Fitness Myths vs Facts

Some myths which fooled the smartest exercisers.

Myth #1
More hours spent in the gym leads to better results.

In reality: If you think making the gym your second home is a great way to get results, think again. Overtraining is a sure fire way to stop any muscle growth — instead of your body rebuilding its muscle tissues, it will continue to break it down. This means you’ll actually start to lose muscle. You need to train smarter, not harder. When you are in the gym, give 110%. Push your muscles, and then give them the rest they need to grow bigger and stronger. Make sure to do cardio training. If your workouts are taking much longer than an hour, chances are you are either wasting too much time between sets, or you’re not training in the most effective manner.

Myth #2
Always work a muscle to failure.

In reality: While you may be tempted to push your body to the max during every single workout, this isn’t the best approach since it can lead to overtraining. You need to create a proper, moderated workout — have some hard days interspersed with some easier days that your body can use to recuperate. These “easy” days aren’t wasted workouts; they can be used to focus on other aspects of your training like muscle endurance by performing more reps with a lighter weight.

Myth #3
The more you sweat during exercise, the more fat you can lose.

In reality: The harder you work out, the more calories you’ll burn within a given period and thus the more fat you stand to lose. But how much you sweat does not necessarily reflect how hard you’re working. Some people tend to sweat profusely due to heavy body weight, poor conditioning, or heredity. And everyone sweats more in hot, dry weather or dense clothing than in cool, humid weather or porous clothing.

Exercising in extremely hot weather or in a plastic “weight loss” suit will indeed make you sweat heavily and lose weight immediately. But that lost weight is almost entirely water; the pounds will return when you replenish your fluids by drinking after the workout. Further, you could develop heat exhaustion if you push yourself too hard in extreme heat or in plastic clothes which prevent sweat from evaporating and, in turn, cooling you off.

Myth #4
Sports drinks can help you exercise more safely and effectively.

In reality: Sports drinks contain two main ingredients that are theoretically beneficial for exercisers: sodium, which helps the body retain water, and sugar, which the body burns for energy. But very few people exercise hard enough to sweat away much sodium or to use up their carbohydrate reserves, which the body converts to sugar. You’d have to jog for at least two hours, for example, before your carbohydrate stores would start to run low. So unless you’re doing a marathon or other exhaustive exercise, plain water is all you need.

Myth #5
Strength training won’t help you get thinner, since it burns few calories and adds pounds of muscle.

In reality: Strength training, using either weights, machines, or elastic bands, can substantially increase the number of calories you burn. A typical session, in which you rest briefly after each muscle-building maneuver, uses up calories at least as fast as walking does. Circuit training, in which you move quickly from one strengthening maneuver to the next, burns calories faster than walking does. And your body continues to burn calories for hours after either type of strength training. More important, the muscle you build consumes calories more rapidly, even when you’re not exercising.

Myth #6
When you stop exercising, your muscles turn to fat.

In reality: Just as fat can’t transform into muscle, muscle won’t transform into fat. Building muscle and losing body fat are two completely different processes and, while this can be done simultaneously, it is very rare. Most of the time, you need to focus on one objective before you can focus on another. This is so because, in order to gain muscle, you must consume more calories than you burn and, in order to lose body fat, you must burn more calories than you consume.

Lack of exercise does make the muscles shrink, reducing the body’s calorie-burning rate. The lack of activity itself further reduces the number of calories you burn. So people who stop working out are indeed in danger of getting flabby. But that doesn’t mean that muscle actually turns to fat – they’re totally different types of tissue. Nor does it mean you’re doomed to gain fat around the muscles after you stop exercising; you just need to cut back on the calories you consume. (Of course, the best way to stay slim is to eat a lean diet and continue to exercise regularly.)

Myth #7
Building muscles reduces flexibility.

In reality: If you strength train without moving your joints through their full range of motion, you can indeed lose flexibility. But strength training can actually improve flexibility if you do move your joints fully. Stretch after a muscle-building workout to help keep yourself limber.

Myth #8
Strength training tends to give women a bulky, masculine physique.

In reality: It’s very difficult for most women to build large muscles. That’s because women have relatively low levels of the hormone testosterone, which influences muscle growth. Both men and women can build firmer rather than bulkier muscles by working against lighter resistance more than 25 times rather than heavier resistance fewer times.

In reality: If you think making the gym your second home is a great way to get results, think again. Over training is a sure fire way to stop any muscle growth — instead of your body rebuilding its muscle tissues, it,ll continue to break it down.This means you’ll actually start to lose muscle. You need to train smarter, not harder. When you are in the gym, give 110%. Push your muscles, and then give them the rest they need to grow bigger and stronger. Make sure to do cardio training. If your workouts are taking much longer than an hour, chances are you are either wasting too much time between sets, or you’re not training in the most effective manner.