- Make It Yourself Lavender Heart-Shaped Bath Bombs!
- 20 Things You Never Knew About “Down There”
- 12 Best Foods For Those Suffering From Arthritis Pain
- 12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)
- 15 Medicinal Plants And Herbs From The Cherokee People
- 12 Mind-Blowing Benefits Of Drinking Coconut Water During Pregnancy
- 12 Outstanding Winter Foods That Won’t Fatten You Up Like A Christmas Turkey
9 Fitness Myths Busted
Photo credit: bigstock
It is a true fact of life that if you want to be optimally healthy, happy, and fit then you must exercise in form or another. Even though most Americans know this nowhere near as many exercise like they should. Among those who do exercise, many fall far short of their potential.
Perhaps one of the main reasons for this is the overly general advice itself: “get regular exercise.” Well, that’s like saying “eat healthy.” What exactly does that mean?
If you have been following conventional excise routines and recommendations you should know that most of this advice is outdated. Yes, there is a huge amount of advice out there on the internet, videos, books, exercise manuals, but how can you tell if it’s current or up to date?
Perhaps then, the first thing you should look at and take into consideration is the myths and outdated information that is out there. This way when you come across this kind of advice on a webpage or in a book , you will know that it’s dated material and you can move on to something else.
This is a list of the top 9 myths that many of us were told (in some cases still are being told as this misinformation keeps getting repeated).
1. The more you sweat the better the workout
Almost any exercise worth its weight will cause you to sweat. But how much you sweat really isn’t a good indication of how many calories you have burned. Remember, sweating is simply the body’s way of cooling itself down. Sitting on a chair in the hot sun will cause you to sweat a great deal but that doesn’t mean you are getting a lick of exercise!
2. Sleeping too much will make you gain weight
How many of us were told that we need to pop out of bed as if we were toast and get to the gym right away because sleeping too much causes those calories to just “sit around”? Nothing could be further from the truth. When you are sleep deprived, the hormone that signals your body that you have had enough to eat, leptin, decreases, while the hormone that signals hunger, ghrelin, increases. Not only that but not getting enough sleep tends to leave to cravings of sweet and starchy foods. Read more why you aren’t losing weight and what to do with it.
So get your rest, and then head off to the gym.
3. Yoga is great for burning calories
Although yoga is great for the body, it’s not the best at burning calories. One study found that a 50 minute power yoga class burned only 237 calories on average. While a 50 minute spinning class burned as much as 600 calories, according to the American Council on Exercise. There are many fantastic benefits to yoga such as flexibility, pain relief, mental health, stabilizing hormone levels, and relieving sleep problems, but burning lots of calories isn’t one of them.
4. Women will “hulk up” lifting weights
Women want to be strong and toned but there aren’t too many of them that want to look like the Hulk, so they tend to avoid weights. However, you really don’t have anything to worry about. Strength training has a multitude of benefits from fat loss to keeping bone mass so you don’t get osteoporosis and broken hips later in life. Biologically, women have less muscle tissue and less testosterone than men, so bulking up like Mr. Schwarzenegger is impossible. Round out your exercise routine by using either one day for strength training or add one set of weight lifting to your daily routine and you will really see a true difference in your body.
