Top 5 Workout Myths to Avoid

 © By Healthy Times Blog.

Exercise and working out are an important part of an healthy lifestyle. And of course, it causes a great deal of confusion as what sort of exercise is good for health, how much is too much and what exercise would suit my body and it’s weight-loss needs? So let’s debunk some exercise myths: 

Myth#1: Running a mile will burn more than walking a mile.If you are aiming for calorie-burning, it’s the distance, not the speed of you exercise, that determines the amount of calories you burn. You DO burn the same amount running a mile as just walking a mile. Yes, the heart will have to work at a higher rate when you run, which is good for a healthy heart, but if your goal is calorie loss, it doesn’t matter which one you do. But when you plan to lose fat, it is recommended that you walk. It’s good for fat burn because it takes around 20 minutes for your body to start utilizing the fat as an energy source and the lower heart rates allow your body to use energy systems that are more efficient when it comes to burning fat. If you are looking for more details, you should have an heart rate which is 55-60% of your maximum heart rate (220-(your age) = maximum heart rate) for a period of at least 30 minutes for just burning fat. 

Myth#2: I’m afraid that if I stop working out my muscles will turn into fat.
Really not true! Beacuse muscle can’t be converted to fat. If you stop working out, your muscle will lose it mass, bring your metabolism down, and in addition, if you continue to eat like you did while you were working out without burning those calories, you WILL get fat. It’s the lack of exercise and more calorie-intake, rather than some body transformation. 

Myth#3: I’m afraid weight training will make me put on too much muscle and “bulk me up.”A very common concern for women as they see women body-builder strutting their bulked up bodies at events and gyms. Again a myth. First of all, muscle hypertrophy (getting bigger muscles) is very difficult for women since they don’t have testes to produce testosterone, an anabolic hormone which is a leading hormone when it comes to muscle-building. Men produce 40-60 times more testosterone than women. So as a woman, your chances of getting big naturally (without taking steroids) are minimal coming from weight training. If you want that toned and lean look, most women strive for comes from having built some muscle on your frame. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolism gets (burning more fat doing nothing at all). So, if you still want to keep on doing your treadmills/bikes and cardio-burn classes without weight training, go for it! 

Myth#4: Less calories makes you lose weight, so eating less will make me lose weight and get lean.
There is an acute difference between losing weight and losing fat. Most of us focus on numbers (I have to weigh 140lbs in 3 weeks) and end up doing drastic exercises to achieve that. Believe it or not, such measure will make us lose those 5 pounds in 2 suffering-and-hunger-filled weeks! After that, we go back to eating normally again and end up putting on weight again and being fatter than before. Drastic diets put your body into starvation mode and it begins to use energy systems like gluconeogenesis, which breaks down amino acids from the muscles to turn it into energy so your body can function. This ends up in being starved, lost fat and a significant amount of body muscle too. So when you go back to a normal diet, you will start putting on more weight i.e. unwanted fat because of a lowered metabolic rate due to starvation. It has a few short term results, but very harmful in a long run. 

Myth#5: I need to get rid of this little pouch on my lower abs so I’ll do bunches of ab work for lower abs to get rid of it.
First of all, you can do crunches all day but yet you won’t get washboard abs. Yes, you’ll get strong abs, but the six-pack will not appear by doing just ab-exercises. To make the six-pack visible, you have to get rid of the subcutaneous fat (the fat underneath your skin on top of your muscles) to get that desired look. And to lose fat, a healthy mix of diet and cardio exercises is essential and not the machine you saw in the commercial. Also there is liposuction and expensive procedure only recommended in very unique and extreme situations.

Second, there is no such thing as working my lower abs, technically. The actual abs or the six-pack is one long muscle that starts at the pelvis and ends at rib #5-7. Like with all muscles in the body, you can’t contract 1 part of a muscle and not stimulate the whole thing; therefore your lower abs exercise with affect your entire abdomen. Genetics will determine the way your abs look, so you can’t change that 6 pack into a 8 pack, some people have 6, some have 8, it’s just the way nature made it.

Following a regular exercise pattern under a certifies trainer and proper diet will always yield the desired results. A standalone method of just dieting and or just exercising will not have much affect or may even cause bodily harm.