest — against anyone else or yourself. If you focus on the competitive aspects of how much you lift, you increase your risk of either being injured or getting discouraged with the results of your efforts. The guiding principle to which you should prescribe is “to do your best and leave the rest.”
3. Stop falling. Proper strength training can induce improvements in both muscular strength and balance, thereby helping prevent the falls that cause a substantial number of the fractures from which the elderly suffer.
4. It will hit you later. By the age of 65, individuals who haven’t engaged in exercise on a regular basis may incur a decrease in their muscular strength level by as much as 80 percent.
5. Everyone is different. How much an individual can lift is influenced by at least seven factors: strength-training program intensity, predominant muscle fiber type, hormonal levels, body proportions, tendon insertion points, muscle-tendon ratios and neurological efficiency
6. Work it! Most experts agree that based upon the limited data available, proper strength training poses little risk to either the mother or her developing fetus. As a matter of fact, strength training may be very beneficial for a pregnant woman (i.e., provide her with the muscular fitness required to compensate for the postural adjustments that typically occur during pregnancy).
7. Combination is the key. The optimal exercise program for controlling your weight is one that combines aerobic conditioning and strength training. Such a prescription allows you to expend a relatively large number of calories, while simultaneously preserving or increasing your level of lean muscle mass — the tissue that has the highest resting metabolic (calorie burning) rate.
8. Understand your training purpose. The basic methods of strength training are generally grouped into five classifications: isometric (you contract your muscle, but the involved joints don’t move); isotonic (the amount of external resistance does not vary while you are exercising); eccentric-only (exercise involving muscular contractions in which the muscle only lengthens); isokinetic (exercise which involves a constant state of speed of movement); and variable resistance (exercise in which the resistance accommodates to the strength curve of the muscle being stressed).
9. Every muscle is unique. No two muscles in your body have exactly the same function. When any one muscle is paralyzed, either stability of the (body) part is impaired or some specific movement is lost.
10. When protein gets bad. Extra protein will not enhance your efforts to build larger muscles. Your body is unable to store extra protein. If you consume protein in excess of your caloric and protein needs, any extra protein will either by excreted or converted and stored as fat.
11. Stronger bones, fewer fractures. Strength training can have a positive effect on osteoporosis. Load-bearing exercise, performed over an extended period of time, increases bone density. The pressure applied to bones as the result of gravity, muscular contractions and the demands of resistance exercise encourages calcium to deposit in bones.
12. When we are the strongest. Maximum strength of men and women is generally achieved between the ages of 20 and 30 years.
13. Proper strength training increases flexibility. Proper strength training will not make you muscle bound. Muscle bound is a term which connotes a lack of flexibility. If you lift weights through a muscle’s full range of motion, not only will you become more flexible, you’ll be as flexible as genetically possible.
14. Looking good! Strength training cannot produce spot reductions in areas of your body. Strength training, however, can firm and help reshape different muscles and areas of your body to elicit a more fit look.
15. Proper breathing is essential. Breathing properly is a basic safety consideration while strength training. A fundamental precept to which you should always adhere is to never hold your breath while strength training. Holding your breath results in a potentially dangerous buildup of intra-thoracic pressure. This pressure (inside your rib cage) compresses the right side of your heart, which in turn restricts the flow of blood and oxygen to your entire body.
16. Balance you muscles. Your strength-training program should emphasize muscle balance. In your body, you have muscles that oppose each other (e.g., your quadriceps muscles are opposed by your hamstring muscles). These muscles have a proportional strength relationship between them. If one is much stronger than the other, you run the risk of injuring the weaker muscle, as well as overworking the former.
17. Push it!. In order for improvement to occur in your strength level, you must place a demand on your muscular system. No demand, no improvement.
18. Do not over-train. Part of the “art” of prescribing strength fitness exercise is the ability to design your program in such a manner that it provides a sufficient training stimulus to induce positive physiological changes without exceeding your body’s capacity to safely adapt to that stimulus. In other words, you need to achieve an appropriate balance between training and recovery.
19. Find a workout buddy. Individuals who strength train with a partner tend to achieve better results. A training partner can help ensure that you perform each exercise correctly and that you exert a more intense effort.
20. You won’t get ‘big and bulky’ like a body builder. Many people, especially women are fearful of looking like a body builder if they do weight training. Unless you are doing hours and hours of training, eating a very high protein, high energy diet, and probably taking anabolic steroids, you won’t get a physique like a body builder. If you do two or three strength training sessions a week you will probably see some increase in muscle size and you will look more ‘toned’. Females especially won’t ‘bulk up’ as they have less testosterone than men.