Fake news. Alternative Facts. They’re both all the rage at the moment and, well, they have been since the Internet first made wriggled its way into our everyday lives. This includes the exercise arena. We know, it sucks, and the reason it sucks is because getting in shape, losing weight, bulking up or preparing for a competition requires a serious amount of effort and knowledge that transcends simply lifting weights.
You need to know your routine is fits your goals, your diet isn’t hindering your progress and you’re not going so hard that you have to go home and stay home. Unfortunately, every other fitness fact seems to be an invalid truth. What’s worse, though, is they have been circulating for so long and get spoken with such confidence that we don’t realise they are lies.
So, to set the record straight once and for all (it probably won’t be once and for all but it is worth a try), we have pulled together a list of fitness myths that you need to look dead in the eye and crush. Rid these misconceptions from your vocabulary and you’ll get fitter, stronger and leaner, and you’ll do so quicker.
You need to know your routine is fits your goals, your diet isn’t hindering your progress and you’re not going so hard that you have to go home and stay home. Unfortunately, every other fitness fact seems to be an invalid truth. What’s worse, though, is they have been circulating for so long and get spoken with such confidence that we don’t realise they are lies.
So, to set the record straight once and for all (it probably won’t be once and for all but it is worth a try), we have pulled together a list of fitness myths that you need to look dead in the eye and crush. Rid these misconceptions from your vocabulary and you’ll get fitter, stronger and leaner, and you’ll do so quicker.
1. You Can Choose Where To Lose Weight
Lie. This is a total lie. Spot-training, or whatever you want to call it, is not a real thing. It is something some blogger somewhere once made up and, for some unknown reason, people ran with it. The reason it is a lie is because fat-cells build up evenly across your entire body. Have you ever seen anyone with just a fat neck or fat forearms because they forget to exercise those areas? No. If you want to lose fat in a specific area then you need to lose fat everywhere.
2. Cardio Is The Best Way To Shed Pounds
Sure, it is a good weapon to have in your arsenal, but is it the best? No. The only way to lose weight is to ensure you create a calorie deficit from day-to-day and maintain that over the long-term, which cardio doesn’t achieve by itself. Instead, you need to bring cardio training, high-intensity training and strength training together in holy matrimony, and then sprinkle a great diet on top of it all. That’s how to effectively shed the pounds.
3. Caffeine Is A Good Natural Stimulant
If you’re a believer in loading up on caffeine before you hit a high-intensity workout then we have some bad news for you; it just isn’t doing you any good. There are some caffeine pre-workout supplements that you can start using instead, such as Kaged Muscle Citrulline, but caffeine should be ruled out. It is bad for your blood-pressure, heaps on calories, can become addictive and, even if you have managed to avoid all of this, your body gets used to it very quickly, making it pointless. So, yeah, maybe start looking at alternatives, like now, right now.
4. Sweating Is A Sign Of A Good Workout
Well, no. Not necessarily. Sweating is a sign that your core temperature has gone up, which has just as much to do with temperature you’re working out in as it does with the heat created by your muscles. For example, you’re going to sweat a whole bunch more if you are working out in 32 degrees Celsius than you will if you’re working out in 16 degrees. The other thing that could be tricking you into believing that you have just blitzed the world’s most strenuous workout is the humidity. This is what stops your sweat from evaporating (that’s what cools you down), which means you will feel as if you are sweating even more than you actually are and that will raise your core temperature even more. Trickery.
5. Crunches Are The Best Ab Exercises
Look, crunches aren’t bad for your abs - they’re certainly going to help a little - but they are a long, long way from being the best exercise you can do to toughen up your core and have you looking like the next big Instagram-fitness-model-thingy. The reason why they aren’t the GOAT is because your abs are designed to be most engaged during exercises where you are stood upright. That’s how to really engage your midsection and see results because your core is constantly engaged. We’re talking about standing exercises like the core stabilizer, reverse dumbbell chop, standing up oblique bends and the dreaded warrior balance. Of course, it is going to be super-effective if you add this to an ab workout that includes planking and whatever else, just make sure you highlight the need to add standing workouts into your regime.
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