Are you trying to stay on top of your fitness goals, but feeling overwhelmed by conflicting advice? You’re not alone! With so many exercise and dietary trends out there, it can be hard to decipher fact from fiction. That’s why we’re here to set the record straight. It’s time you get the real facts and cut through all of those stop-and-go myths that have been holding you back. Let’s break down five major fitness misconceptions and motivate you to take action toward building a healthier lifestyle!
Fitness myth 1: If you aren’t sore, you didn’t train hard enough.
Reality: Soreness doesn’t equal progress.
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “no pain, no gain” thrown around the fitness world, but we’re here to tell you that this statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Even though soreness and workouts are related, they don’t always go hand in hand.
Muscle soreness is a natural response that our body has when we put it through extra stress, such as during a hard workout. But soreness does not equal results. The amount of soreness you feel comes from how much stress you put your muscles through, not how much progress you’re making.
When you’re sore after a workout, make sure you’re paying attention to your body and how it’s recovering. If you aren’t recovering quickly, or feel slow and lethargic, or you’re hitting performance plateaus, this could be a sign that you’re overtraining your body. In this case, it’s time to slow down. Overtraining will damage your body and prevent you from seeing the results you’re after.
You should also make sure to get ample sleep after a challenging workout to ensure your body can properly repair itself. When combined with a good diet and proper hydration, sleep can speed up recovery time and get you back to working on your fitness goals sooner.
Fitness myth 2: Strength training will make you bulky.
Reality: Strength training will only result in bulking when paired with a specific diet.
This fitness myth is especially prevalent in women’s fitness circles, but the truth is that strength and resistance training will not bulk you up without a bulking diet. Keep in mind that bodybuilders train for years and years to obtain the hulking physique required to compete.
Plus, the hormonal makeup in women makes building excess muscle trickier, as it’s the hormone testosterone that contributes most to bulky muscle growth. When there’s more estrogen than testosterone being produced in the body, it can take much longer to build the same amount of muscles through working out as those whose hormones work the other way around.
Rather than focusing on how much muscle you’re building, focus on the other great qualities that strength training workouts can have. From fat burning and increased endurance to stronger bones and boosted metabolism, strength training has many benefits. It’s also great for your cardiovascular system and keeps your heart muscle in tip-top shape.
Fitness myth 3: Sit-ups or crunches burn stomach fat.
Reality: There is no way to target stomach fat.
Would it turn your world upside down if we told you that you can’t target fat loss? It’s true! You have no control over where your body stores fat — you only have the control to burn fat overall. Targeted exercises don’t equate to targeted weight loss, and you can’t count on getting a six-pack through sit-ups alone.
It’s true that doing sit-ups and crunches burns calories and moves the needle in the right direction toward losing belly fat, but only because it lowers your total body fat percentage. You should also know that everyone stores fat cells differently, which means that you might start to see results (or “toning”) in some parts of your body before others. If your goal is to achieve a six-pack, you will need to drop your overall body fat percentage through a strict diet and training program.
Don’t get us wrong: Core workouts are very important. Just because core training won’t necessarily directly give you a ripped stomach, that doesn’t make it any less important to your overall health. The core is the foundation of your body, after all, and acts as the axis to many of the movements that you do every single day. By strengthening your core, you are strengthening your body’s foundation, which can only lead to good things. So consider this exercise myth debunked!
Fitness myth 4: Squatting is bad for your knees and back.
Reality: The opposite is true!
How many times have you heard someone say that squatting is bad for your knees or back? In reality, this fitness myth couldn’t be further from the truth.
When we increase the strength in the lower body, we make our everyday life easier. In fact, studies show that lower body strength — and strength in general — play a huge role in longevity and quality of life as we age.
Squatting is a foundational exercise. It’s a movement that mimics what we do in our everyday life. Every time you stand up out of a chair, get out of your car, or (dare we say) sit down on a toilet, you’re using your core and lower body to push you to a standing position. By squatting with a full range of motion, you’ll strengthen the muscles around the knee and create stability in the joint. In turn, your knees will be more stable as you walk, run, or squat to pick something up. This workout myth is so far from the truth and if anything, not squatting is hurting your knees more than squatting ever will.
Fitness myth 5: If I'm not losing weight, my fitness journey isn't successful.
Reality: Weight loss is not the only measure of success.
Did you know that people can fluctuate up to 10 pounds in weight in a single day? That’s a pretty significant change depending on which direction that 10 pounds goes. Factors such as hydration, what you eat, and hormonal body cycles can all influence the number on the scale.
While the scale can be a great tool when used correctly and at the right times, the truth is that losing weight will never be a linear process. The normal weight-loss journey goes through peaks and valleys, which is why it’s better to focus on other markers of success rather than fretting over a fluctuating number.
For many of our members focused on losing weight as a health goal, a body composition scan is a much better tool for tracking progress. These scientific scans can provide more precise and in-depth metrics such as body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, healthy fat mass, and overall muscle mass, which is a much better way to track your progress.
Why don’t people like working out?
Fitness myths like these can really derail your workout journey if you give them any weight. If you track your progress against any of these myths, you end up feeling discouraged when you don’t see the results you’re working so hard for. This can put a dark cloud over exercise and fitness in general. Fitness myths can set you up to fail from the jump, which is why it’s so important to get advice or instruction from experts. With the right guidance and proper measurements for success, anyone can learn to love working out.
Did you know that Anytime Fitness members get a free fitness consultation? These consultations include body composition scanning and mobility assessment, plus a one-on-one with an expert Coach who can help you create a plan to reach your fitness goals — and set the record straight for any other fitness myths you might be wondering about.
