Posted on July 14, 2017 by Kate Halsall
The treadmill tells you you’ve burnt 500 calories after a 20 min run but you didn’t tell it your age or weight or sex; you finish every workout with 100 crunches but still can’t see your six pack; and you still don’t want to lift weights heavier than 3kg because you don’t want to bulk. These are all some of the things people still believe because they’ve been told it, read it in a magazine, seen it on social media – so it must be true! Please don’t believe everything you see! To help, here we try to bust 3 myths about exercise.
Exercise Will Make You Lose Weight
Ok – so this isn’t entirely a myth. But as they saying goes: “you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet”. Exercise will help you lose weight, but ultimately its 80% diet and 20% exercise to get the full benefits. The real weight-loss benefits to exercise come when you start to have a higher tolerance for intensity and duration of exercise, in combination with a clean diet.
You Can’t Bulk Up Without Supplements
Do your friend gulp down protein shakes straight after their workout? Do you know why they do this? From talking to some clients, it’s simply because everyone else does and they believe it will help with their “gains”. However, unless you’re a body builder or strength trainer, you don’t need to be doing this. If you’re a standard gym user who goes to the gym to get in shape, build a little muscle mass and get fit, you don’t need to be downing these shakes or other supplements. We know (or should do!) that if you’re trying to get leaner or build some muscle (size and strength) that you need more protein. But what’s wrong with getting it from good old fashioned FOOD!? You can get all your protein requirements with a balanced diet. If you’re in doubt about your macros, speak to one of the team.
The More You Sweat, The More Calories You Burn
You’ll have seen it on posters – I even own a workout top with it on: “sweat is fat crying”. And whilst deep down inside our body (and fat) may be crying after your AWESOME workout, I’m afraid that sweat is simply your body’s way of cooling down.
The Bottom Line………. if you’re smashing it in the gym and not seeing the results you want, you’re probably following some bad advice you’ve seen somewhere. There’s a lot of confusing information out there, but remember that we’re here to help! Here’s some other myths we have quashed in the past:
www.m8north.co.uk/blog/top-5-fitness-myths/
www.m8north.co.uk/blog/common-exercise-myths/