Fitness Myths
5 Myths of fitness
1: The quick fix usually some form of meal replacement, pill or wonder supplement, how to lose X amount of pounds in just a few days/weeks. These people specifically prey on the vulnerable and try to exploit their fears and insecurities by hard sales tactics of these miracle products. They often run free fitness classes with no qualifications or experience and act more like drug dealers than fitness or health professionals. If in doubt, ask to see their qualifications and insurance.
Supplementation can be very useful if you train hard, but a good healthy diet is always the best place to start.
2: Money back guarantee This sounds like a really good idea what can be so bad about this. Well nothing really but the type of trainer who offers this knows that it's a con because any changes in eating or exercise will cause a loss of weight in the first 6 to 8 weeks. Also, they pick their clients to make sure they are not fit to start with, because the fatter and more unfit you are the easier it is to lose weight initially. After the initial phase of training the body says 'Hold on, whats happening?' and starts to try and protect its fat stores. This is why most people start to gain weight after the initial 6 to 8 weeks of diet or exercise, so they try and repeat what helped them to lose weight initially which now doesn't work. So if someone offers you a money back guarantee make sure it is good for 16, 24 even 52 weeks.
3: Get toned I'm sorry to tell you this but you can't get toned, you can burn fat and build muscle which will make you look good, but you either have muscles or you don't, you can't 'tone' it. Personal trainers who offer toning usually get the person to do high reps with very low weights, which neither builds muscle or burns fat. All this type of training does is make you really good at lifting light weights alot.
Research and basic anatomical knowledge implies that the notion of specific exercises to improve tone is unfounded. Exercises can aid fat loss or stimulate muscle hypertrophy, but cannot otherwise improve tone. The size of the muscle can change, as can the amount of fat covering the muscle, but the 'shape' cannot.
4: HIIT I love HIIT training and use it a lot, but a lot of fitness trainers forget what HIIT stands for, High Intensity Interval Training. The whole point of HIIT style training is to go all out and then recover and repeat. Most of the time people do circuit training instead of interval training,which is just cardio.
Tabatas are great fitness tool when done correctly, and are a fantastic fat burner especially when using sandbags, kettle bells, slam balls and sprints.
5: Lifting weights makes you bulky No eating too much & sitting on your arse makes you bulky, lifting weights makes you strong, builds muscle and burns fat.
If you lift weights you will not look like a bodybuilder unless you train, eat and supplement like a bodybuilder. Bodybuilders are some of the most dedicated athletes around, their training is extremely tough and intense. Lifting weights 2, 3 or even 4 times a week will not turn you into the hulk, unless you are genetically gifted to get that way.
The great thing about muscle is that it burns more fat even when you are doing nothing. So don't be afraid of grabbing a barbell and building some muscle.
