6 Things Beginners Believe About Fitness

Often beginners make the decision of getting fitter a lot harder than it needs to be. Not to mention they also make it way more expensive than necessary. Let’s look at six misconceptions about fitness too many people believe in.

1. You Need Equipment To Get Fit

Home workout stations, weights, stationary bikes, ellipticals – you name it. It’s almost as we have been conditioned into believing that the act of getting fit requires, well, stuff. Try Wolf’s basically equipment-free vacation workout and tell me how exhausted you were afterwards.

2. You Need To Have A Lot Of Time

Working out is only a substitute for doing the things we used to do, before cars, elevators, remote controls, telephones and all the rest spared us the trouble. You can get a lot of fitness done while doing the stuff you do anyway.

3. You Need A Gym To Work Out

Related to #1: your body doesn’t care where it gets its workouts. It is happy to move wherever you do it and gets stronger from working against whatever you use, even if it’s a water bottle filled with sand.

4. You Need Supplements

Protein powders, multivitamins, post-workout shakes, energy packs – one wonders how mankind ever survived this long without all these little helpers. All you need is a balanced diet and if you don’t have any deficiencies, you are getting it.

5. You Need To Exercise Often To Benefit

No, actually you already benefit if you just walked 15 minutes per day. Of course, you will reap bigger effects the more you do, but you certainly aren’t required to become Olympics material just to become a bit healther.

6. You Don’t Need Exercise If You Are Thin

Being thin doesn’t equal being healthy. It is not as bad as being overweight, but a thin inactive person can actually be less healthy than a slightly overweight person that exercises.

Picture courtesy of Jorge Mejía Peralta.