Tag: Myths
8 Bodybuilding Myths Those Are Total Bullshit
I believe that all the sports around us have their own supply of half-truths and useless lore that is passed on to the neonates as a heritage. But in my opinion, bodybuilding can be placed in a completely different contest where one is seen to waste the most of his time […]
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Busting Age-Old Fitness Myths (Long Overdue)
Fitness Myths That Need To Die
Myths have been around ever since Homo sapiens learned to communicate. While some folklore can kindle the human spirit and keep communities together, others can cause trouble. The role of myths in fitness circles is no different. Fitness myths can slow down progress, make you hit a plateau, and can even cause injuries.
Fitness myths have reached a stage where they have gained souvenir status and are passed from one generation to another. The unsuspecting fitness rookies fall for these shiny souvenirs and end up wasting a lot of time and energy following advice that does not work.
1. Rule #1 – No Pain, No Gain
Most people fail to differentiate between pain and pumps. Muscle pumps are great as they are a sign of muscles being flooded with lactic acid and blood. On the other hand, tendon, muscle, and joint pains signal that you’re doing something wrong.
An exercise should not hurt while you are doing it. If you ever feel like you’ll pop something during a workout, it is your body telling you to stop, and you better listen. In this instance, living by the Muhammad Ali quote “I only start counting when it starts hurting” can lead you to some serious damage.
2. Fasted Workouts Help Burn Fat Faster
If we got a dollar every time we heard this claim in the gym, we would be driving the Tesla truck by now. Many people assume working out on an empty stomach burns body fat as the body will utilize the stored fat as a source of energy.
But in reality, fasted training can be counterproductive. Studies have found that working out on an empty stomach can cause the body to break down muscle to burn glycogen as fuel.
Apart from this, working out on an empty stomach can negatively impact your performance. If you don’t have enough macros in your body, you’ll run out of gas before you can do anything meaningful during an intense workout.
3. If You Are Not Sore, You Are Not Training Hard Enough
Many people measure the effectiveness of their workouts by the degree of muscle soreness they experience over the next couple of days after a workout. These people try to train to failure in every workout and won’t leave the gym until they have a muscle-ripping pump.
You break down muscle tissues when you lift weights. Inflicting soreness-inducing damage on your muscles every time you train isn’t a good idea.
It is time you stop assessing your workout intensity through the severeness of your DOMS. Some people even use sweat as a yardstick. They will not consider a workout complete until they are drenched in sweat. Following a customized training plan is a better way of ensuring workout effectiveness. Put in the work and be patient. You can’t rush to your dream physique. Good things take time, and this is one of them.
4. Stretching Prevents Injury
Ask anyone trying to touch their toes before a workout why they are doing what they are doing, and they’ll probably tell you that stretching before a workout reduces the chances of an injury.
If research is to be believed, static stretching before a training session can cause an injury. A study at the University of Nevada found that static stretching can weaken your muscles by as much as 30 percent because they act like typical resistance exercises where you put your muscles under constant tension for the duration of a set.
You should, instead, focus on warm-ups that increase both body heat and blood flow to the muscles. Dynamic stretching is a better option for getting your body ready for your workouts. Dynamic warm-ups include aerobic activities that mimic the movements you would do in an exercise.
5. Resistance Training Can Make Women Look Masculine
Women getting masculine through weight training is one of the oldest myths that refuses to die. The origin of this myth is ambivalent, but there are two possible sources:
Insecure men who couldn’t see women getting stronger than them.
Petite and delicate are a couple of adjectives that are associated with an ideal woman. Women who lift weights contradict this image.
The truth is that the male hormone called testosterone is responsible for muscle gain in men. Women don’t produce testosterone in enough quantities as their male counterparts to get as big as them. On the other hand, lifting weights can help women tone their muscles. Something doing cardio alone can never do.
6. Isolation Exercises Are Safe
Compound (multi-joint) exercises have earned a bad name for being too risky. Newbies, the elderly, and people recovering from injuries are often asked to use machines. They are told that isolation (single-joint) exercises can’t cause injuries.
Most people assume that an exercise machine automatically puts their body in the correct position and helps them do the movement correctly with the right form. This assumption is only true if the machine is adjusted for your height and weight.
Since isolation exercises put all the tension on a single muscle, a small mistake while using heavier weights can cause an injury. In the case of compound exercises, supporting muscles step in and share the load when the going gets tough.
7. Crunches Can Help Burn Fat
Late-night infomercials have made people believe that they can spot-reduce their belly fat by using a particular ab machine or a sauna belt. The belief that you can reduce tummy fat by doing a few crunches comes from the same school of thought.
While performing crunches might help strengthen the muscles around your midsection and improve your posture, they don’t do much in reducing your overall body fat percentage.
Let’s talk numbers for a second. You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound of fat, and doing 50 odd crunches won’t come close to burning that much fat.
If spot reduction worked, we would be the first to tell you about it.
8. Lifting Weight Can Turn Fat Into Muscles
If you have been around the fitness scene long enough, chances are you know someone who is overweight but lifts more than most buff dudes in your gym and gulps down protein shakes by the gallons in hopes of turning his fat into muscles.
Muscles and fat are two different types of tissues in your body. One type of tissue cannot turn into another. Exercise solely can only improve your muscle tone. You need a personalized diet, training, and recovery program to undergo a successful transformation.
Did you believe any of these fitness myths? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
10 Fat Loss Myths That Are Ruining Your Health
Most people get a gym membership to lose weight but how many of these people do you think achieve their goal and how many end up falling for the fat loss myths? If you don’t want to look into the stats, just look around yourself and figure out how many of your friends and family joined a gym but soon gave up on their new year’s resolution.
Fat loss isn’t as hard as it is made out to be. Most people fail to shed the extra kilos because of the ill-advice they receive from the bros at the gym and the fat loss myths that surround the process.
The other thing about weight loss is that it is a process. You need to do a series of things right if you want to see progress. While many people get most of the things right, they mess up a few things which keep them from achieving their dream physique.
In this article, we will try to cover most of the aspects that play a role in helping you lose the spare tire. If you do nothing else but avoid falling for these fables, you’d be doing better than the average Joe at your gym.
Avoid These 10 Fat Loss Myths
Eliminate Fats & Carbs From Your Diet
When people start training, one of the first things they’re told is that fats and carbs are their enemies. Most noobs associate the macronutrient fats with the tire around their bellies and they make cutting fats out of their diets the sole mission of their lives.
Carbs are the second soft target. Don’t forget not all carbs and fats are created equal. Good fats and carbs are responsible for the health of your skin, nails, hair, joints, brain, energy levels, and overall proper functioning of the body.
Saunas Are Your Best Friend
Since sweating is related to fat burn, many people assume that sitting in a sauna for a few hours every week will help them trim down a few inches off the waistline. It is the reason you see overweight men socializing in saunas. After bars saunas are probably the second most favorite place for unfit men to hang out.
What you lose sweating your balls off in a steam room is not fat but water weight. Ever felt thirsty and dehydrated after a sauna? That’s because you got rid of a lot of the stored water in your body. Worst yet, the lost water weight will be added back as soon as you eat a salty meal or drink your favorite soda.
Fat Loss is Just a Matter of Few Weeks
People who start their weight loss journies overestimate what they can do in a short period of time and underestimate what they can achieve in the long run. Although some people narrow down the concept of weight loss to “calories in, calories out,” the truth is it is a little more complicated than that.
Each person has a different set of hormones, metabolism, environmental factors, and potential underlying health issues that could all play a role in how much weight you lose. A newbie should never give their weight loss process a deadline – unless they want to be disappointed.
You Can Target Fat Loss – Probably the Biggest Fat Loss Myth
Sport reduction remains to be one of the biggest fat loss myths. Some people join the gym with very specific demands. They either just want to lose their love handles or the cellulite on their thighs. The sad news is, no matter how much spot reduction is promoted and how many products for it are introduced, it’s never going to work.
You can lose overall weight and body fat by eating the right foods and following a diet plan but you can’t pick and choose the spots from where you want to lose weight first. So, get that sauna belt off off your underarms already.
Exercise Alone Can Save You
It’s common knowledge that you need to be moving and challenging your body to shed the excess fat. The problem here is that some people get over-dependent on exercise and forget the other things that go hand-in-hand with it.
While spending countless hours on the treadmill can make you feel like you’re making progress but the needle won’t budge in the right direction if you’re not eating the right diet or letting your body recover from your workouts.
Cut Everything You Can From Your Diet
Some people perceive switching to a low-calorie diet to be a quick method of losing weight. If you’re one of the people who prefer opting for the low-calorie crash diet, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Always remember that under-fueling is as risky as over-fueling.
Juice Cleanse is the Solution
One of the newest fads of the fitness industry is the juice cleanse. They are promoted as the perfect way to detox and lose weight quickly. Although the juice diet reduces your calorie intake drastically, it can spike your blood sugar levels as you’ll be consuming a lot of sugar. The sugar spike can lead you to gain weight which is the exact opposite of why you started the juice cleanse.
HIIT Are The Most Effective
Due to their effectiveness, HIIT workouts have gained a cult for themselves. But if your sole aim is to lose weight, doing only HIIT cardio isn’t a good idea. Adding lower-intensity workouts to your routine is as important as HIIT because they lower your body’s level of cortisol (a hormone responsible for making your body store fat) which is a big culprit in weight gain.
Cheat Days Are Okay
Most people like to have a cheat day in their schedule as they feel it helps them satiate their cravings and refuels their body with a boatload of carbs. Instead of scheduling cheat days, stick with cheat meals or small treats that don’t derail the progress you’ve made.
Once You Stop Training, You’ll Gain All The Weight Back
This is one of the biggest misconceptions amongst people who never join a gym. They think all their efforts will go in vain because all the weight they’ve lost will be back as soon as they stop working out.
Adding the weight back depends on factors like if you’ll go back to your old unhealthy lifestyle or if the weight you lost was water weight – in which case there’ll be high chances of adding it back. If the weight you lose is through the right means and process, you won’t be putting it back on unless you make some bad lifestyle choices.
Which myth did you fall prey to when you started training? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
Top 10 Things Every Woman Should Know About Strength Training
Women tend to keep a distance from the gym – especially the weights – because of the myths that have been pelted by broscientists for decades. Most of the ill-things that are said about women’s strength training are either incorrect or unproven.
Through this article, we want to put an end to the obnoxious myths and list a few benefits of strength training for women. You’ll surely be shocked – in a good way – to know some of the advantages of hitting the gym.
What All Should You Do?
If you want results, you should follow a structured plan that must include compound, isolation and isometric exercises. Sticking to one form of training will make you hit a plateau sooner or later.
You Won’t Become Manly
Most girls shy away from the weights because they have been told that it can make them look manly. Women don’t generate enough testosterone to build muscles like boys. Training with weights, on the other hand, will help you tone, sculpt and tighten your muscles.
Spot Reduction Doesn’t Work
If you always shake your head unapprovingly while watching ads about sauna fat reduction belts but go to the gym and solely rely on crunches to lose belly fat, you’re in the same boat with the people who buy spot reduction products. Spot reduction is a myth. If you want to shed weight, you’ll be better of doing HIIT cardio.
Lifting Weights is Not Necessary
Many people have the misconception that strength training can’t be done without lifting weights. Lifting weights is a small part of resistance training. If you don’t like to pump iron, you could use resistance bands, medicine balls, do bodyweight exercises, etc.
You Don’t Have To Train Every Day
A busy schedule and the inability to hit the gym every day shouldn’t stop you from starting your transformation. Design your workout program around your hectic schedule and not the other way around.
What Should Be Your Intensity?
Many people are confused about the weights they should be lifting, the number of reps they should be doing and the amount of time they should be spending in the gym. There is no short answer to this question. Your intensity will depend on your goals and current experience level.
A beginner who wants a chiseled physique should be spending at most an hour in the gym, doing 12-15 reps per set and using moderate weights. A pro should be spending the same amount of time in the gym as the beginner, lifting heavier weights and doing a lesser number of reps.
How To Get Better?
Like other things, you can only get better at fitness by putting in the time. Malcolm Gladwell, an award-winning writer, thinks that you need to dedicate 10,000 hours to a subject to achieve mastery. We’re sure you can transform your physique by putting in a fraction of this time.
You Won’t Gain Weight After Quitting
Some people believe that once you quit working out, you go back to your old self. They use this myth as an excuse to never start working out. While you might lose your peak conditioning after you quit training, you won’t go back to ground zero if you control your diet and engage in some kind of physical activity.
One Fitness Plan Works For Everyone
Googling “the best fitness program for beginners” is the first thing most of the noobs do when they start their fitness journey. Remember – there is no one-program-fits-all solution for physical transformations. For desired results, design a fitness program that suits your lifestyle and schedule.
Consistency is Key
Discipline and consistency are the names of the game when it comes to fitness. If you can’t stick to a diet, training or recovery program, you should never start a transformation program in the first place. Save yourself the time, energy and money.
How often do you work out? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.