13 Common Myths About Exercise

It’s list time. How many of these exercise myths do you believe?

Exercise Myths

1. Sit-ups will help you lost fat around your stomach.

• You lose body fat all over your body, not just in one spot. Doing only sit-ups will give you strong muscles under layers of fat.

2. Out of shape or old people lack energy to exercise.

• Regular exercise like joggling actually increases your energy. If you haven’t worked-out in a while, start slowly and steadily work to higher fitness goals.

3. Exercise turns fat into muscle.

• Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. They will not magically change into one another. When you exercise you burn fat and tone your muscle. The fact that it happens at the same time probably led to this myth.

4. If you exercise and don’t lose weight you’re doing something wrong.

• Actually, you might initially start to gain weight. You burn fat but build muscle which is more dense than fat. If you aren’t losing weight and you’re exercising then you are probably gaining muscle. Keep at it and your weight will go down too.

5. Weight training will make you muscle-bound.

• Not unless you try to look this way. Reasonable weight training will help tone and strengthen your muscles. This makes it easier to burn fat.

6. Eat more protein to increase muscle mass.

• Not really. You probably eat more protein than you need already. In fact, forget about supplements. They don’t really help and they could actually be harming your kidneys.

7. It’s best to exercise in the morning.

• Time of day doesn’t matter when it comes to exercising. The only thing to consider is that if you exercise just before going to bed, it might make it harder to get to sleep.

8. Stretching after exercise can prevent muscle soreness.

• No, it won’t. Stretching has flexibility and other benefits but reducing muscle soreness is not one of them.

9. People with high blood pressure shouldn’t lift weights.

• As long as it’s not done excessively people with high blood pressure can lift weights. Make sure you breath properly which means exhaling when you lift and inhaling when you are resting. Of course, you should see a doctor before beginning a weight-lifting program.

10. You need extra salt after sweating heavily.

• No. You would have to perspire more than a gallon and a half of water just to lose the amount of salt you normally eat in a day. That would be over 13 pounds of sweat!

11. Exercise machines are better than free weights.

• Both can be effective. It just depends on how well you use them.

12. Exercise is dangerous.

• Not really. No matter how poor of shape you are in, as long as you start out slow and don’t overexert yourself, you can avoid injury. A gradual increase in intensity is key.

13. No pain, no gain.

• It makes for a cute rhyme but it’s not true. Stop exercising if you feel serious discomfort or injury. At times running will be painful but that’s just the price you pay to be a world-famous juggling runner or to keep a joggling streak alive.