Leading an active lifestyle, i.e. exercising regularly be it walking, jogging or hitting the gym, helps prevent health diseases. It also helps increase the life expectancy. Also, fit families have more fun.
Some of the common myths and facts about exercise are discussed below:
- Exercise is of no use if your muscles aren't feeling sore at the end of it: Muscle soreness is no indicator of exercise efficiency. Some soreness might be experienced if one changes their workout program regularly. Soreness after every workout indicates that the body is not getting the appropriate time to recover, which is the phase when muscle growth occurs. To prevent this soreness, one should rest and repeat the exercises with lower intensity to help the body overcome the strain and remove soreness.
- If you're not working out hard and as often, exercise is a waste of time: This thought keeps a lot of people from maintaining or even starting an exercise program. Any exercise is better than none. For example, a simple walking regime helps to maintain fitness too. In case one is unable to work out for a week in between, consider it a break and start all over again.
- If you exercise long and hard enough, you will always get the results you want: Different people respond differently to exercise regimes. Genetics plays an integral role in this and studies have revealed a wide variation in how different exercisers respond to the same program.
- If you want to lose weight, stay away from strength training because it will make you bulk up: Strength training boosts your metabolism by almost 20 percent and continue to burn more calories for up to 12 hours after your exercise. Hence it is valuable for maintaining a healthy weight. Strength training helps maintain muscle mass and decrease body fat percentage.
- You can take weight off specific body parts by doing exercises specific to those areas: Commonly known as “spot training”, this technique does not help burn fat. When weight loss occurs, one cannot choose the area in which reduction will occur. For e.g. sit-ups and crunches develop the ab muscles but do not necessarily result in taking off fat from one’s stomach. Similarly an activity like running burns fat all over your body, not just your legs. You can, however compliment a balanced exercise program. A careful selection of weight training exercises can help one gradually lose weight and tone the body.
- Women who lift weights will bulk up: Whether it is men or women, one requires testosterone in order to bulk up. Since women have much lower levels of testosterone than men, they are mostly not capable of building large muscles. In fact, since muscle takes up less room than fat, women tend to shed a few inches when they strength train thus making them slim. In addition to this strength training provides increased metabolism, decreased risk of osteoporosis in women and increased strength.
- Slim people should not exercise: Being slim does not necessarily mean being fit. Slim people also face health problems owing to lack of exercise and strenuous routines. A sedentary lifestyle can lead to several back to neck problems and poor postures in both slim and obese people. Exercise is meant for general fitness and is a must for everyone, although workouts may vary from individual to individual.
