There are a lot of myths out there regarding the topics of nutrition, health and exercise. Well, we at Fitnacle don’t want you to fall prey to some of these misinformation. Therefore, here are 7 workout myths that are among the most commonly spewed about. Let’s dive right into it.
(1) EXERCISE TURNS FAT INTO MUSCLES
This one here is a very common statement that we hear from time to time again, well we’re here to tell you that this is simply NOT TRUE! Fat cells and skeletal muscle cells are different types of cells. Exercise cannot change the morphology and anatomy of a cell. Instead, strength training causes your muscle mass to grow hence increasing your metabolic rate. Therefore, this causes your fat to burn off!
(2) STATIC STRETCHING IS GOOD BEFORE A WORKOUT
This here is another big issue. This statement is FALSE. Multiple studies have shown that Dynamic Stretches are the way to go before doing any form of exercise. When doing Dynamic Stretches, your muscles will ‘warm up’ and this causes an increase in blood flow to those muscles. Based on said studies, Static Stretching actually increases the incidence of injuries. This is because it causes our muscles to ‘cool down’ and prevents us from having quick responses.
(3) ABDOMINAL CRUNCHES WILL MAKE YOU LOSE BELLY FAT
Sorry but this statement is FALSE as well. Why do we say this? That’s because you cannot really control which part of your body you would want to lose fat in. Losing fat has its own stages which will affect different parts of the body over a given period of time. Crunches will strengthen the abdominal muscles, which are located behind the abdominal fat. However, when you start losing your calories, along with your strengthened abdominal muscles, you will be able to see that 6 pack abs that you’ve been dreaming off.
(4) DOING CARDIOVASCULAR CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR DREAM BODY
This here is a bit of a tricky one but we will try our best to help you understand this concept. Cardiovascular exercises, or cardio as they call it, will help you shed off those excess calories and raises your metabolism. Now here’s the catch, just by doing cardio, even though your metabolism is raised, it comes to a halt once you stop. Therefore, your weight loss will come to a plateau. What helps you break that plateau is by doing strength/resistance training. This causes your muscles to grow and raises your metabolism EVEN AT REST! Therefore, we would recommend you to do BOTH!
(5) MORE IS ALWAYS BETTER
We live in this Dog-eat-Dog world, and this phrase always comes to mind where ‘the more the better’. Well this may apply for certain things, this certainly does not apply for working out. Doing less has its obvious issues, so does doing too much. This term is known as Overtraining. What Overtraining does is that it will cause either your performance to hit a plateau or decrease all together. One should be able to know what works best for you. Better to be safe than sorry!
(6) EXERCISE CAN ERASE A BAD DIET
This is a definite FALSE statement. Diet and nutrition play a much bigger role than exercise when it comes to weight control. All exercise does is increases your metabolism rate and expels calories from the body. This would wouldn’t really be effective if you are constantly stuffing your face and having a higher caloric intake than your calories expelled. Therefore, you would not have a caloric deficit, and we all know that a caloric deficit is the most crucial aspect when it comes to weight loss.
(7) YOU NEED TO TRAIN HOURS & HOURS IN THE GYM FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS
This is something we see on a regular basis. You may have this mentality and say “I spend 2 hours in the gym every day and yet I still see no results.” Well the first thing that you should ask yourself is, what did you do in the gym throughout the 2 hours that you were there? How long were your rest periods? What workouts have you done during that 2 hours? How many reps and sets? Technically what we’re trying to get at is ‘How effective is your time at the gym?’ The key point that we’re trying to make is to WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER. Utilize your time wisely and get the best out of each rep!
Now that these are out of your mind, Time to Shape Up and Be The Best Version of Yourself!