Nearly everyone is interested in staying fit, or at least entertaining the thought that we might work on getting fit at some point in the future. It isn’t just a health issue. Most people also want to look good naked. Nothing wrong with that, right?
There’s a ton of fitness information on the internet, in magazines, on TV, and elsewhere. Some of it is legit. Unfortunately, a lot of it is total BS.
Here are five beliefs about fitness that aren’t true at all:
1. Six-Pack Abs are the Ultimate Indicator of Fitness
Look through any fitness magazine on the rack and you’ll see men and women with incredibly ripped and toned abs. It’s an indication that that person has reached the peak of physical fitness – that he or she has gotten rid of that last bit of flubber and left nothing but beautiful, glorious muscle in its place. This is what real health looks like, right?
Not quite...
Having a six-pack doesn’t mean anything when it comes to health. For many people, in fact, walking around with six-pack abs all the time can actually be dangerous.
In order to achieve a six-pack, you need to reduce your body fat percentage down to single digits. And not all people carry the same amount of fat around their mid-sections. Some carry more than others. For those who naturally have more fat in that area, they have to reduce their body fat to dangerous levels to achieve a six-pack. And that’s not healthy at all.
2) You Need to Work Out a Certain Amount of Time to See Results
In order to see results from your workouts, you have to work out a certain amount of time. Some say at least 30 minutes while others say at least an hour. Neither is true. Medical scientists now believe that just five minutes of intense exercise a day could have lasting benefits. It has to be intense, though. Going for a leisurely stroll doesn’t count.
Researchers at McMaster University in Canada recently studied the bare minimum of exercise a person could do and still see results from it. The result? One minute.
One. Single. Minute.
3) Grunting While Working Out is only Something that Lugs Do
We’ve all seen (and heard) the guy in the gym who can’t seem to do one rep without grunting loudly. He’s just doing it for attention, right? He’s just being a lug.
Not quite…
Medical researchers at Drexel University recently studied the science of the grunt (there actually is such a thing) and determined that grunting while exercising actually increases your strength by about 10 percent.
4) You Can Get Rid of Belly Fat by Doing Crunches
If you want to get rid of your belly fat, you have to do lots of crunches (or other ab exercises). How many times have heard that one? Plenty, if I had to guess. The only problem is that it’s total BS. It’s an idea known as spot reduction – that you can get rid of the fat in one area of your body by doing lots of exercises on that spot.
It doesn’t work.
There is no such thing as spot reduction. The only way to get rid of fat in one specific area is through surgery – liposuction surgery. There are some newer plastic surgery technologies that can also target fat in a specific area like freezing the fat cells (which kills them) and using radio waves to kill the fat cells. But the idea that you can exercise your way to awesome abs by doing lots of exercises is simply not true.
5) It’s Important to Stretch Before You Workout to Prevent Injury
Everyone knows that it’s critical to stretch before you workout to keep from pulling something, right? Not quite. The opposite may actually be true.
Stretching before a workout can actually destabilize your muscles, making them less prepared for a strenuous workout than they otherwise would be. Instead of stretching, its best to do a brief warm-up instead.