Stay Away From Heavy Weights

[Kathy G]

Coo-coo....crazy! I don't do any of Ellen's workouts and after that nonsense, I'm going to continue not doing them, lol.

[Calistro]

I have a few of Ellen's workouts which I use from time to time and I don't mean to be offensive to Ellen but I sometimes think her background exercisers have better form and posture than she does.
I am not sure what it is, but something about her form during the workouts do not sit well with me but I try to ignore it.

Though I must say when I bought Natalie Spadaccino's dvds I tried one and it was great! I thought to myself that Natalie's workout is what Ellen's should have been as she has better form.

Also If I really paid attention to Ellen's theories on weight training, I would be out of a job.

[Sara1000]

There is some wisdom in the article: be careful of your ligaments because IF you injure one it will take a long time to heal and can cause pain for years to come. I have had this experience from lifting too heavy, that is, I increased my weights faster than I should have.

Probably when she recommends a five pound limit she is thinking of her own workouts, which contain mostly shoulder work done pretty fast.

Anyway, be careful of your joints and ligaments.

[eyefit]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

My cat weighs at least 10 lbs and she does get shoulder pressed from time to time. If you weigh 100 lbs and do push-ups, you are lifting at least a quarter of your body weight. That's definitely more than using 5 lb weights.

Exactly! Why do those who are SO set against lifting weights not understand the concept that when you lift your own body weight you are still "lifting heavy". For goodness sake, unless you weigh next to nothing, body weight exercises are putting the same (or MORE) resistance on your muscles, joints and tendons then lifting a dumbbell.

Originally Posted by Sollamyn

I'm no Ellen fan but, to be fair, she does warn against "repeatedly" lifting heavy weight. Lifting kids and grocery bags and handbags probably aren't considered as weight lifting, as in repeatedly lifting weights for several reps/sets.

Yes but therein lies the problem with her theories. Strengthening your muscles actually protects your joints, ligaments and tendons. If you build a base of muscle strength you will be much less likely to rupture or tear a tendon or ligament when you DO go to lift your kids, grocery bags or 20 lb cat. The force and pressure is absorbed into your muscle, not your joints. Hence you are protecting your future self from injury. I know so many women who hurt their backs, shoulders, rotator cuffs, knees etc because they went to do something that should be relatively simple (like lifting their kid) but since they didn't have the muscle strength all that weight they were lifting strained some other connective tissue.

Originally Posted by Chomper

I think it's rich that she is claiming to be so concerned about muscle balance. What I remember of her DVDs, they were very imbalanced. No posterior chain work at all. It is my impression that that is the biggest cause of injury from muscle imbalances. Maybe any physical therapists here can chime in?

Exactly. It isn't easy to build any serious strength in the posterior chain using body weight only exercise. Unless you have a pull up bar or suspension trainer, which many people don't have. It certainly doesn't exist in Ellen's workouts.

One thing I find hilarious about Ellen...well two things, is that:

1. She doesn't allow any comments on her blog. It's easy to spout nonsense you can't back up if you are talking into a vacuum and not allowing any response to your statements.

2. She doesn't bother to support her claims with a SINGLE link to any supporting research. Anyone can say anything. I can say the grass is blue and the sky is green if I want to, but that doesn't make it true. If you are going to make such a bold and absolutist statement, you better be prepared to back it up with some valid research articles and links.

Speaking of, how about these:

http://stretchcoach.com/articles/strength-training/

http://www.uihealthcare.org/content.aspx?id=22991

http://www.muscleforlife.com/weightl...oint-problems/

https://www.acsm.org/docs/current-comments/rtandip.pdf

[little bird]

Originally Posted by Sara1000

There is some wisdom in the article: be careful of your ligaments because IF you injure one it will take a long time to heal and can cause pain for years to come. I have had this experience from lifting too heavy, that is, I increased my weights faster than I should have.
Probably when she recommends a five pound limit she is thinking of her own workouts, which contain mostly shoulder work done pretty fast.

Anyway, be careful of your joints and ligaments.

I did this too, advancing weights too rapidly with the Firm. It took several years for it to heal completely. I just realized about a month ago that it didn't bother me anymore.

[Vintage VFer]

Some funny comments in this thread!

I tried a few of Ellen's workouts and didn't like them.

Some instructors need to shut up and just do the workouts.

[AZY]

Isn't this a Tracy Anderson axiom as well, except that she recommends no more than 3 lbs?

[glamgal]

Originally Posted by Sara1000

There is some wisdom in the article: be careful of your ligaments because IF you injure one it will take a long time to heal and can cause pain for years to come. I have had this experience from lifting too heavy, that is, I increased my weights faster than I should have.

Probably when she recommends a five pound limit she is thinking of her own workouts, which contain mostly shoulder work done pretty fast.

Anyway, be careful of your joints and ligaments.

This is the reason that Classical Stretch / Essentrics does not implement even light weights with their routines. Lots of joint work and they don't want you loading / adding stress to the joint.

[TinierTina]

I am in no condition to be lifting weights of any seriousness.
But quite a few dancer/instructors swear by them. And I follow those ...

http://www.dancefitnesswithjessica.c...f21fee13b44b46

To be sure, it's those circuit-training-inspired light numbers, but it's still (to me) serious weights ...

[CoolGirlinFl888]

Well there is the lady that was doing 3 hours of just cardio a day then upped it to 4 hours a day 4 days a week, two hours a day on Friday, two hours a day on Saturday and one hour a day on sunday and was trying to figure out how to break out of that size 16 dress and get to the Promised Land dress size of 14. After 7 months of just cardio, she was still a size 16, just a smaller one but still a size 16 nonetheless. Then she got up to a size 18 due to depression of thinking she was never going to get there then she started lifting weights and in 5 months was a size 12 from a size 18! She got to the Promised Land plus some! Who was that anyway? Oh wait! That was me. Then there is the nearly 70 year old lady that got taken off of her osteoporosis medication because she started lifting weights. She got up to 10 lbs dumb bells then 15 and her doctor said your bones are strong enough. No more medicine and this is years after being a slave to those pills. Just sayin'.