FITNESS MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

• Lifting Weights Will Make You Bulky

This myth is largely held by women who do not want to lose their feminine appeal and appearance. They do anything to avoid lifting weights. Like every other fallacy, this myth has thrived for years. It is important to note that women won’t bulk up by lifting weights; rather they’ll get more toned and lean muscle, because they have a different hormone profile. You need enough testosterone to get bulky, and men are the possessors of this hormone. Even as a man, it takes an insane amount of work, time, resources and expertise to gain muscle mass. Lifting weights is good for everyone. It’ll improve your bone density, aid in losing body fat, improve your flexibility and mobility and make you feel strong and confident.

• What I Eat Don’t Matter As Long As I Workout

Diet and nutrition plays a larger role in weight management and looking fit. If we split nutrition and exercise into a percentage of hundred, the result will be; diet 70%- exercise 30%. Some food help to prevent you from a lot of diseases that workout can’t help with, such as cancer. If you want an overall healthy lifestyle for your body, you need to take what you eat seriously, in correlation with your workout routines.

• Spend More Hours In The Gym For Better Effect

Spending more hours in the gym, does not guarantee that you’ll make visible progress. The aim is to work smarter, not longer. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym to achieve your fitness goals. 3 days a week, 45min- 1hr workout schedule with appropriate workout routine and form is enough to keep you fit and healthy, except you want to be a body builder or fitness influencer. Rest in between workout days, are very vital to achieve your fitness goal. It is on your rest days that your muscles get the opportunity to repair and grow from the previous day’s work out. Give your body appropriate time to heal and repair for better progress.

• Scales Don’t Lie

One question you would likely get asked all the time as a fitness instructor is, “WHY IS MY BODYWEIGHT NOT GOING DOWN ON THE SCALE, I DO EVERYTHING RIGHT?”. Using the scale as your one and only way to measure your fat loss progress is like fitting a square peg into a hole. You might be losing weight, while the scale does not pick your progress because you are experiencing what is called body recomposition. Body recomposition is simply the process of losing fat while gaining muscle. If your workout routine comprises of strength trainings, this is usually the case. Some other ways you can weigh to know that you are actually losing weight, is to check how comfortable your previously tight clothes fit, and how much your body measurements vary from before. Two people might weigh 70kg, but one has more body fat than the other, and struggles to comfortably wear clothes that the other wears with ease. Scales don’t tell everything.

• Do More Cardio For Weight Loss

The incorporation of cardio into your training routines certainly helps in fat loss, but it’s not the most effective way to lose body fat. Cardio helps you burn fat while you are on the move or engaging in the exercise. But strength trainings, helps you burn fat even while you’re resting, because your muscle is trying to adjust after your workout; hence still working the body even at rest. The best way to lose fat sustainably and effectively is by incorporating strength trainings and cardio in your weekly work out routine.

• No Pain No Gain

After workout, muscle soreness is a fairly normal experience for fitness beginners, within the first 3- 4weeks of beginning their fitness journey. Every time we move from one stage to another on progressive overload, it is okay to experience that pain stage again; because we employ our muscle to take on a new level of task than it is used to. But a constant nagging pain every time we carry out an exercise routine might be a thing of concern and should be given appropriate attention. If it has become a normal experience, to feel burning pain after every workout, it is likely that you have an injury or you over work your global muscles (quad, biceps) all the time. Pay attention to your body, pain is one way it communicates to you.

• Some Workout Target Belly Fat

The body can not be told how and where to shed fat from. When you lose weight, you’re unable to choose the part of the body the loss occurs. During workout, the body uses up energy stored as carbohydrate (sugar) and then begins to convert body fat for more energy when the carbohydrate level depletes. The body chooses where best to convert the fat from and redistributes fat from other areas as it sees fit. Workouts like crunches, does not burn belly fat; they only strengthen your core muscles. Energy used in the process, is what facilitates the burn of fats for more energy production.

• More Squats Equals Bigger Bum

The bum area is a muscle group, and like every other muscle group, it needs the right balance of healthy nutrient to facilitate its growth. Diets high in protein and healthy fat with vitamin supplements, are a must if you want to grow bigger bum. Squat exercises are simply a follow up to help strengthen and tone your bum as they grow bigger from the effect of your balanced dieting.

• Penis Shrink/Growth

There is a popular myth that says, body builders have smaller penis, and anyone who is about to embark on a fitness journey should be aware. The penis stops growing at a certain age and cannot grow or reduce after that age. However there are activities that can cause temporary shrinking or erection of the penis. For example, getting into a cold bath can cause the penis and sac to shrink, and there are some workout routines that has exactly the same effect on the penis too. But these are temporary effect.  Also, exercises do not increase penis size, but some certain routines improves blood flow to the penile area, making the penis look more firm and elongated on erection.

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