Myths Busted!
3rd November 2021
The most common fitness myths busted by Funmumsfitness.
Myth #1– No pain, no gain
A littlemuscle soreness is normal, butintense or lingering pain is asign you’ve done too much. Take a break and scale back your time and intensity.
Myth #2 – Lifting Weights Makes Women Bulky
By lifting more weight, females don’t have the testosterone to support serious muscle mass growth. Now, eating 10,000 calories a day and performing intense strength training workouts will bulk a female up, but that should be avoidable.
People also commonly think the average female doesn’t need to lift heavy weight, but then you see them trying to haul 50-pound bags of dog food in one hand and a full-sized child in the other. Lifting heavy will benefit women in many areas of their lives.
Myth #3 – Crunches will melt your belly and give you six-pack abs
You won’t see your ab muscles (they’re there) until you lose your belly fat. The best way to do that is by eating a healthy diet and reducing or eliminating sugar from the foods you eat.
Myth #4 – Walking or running on a treadmill is just as effective as walking outside
Not true. Outdoors, your body must deal with wind resistance, hills and uneven terrain, which engage your muscles, requiring more energy. Studies show you burn about 10 percent more calories by walking or running outside than you would on a treadmill. You can mimic an outdoor walk or run on a treadmill and burn more calories by increasing the grade of the treadmill surface and picking up the pace.
Myth #5 – You can target fat burn to a specific part of your body
You can’t control where you lose body fat during exercise.If you want to target belly fat, combine exercise with a diet plan that includes foods rich in protein and fiber (whole grains and vegetables) and cuts back on processed foods and fast-burning carbohydrates.
Myth #6 – Go hard or go home!
If this is your kind of thinking, you’ll never start or maintain an exercise programme. There’s overwhelming evidence from research that you should rather do something than nothing, and that every little bit helps. For example, regular walking or gardening for as little as an hour a week has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Myth #7 – If you’re not drenched in sweat, you’re not working hard enough
The harder you work out, the more calories you’ll burn within a given period and thus the more fat you stand to lose, but how much you sweat doesn’t necessarily reflect how hard you’re working. Your sweat rate is related to your body weight, your genetic makeup and external factors such as environmental conditions and clothing.
Myth #8 – Doing more cardio means you’ll lose more weight
A lot of people think that because they burn more calories during a 45-minute cardio session than in a 45-minute lifting session, they should just continue to do cardio because that will give them a maximum calorie burn. What they’re not factoring in, though, is the ” excess post-exercise oxygen consumption” (EPOC), which is the concept of continuing to burn calories after the exercise is done.
Not only does lifting weights build muscle and help you retain it as you lose fat, but it helps you continue to burn calories long after your workouts are over.
Myth #9 – The more you exercise, the more weight you will lose
Surprisingly, more exercise is not always better when the goal is weight loss. Your body needs time and rest to recover so if you are constantly breaking down your muscles, you are never giving them time to repair.
Too much exercise can lead to overtraining, which can make weight loss harder. Our body produces a hormone called cortisol when it feels stress, (flight or fight response). But too much exercise can lead to extra cortisol production, which, in turn, causes you to eat more and sleep less, sinking your weight-loss efforts.
Myth #10 – You should make up for indulgent meals with exercise
If you’ve ever been tempted to “work off” a big meal, you’re not alone. This strategy is both unhelpful and ineffective. A typical, intense, 1-hour workout burns 300–500 calories, We all know it’s very easy to consume well over 500 calories in an indulgence.
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