There are many dangerous myths about fitness and dieting you need to avoid. Some of the most common can cause severe injury and decrease the effectiveness of your workout.
Myth 1: You Can Target Fat Loss
Some charlatan or ill-informed trainer might tell you that you can lose thigh fat by working only on your legs. This is entirely false. Your body doesn’t engage fat that way. For example, suppose you focus on running to decrease your waist or thighs. Fat is burned evenly from all areas of your body at a consistent rate, even though you are moving your legs the most. Additionally, focusing on just one part can cause strain to the point of injury. If this happens, you can get help with physiotherapy at www.kubemedical.co.uk/physiotherapy to treat strain.
Myth 2: Pain Means It’s Working
When you work your muscles, you put them through intense stress. And while you should feel discomfort, you should not feel pain. Following a workout, you should have tension, tenderness and maybe some aching. And you can remedy any of these with a post-workout stretch and OTC hot and cold relief. Pain when working out means something is wrong. If you feel pain when exercising, you should stop immediately and address the issue. See a pharmacist about OTC remedies, or see your doctor if the pain continues to cause problems.
Myth 3: Common Myths About Fitness and Diet
There is much confusion around what you eat and your overall fitness. For instance, some diet myths include eating lots of vegetables to lose weight. Which doesn’t work since they are full of carbs, which they will use for energy rather than fat. Here are some more common myths:
- FALSE: Skipping meals reduces your weight.
- FALSE: Only strenuous exercises help burn fat.
- FALSE: Low-fat foods are healthier options.
You need a specific amount of calories and nutrients for a healthy body. Reducing these will cause you to eat sugary foods for energy. With the right diet, such as keto-carnivore, walking is all you need. And low-fat foods often contain higher sugar and salt to improve the flavour.
Myth 4: Don’t Stretch Before Lifting Weights
There is some contention around stretching. Stretching is helpful to increase blood flow, and loosen tendons and ligaments, so they don’t get pulled. And for mental preparation. However, influencers and ill-informed experts have spread the myth you shouldn’t stretch before lifting weights so that your muscles stay tighter. But it’s guaranteed you will strain a muscle if you begin lifting weights without stretching beforehand. This is because your muscles will not have had a chance to increase their range of motion. And you could also cause long-term joint pain.
Myth 5: You Need at Least One Hour of Exercise
A typical gym-goer will spend between 45 and 90 minutes per session. However, studies have shown that between 15 and 30 minutes are enough to have a significantly positive impact on your fitness. You should be aware that it’s quality, not quantity, that determines a good workout. You can get a good workout in a relatively short space of time with a well-planned routine, rather than running for two hours. For example, a recent study by The British Journal of Sports Medicine found that short yet intense exercises were better at burning fat and building strength.
Summary
Some dangerous myths about fitness can be extremely harmful. Some examples include targeting fat loss, many dietary myths and that you should work out for at least one hour.
