Breaking Down The Myths In Fitness

Every single day I get questions from my readers and viewers on YouTube about fitness myths.  To be honest, I don’t even know how these myths got started, because some are plain ridiculous.  Let’s go over the most common questions I get and clear up some of the smoke.

Myth – Sweat Is Fat Crying 

Fact:  Sweat is you loosing water and by no means fat from your body.  As soon as you eat or drink after the workout, everything you just lost sweating will be right where it was before.  Some people make another mistake by exercising in special clothing to make them selves sweat even more, but this can be very dangerous.  By exercising this way you can get a heat injury because it prevents your sweat from evaporating and your body cannot control your interval temperature the right way.

Myth – Certain Exercises Will Lengthen The Legs

This is a question I’ve been getting way to often lately from my viewers on YouTube.  When I first got this question I thought it was a joke, but then I realized that these people were serious. They told me another trainer had recommended them some leg lengthening exercises.

Fact: To lengthen your legs with exercise is the same thing as wanting to grow a pair of wings with exercise.  There is no such exercise, because if there was then everyone on this planet would have long legs.  But seriously, your legs are bones and bones cannot be lengthened.  If you put on a pair of heels you can visually make your legs appear longer but it’s impossible to physically lengthen them, if you don’t want them to be broken and put into braces for months and months.

Myth – Burn Fat From The Sides Of Your Waist By Exercising Those Areas

Fact:  Our body works as one, our fat also melts as one from all parts.  We cannot spot reduce.  So many people keep asking me to show them exercises that will help them to get rid of fat on the sides of their waist.  Of course I can lay down and show you some exercises for your waist, but I would be lying if I told you that these exercises will help you to lose the fat in those areas.  In order to reduce fat from parts of your body you have to do strength training workouts that train all of the muscle groups, plus you have to combine strength training with proper amount of cardio and the right nutrition.

Myth – Not Eating And Lots Of Cardio Is The Key To Fat Loss

Fact : That cannot be further from the truth.  I think the reason so many people have such a hard time losing weight and keeping it off is because they believe the wrong things.  When you starve yourself and do a lot of cardio you lose muscle mass and muscle mass is what helps keeping your resting metabolic rate up.

Cardio: it's part of a bigger package.

And if you lose weight fast by starving yourself, as soon as you begin to eat normally again, you will gain all of the weight back.  The key to permanent fat loss is to think about what and how much you are eating, build some muscle and do cardio. There really are no shortcuts that work and through this longer way it’s a guaranteed success!

Myth – Muscles Turn To Fat If You Stop Exercising

Fact: – Muscles cannot turn to fat, they simply don’t have that ability because it’s a completely different tissue.  With muscles there is a rule – if you don’t use it, you lose it.  So if you stop exercising and you notice you have more fat than muscles it’s only because you are eating more, you are not exercising to expend that energy and your muscles are becoming smaller.

Myth – Losing Weight Is Very Hard

Fact: – Losing weight is actually not as hard as the reputation that it has.  Keeping the weight off is the hard part and that’s where you need to apply knowledge.  Most people who lose weight do it through crash dieting and excessive exercise, they also try to lose the weight too fast.  When we lose the weight too fast, we start a way of eating we won’t be able to keep up and that makes  it very easy to gain it all back.  The key to losing weight and keeping it of is doing it the right way, and that means doing it slowly and letting your body adjust.  If you think about it, it took you years to gain that weight, so you cannot possible lose it in just a few months.

Pictures courtesy of Tim Ebbs and Mike Baird.