Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Why You’ve Gotta Lift Weights ...............................................................
In This Chapter
Understanding five major reasons to lift weights
Busting some weight-lifting myths
Assessing your chances of looking like Jackie Chan or Demi Moore
M
aybe you’ve never considered yourself the weight-lifting type. Maybe
you suspect that the size of one’s muscles is inversely proportional to
the size of one’s brain. Maybe when you see a hulking guy on the street, you
think, “He may be able to bench-press my minivan, but I can read a menu in
French.”The truth is, weight lifting is an incredibly smart thing to do. It’s not just a
form of narcissism, and it’s not just for body builders. Heck, these days, even
80-year-olds are pumping iron. In this chapter, we explain why you should,
too. We also dispel popular weight-training myths and tell you what kind of
results you can reasonably expect. If you think lifting weight seems too boring,
too dangerous, too troublesome, or too likely to transform you into Hulk
Hogan, we hope this chapter changes your mind.First, a quick note: Throughout this book, we use the terms weight lifting,
weight training,and strength traininginterchangeably, even though you don’t
necessarily need weight to build strength. Resistance trainingmeans the same
thing, but we spare you that bit of verbiage.Five Important Reasons to Pick Up a Dumbbell ......................................
People who start lifting weights regularly will tell you how much more fit,
powerful, and energetic they feel... but enough about feelings. There’s plenty
of good, solid evidence that strength training does all that and more. We bet
that at least one of the following reasons will get you to hoist some iron.