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Soreness is good and scales are pointless: the 10 biggest myths in fitness
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Sore Is Not Always Good
While it feels satisfying to have sore, aching limbs, and a sign of a good workout. This is entirely unnecessary and one can eliminate the soreness by doing slow reps, or avoiding eccentric (muscle lengthening) movements that can cause muscle tears. Progress is possible without sore limbs.
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Heavy Lifting For Bulk
One can get stronger by increasing the size of the individual muscle fibers, and by recruiting more of the muscle fiber to work together when needed.
A bulky body is also considered a negative in certain sports. Getting bulky is a specific, targeted training which includes high-volume exercises, calorie intake, and protein supplements, and cannot be attained by simply lifting heavier weights.
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Using Scales
Scales are actually useful in providing you with information about your general progress and direction.
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Exercise Is Not Bad For Knees
This oft-repeated myth is often used as an excuse. Knees actually get better with properly done squats.
Running is also considered a great way to keep the knee stabilizer muscles in good shape and lower the risk of arthritis.
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Spot Reduction Of Fat
While it seems logical to target certain areas of the body, it is best to exercise in a holistic manner, not messing up with any particular areas of the body. You can’t really choose where you will lose fat from.
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Less Rest and Hard Work
While modern fitness classes detest rest, less of it between reps will, in fact, do the opposite: negate your hard work.
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Using Machines
Machines, though limiting your natural movement, are providing extra stimulus to an isolated, specific set of muscles.
Machines aren't counterproductive or dangerous, and simply need to be combined with free-body exercises.
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Myth 8: Cross Trainers= Best Cardio
While it does provide a designed body movement, there are many alternatives. Cross-trainers are popular as they are intuitive and do help burn some calories, but they aren’t the best.
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Shorter and Faster
Speed is sometimes the enemy in a workout and longer workouts have effects which short sprints or micro-workouts cannot compete with. Doing ‘flash’ workouts may be necessary sometimes due to time limitations, but that’s all the benefit there is.
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One Best Way To Train
Not all of us are created equal and have different energy levels, body type, and general physiology. An ideal physical activity should be something that doesn’t injure us, does not make us weary or sad or make us want to stop doing it.
So there isn’t any best way to train ourselves, just that we can do any physical activity that suits us.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Erasing bad eating with exercise
Your eating has to be in check. About 80% of what you look like is based on diet.
It’s a calorie game, people often overestimate the amount of food they burn in an hour-long sess...
Toning muscles
Your muscles are already toned or you wouldn’t be able to move around. They’re just not visible because of the layer of fat covering them.
Different exercises for men and women
Both sexes have the same body structure but different hormonal make-ups which may mean a difference in muscle strength but does not mean they should work out any differently.
“Men tend to focus on abs, chest and arms, and women tend to focus on gluts and legs,” Maik Wiedenbach notes. “They’re each forgetting one half of their bodies.”
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Calories In Calories Out Principle Is Out
This myth is usually followed with “X makes you fat, not calories”. That X is usually a macronutrient such as carbs or fat. Sometimes it’s a chemical found in the foods.
Eating Small Meals And High Metabolism
The rationale behind this myth is the fact that when you eat, your energy expenditure goes up during digestion.
The problem with this myth is that the amount of extra calories you burn during digestion is directly correlated with the calories you consume. That means eating ten 200 Calorie meals increase the metabolism at the same rate as eating two 1,000 Calorie meals.
Diet Sodas And Weight Gain
Although there are many potential health effects of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners, weight gain is not one of them. Your body can’t store fat out of nothing.
For some people, consuming certain beverages may trigger a craving for another food. If you know when you drink diet soda, you are going to crave some other food, avoid it.
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Ramp up slowly
If you did 3 short runs in your first week, you shouldn’t double that for week 2, even if you feel fine.
Progress takes more time than you think, because each body system adapts ...
A beginner routine should include:
- Most or all of your runs at a pace that feels comfortable, controlled, and conversational.
- Exercise that is not running, if you feel that the above isn’t enough for you: Cycling and other cross-training can work your lungs and muscles without putting too much strain on your tendons and ligaments.
- Strength training, to help everything get stronger and more adaptable.
The "too-much-too-soon" trap
It's usually not the shoes you're wearing, or your posture, but forcing yourself to accomplish too much from the very start that's causing you physical pain.
If you started running in the last few weeks or months and you get injured, you probably have nothing to blame but the fact that you’ve been doing too much, too soon.