1. Strength training will make you slow and inflexible.
Herein lies a situation which again is dependent upon how training is implemented. I can attest (from my experiences in training when I was younger) that if you don’t implement mobility and corrective exercise as a part of your routine, your mobility will decrease and your chances of injury will increase. The same idea is applicable when saying that heavy strength training will make you slower. If speed and power are important components of your training, then you need to accommodate this. And in order to be powerful and explosive, there is something you need to consider: you need to be able to apply force. So getting stronger is absolutely a vital training component in a speed and power athlete. There are countless ways to do this in your training; again the important thing is understand the process and how all training modes will help you achieve your end goal. So while you can sit there and cite bodybuilders (particularly the ones that compete in heavier weight classes) who wouldn’t be able to run and move on a football field, remember that is NOT their goal in training
If you are worried about maintaining your movement while undergoing training the slow component of strength (i.e. lifting heavier weights), utilize mobility drills and corrective exercise prehab movements to prevent injuries.
2. If you want to lose weight, cardio is all you need.
I would think in the internet age that most people are probably past this one, but I will address it anyway because I know there are people out there that still believe this. I am also going to lump into this discussion all of the various types of group training “classes” that don’t include any significant level of resistance training into their workouts with the intent to “tone” muscles (For the record, there is not such thing as muscle tone in the way it is described by infomercials. Tone is a function of the central nervous systems in regards to muscle activity; the tone people are usually aiming to get through training involves having low body fat and MUSCLE MASS). Yes that is correct, you need muscle in order to have tone. How do you do this? Strength Training. Now this is not to say that some type of conditioning is not important. Everyone at some point in their training should do various types of cardiovascular/aerobic/anaerobic conditioning as a part of their exercise for overall health and well-being; and if you are an athlete, training these energy systems is all the more important in training for your sport.
In summary, if you want a complete exercise plan regardless of your fitness goals, strength training should be included.
If you get this and want to post a question on how to incorporate these variables in your training, post in the comments.
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