With all the health and fitness misinformation we’re exposed to on a daily basis, there’s no shortage of health and fitness myths that are completely inaccurate. Time to bust some of this misinformation.
Fitness Myth 1: Lifting weights will make me look like a man.
Weightlifting can increase your level of fitness, tone muscle, add muscle where you want it, but if you are not a man you will not become a man.
Women typically have less muscle tissue and produce lower levels of testosterone than men, and will NOT become manly when lifting weights.
Fitness Myth 2: Cardio is One of the Best Types of Exercise to Burn Fat
Conventional cardio, such as jogging, is not all it’s been cracked up to be. You can improve your health and increase fat burning by making slight modifications to your cardio routine.
Traditional cardio only works on the slow twitch muscle fibers, completely ignoring super-fast twitch fibers. The best way to include both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers in a workout is by interval cardio training. Interval cardio exercises are done when you raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery period.
Researchers have found that interval cardio produces a unique metabolic response that is in large part responsible for its superior benefits. Intermittent sprinting produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines, which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin and within your muscles.
Fitness Myth 3: Myth: The more you sweat, the more you burn.
Fact: Sweating like a pig after a workout? Sweating in buckets does NOT mean you have burned more calories than someone who is mildly sweating.
Sweating is a biological response that cools your skin and regulates internal body temperature and in many cases can just be the result of the weather, a hot space, your personal physiology as it is a grueling workout.
Fitness Myth 4: Situps are the key to flat abs.
Situps may be the most iconic abdominal exercise around, but doing situps are NOT the best way to having flat abs. The best way get a flat stomach is burning more calories than you are eating and eating small, healthy low fat, lean protein meals.
Fitness Myth 5: More time in the gym time is better for your health
Challenging your body with progressive resistance is healthy. Increasing time in the gym can do that - but not always. many people spend TOO much time in the gym, increasing the risk of overtraining and an increase in hormones that are NOT conducive to health. Keep your workout effecient, challenging and varied to get the most out of your workout while minimizing the risk of overtraining and injuries.
Fitness Myth 6 : Stretching helps your body recover faster.
A recent University of Milan study on the effects of post workout recovery methods found no significant changes in blood lactate levels (a measure of how fatigued your muscles are) in people who stretch after training.
Do not give up on stretching however. While stretching may not speed recovery, post workout stretching still has certain benefits: it can reduce post muscle soreness and can have positive benefits on joint flexibility if done while your body is still warm.
Bottom Line
There can be good fitness information on the web. The key is finding it.
The best way to get good information on fitness is to go to a trusted source.
Also when in doubt, get your information from multiple sources before you make up your mind as to what is fact and what is fancy.
About the Author Jeff Behar
Jeff Behar, MS, MBA is a well-known author, champion natural bodybuilder, and a recognized health, fitness and nutrition expert with over 30 years of experience in the health, fitness, disease prevention, nutrition, and anti-aging fields. As a recognized health, fitness and nutrition expert, Jeff Behar? has been featured on several radio shows, TV, and in several popular bodybuilding publications such as Flex, Ironman and in several highly regarded peer reviewed scientific journals. Jeff Behar is also the CEO and founder www.MuscleMagFitness.com and www.MyBesthealthPortal.com.
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— Last Edited by Jeff Behar, MS, MBA, CIH at 2015-06-04 11:19:16 —
