Fitness Fallacies To Forget!

It is particularly frustrating to enter the world of fitness. You are bombarded by so much information, such a large fraction of which is not based on any proven facts and a lot of hogwash that you have to sift through before you figure out for yourself just what does the trick and what doesn’t.

Actually, there is no trick. Hard work, dedication, and commitment are essential. There is no easy ticket to fitness, and your health is the best investment you can make – you only get one life after all. In this spirit, we come to dispel some of the worst fitness advice that you have likely come across. Bin it and move on!

Spot Reduction

Unless there is a magical spot reduction fairy you know of who visits you at night to simply wave a wand and make your belly fat disappear or your love handles snap-in, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Targetting fat from specific areas of the body is simply not possible and there are thousands of exercises that people claim can slay stomach fat, burn your love handles, or even trim down your legs, but the bottom line is that weight loss happens across the entire body in layers, and you have no control over where your body chooses to lose fat. Just focus on compound movements using your target muscles to torch fat all around.

Muscle Confusion

We bet you’ve come across this advice before – keep your body guessing so you can burn more fat. Well, it may be a great idea to switch things up from time to time, if not simply for the sake of variety and to maintain interest if for nothing at all. However, changing things up too much can happen, and when it does, it means your body doesn’t grow to learn the movements you are teaching it well enough. Muscle memory is real and it isn’t called ‘training’ for nothing! Let your muscles and your brain master your movements, but keep it exciting if you’re getting bored.

Ladies Should Stick to Cardio

Fortunately, more and more women are learning about the beauty of weight training. However, not so long ago, women were practically told to steer clear of weights and to stick to the treadmill! Of course, this was based on the fear of bulking up and appearing manly, which is just not hat will happen! Women’s’ bodies are designed totally different from men’s’ and when you take up weight training you will be pleasantly surprised by finding your waist snatching, your legs toned and your body looking trim and shapely! There is nothing to fear – so long as you aren’t taking any unhealthy or unusual supplements, of course!

Pre-Workout Static Stretches

It was commonly thought that static stretches were sufficient for pre-workout prep, to get your blood flowing and reduce injury before your workout. However, we now know more and it’s proven that static stretches are best left to post workouts, while dynamic stretching is the key to reducing injury and warming up sufficiently. Static stretches are the positions you hold for a few seconds to target different muscle groups. They are useful, jut not in the way they were popularly advised to be used. Get in the habit of doing more involved movements before your workouts like arm circles and leg swings.

Muscles Are Made In the Gym

Too many people make the mistake of hitting the gym more often when they’re looking for a toned physique, and unfortunately, this is a big, bad mistake. Many other gym-goers make this very same mistake and may give you misleading advice – remember that muscles are not made in the gym! Muscles grow outside the gym when you are on your rest days. That is why rest days are so very important because they allow your muscles time to repair and grow by doing so. In the gym, you tear your muscle fibers apart, and a proper diet, quality sleep, and good hydration are needed to see results.

While there are most certainly plenty of great tips out there in the fitness world, these just aren’t it. The next time you hear any of the tips from this list, you can smile to yourself and look right past it! Nobodys fooling you any more –fitness goals, here we come!