Don’t fall victim to bad advice and don’t believe everything that you hear, check out the following fitness myths and their truths below.
MYTH #1: The more time you spend in the gym, the better.
If you are going to the gym everyday with no rest days in between, you may be over-training. This over-training, especially if it’s the same exercises, could potentially lead to injuries. While it’s important to fit the gym in wherever you can, keep in mind that your muscles need to recover, and rebuild so that you can seen improvement.
Muscle Model champion and transformation trainer, Micah LaCerte, says when weight training, “you should be able to get in a gym – in and out – in 45 to 75 minutes max.” Pay attention to your muscles and don’t overstay your welcome in the gym (source)
MYTH #2: The more you sweat, the more calories you are burning.
We sweat to maintain internal body temperature and to cool our skin. There are many other factors that determine the amount of sweating we do. For instance, the weather is a huge factor in the amount of sweat we release. Unfortunately, the amount of sweating we do has nothing to do with how intense a workout we are getting. Sweating is also directly related to how hydrated you are. It can be a good indicator to tell if you’ve had enough water in the last couple of days.
MYTH #3: The number on the scale matters.
Weight gain and loss at the scale does not always mean that you are gaining and losing fat. Weighing yourself obsessively doesn’t help either. Make sure you are only weighing yourself once a week, at the most. Instead of relying solely on the scale for information about how you’re doing on your fitness journey, rely on how you are feeling and how your clothes are fitting. Obsessing over the number on the scale that seems to be staring back at you could sabotage your healthy habits. If you had a good week based on your food intake and amount of exercise you performed, let that be the judge of your success. Stay consistent with healthy habits and the scale will cooperate eventually. One of the BEST ways to gauge your fitness it to measure yourself. Since muscle weighs more then fat, the scale can be deceiving. use a measuring tape at least once every 3 weeks.
MYTH # 4: Women should not lift heavy weights.
If you’re a woman and you’re afraid of bulking up, don’t be afraid to lift. It’s easier for men to bulk up because of their higher levels of testosterone. Women have a much harder time adding large amounts of muscle to their frames. You also have to eat a lot of calories to build muscle. Hence, the reason men who are gaining muscle mass eat LOADS of calories. Control your calories and you won’t have to worry about the bulking factor.
Fitness Tips Weight training will actually help you burn fat, increase lean muscle mass, and burn calories. It’s also the best way to increase your resting metabolic rate. That’s the rate that your body burns calories while your resting. The more muscle you have, the more calories you can consume!
MYTH #5: The exercise forgiveness rule. If I exercise today I can eat whatever I want.
Nutrition is extremely important in seeing results. You can’t exercise away a bad diet. It takes a lot of effort to burn 500 calories, but if you’re scarfing down a piece of pizza with no nutritional value, you are essentially wasting that hour or so it took you to burn those 500 calories. Have you tried eating clean and training hard? If so, how did it work for you? Did you see results? On the flip-side, are you training hard and eating poorly and not seeing results? If you clean up your eating, you’ll be amazing at how fast you change, and how amazing you look!
Remember, use moderation when exercising so that your muscles can recover, don’t place too much emphasis on the scale, women can in fact lift heavy weights, and of course, clean eating with disciplined training will get you to your goals faster.
Christina
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