Workout and Exercise Myths – part 2

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Thanks for joining me for Part 2 of Workout and Exercise Myths!

Adding to part 1, here are some more workout and exercise myths that you should be aware of….

– Workout and exercise myth #1

If you focus your exercises on a particular body part, you will lose fat from that area.
Fact: Some people believe that if they workout and exercise one particular area, it will cause fat to be removed from that area. In the gym you often find men who store their fat in their abdomen, are on the ab machines and the women with larger thighs are on the hip machines for hours in hopes of ‘spot reducing’. However, while these abdominal and hip exercises can strengthen and tone the muscles of those regions, those muscles are actually located underneath the ‘subcutaneous’ (deep) layer of fat which means we must lose the excess fat that is covering up the muscles in order to discard that ‘flabby’ appearance. When you exercise, the areas where you will lose weight is determined by your genes.

Is it really worth my effort to workout and exercise?

– Workout and exercise myth #2
I’m not losing weight so there’s no point in exercising.
Fact: It’s not uncommon for people who don’t see immediate weight loss to consider giving up on their exercise routine. What we need to remember is that exercise gives us benefits that we mightn’t be able to see so obviously. By exercising we reduce our risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, we reduce our triglycerides levels and raise our HDL (good) cholesterol, and the psychological benefits have been proven to include both depression and anxiety relief. So even if weight loss is not occurring, remember that improvements are occurring internally.

– Workout and exercise myth #3

No pain, no gain!

Fact: Many people still believe that you have to work at a very high intensity in order to get health benefits from exercise. Moderate intensity exercise reduces your risk of dying just as much as high intensity exercise. Studies have found that women who regularly engaged in brisk walking reduced their risk of heart disease to the same degree as women who engaged in vigorous exercise.

– Workout and exercise myth #4

Muscle turns into fat when you stop working out.
Fact: Muscle and fat are two different tissues that cannot be converted from one to the other. If you stop exercising your muscle tissue will shrink, which means you may feel flabbier. Also, when muscles get smaller they do not need as many calories to function, which means your metabolism slows down, so if you eat the same amount of calories, you may gain body fat.

Does size matter when it comes to workout and exercise?

– Workout and exercise myth #5

A fat person can’t be fit also.
Fact: The assumption that all fat people are sedentary and unfit and at high risk of developing health-related diseases is simply not true.
Overweight and obese individuals who are fit, do not have elevated mortality rates. It has actually been shown that low fitness is as good a predictor of dying as other risk factors, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. Fitness is such an important predictor of mortality that it is essential to assess it as part of a person’s general health risks and medical check ups.

Source Info from: Liz Dene, BHMS

Happy training!!

Kim