Myths & Facts About Fitness & Exercise

At the start of the new year, it is not uncommon to hear New Year's resolutions inculde “get fit” and “lose weight”. It is important to stay educated and well informed if you’re trying to make health and lifestyle decisions. Here are some common misconceptions about fitness and exercise. 

Lifting weight will make you have bulky muscles. Strength training will not cause women to build muscles, but will promote improved muscle tone. Strengthening activities can help improve your health and help control weight by increasing the amount of energy burning muscles. Lifting weights 2-3 days a week will help build lean muscle mass and reduce body fat percentage to reveal more toned physique. 

Spot reduction is possible. It's simply not possible to "burn off" fat in one specific body part by exercising that area. Exercise burns fat all over the body. We can’t control where our body burns fat from. Experts suggest increasing cardio to burn fat with a mix of varying workouts including high and low intensity training.

No pain, no gain. Exercising to the point of pain can harm you, not help. It's ok to push yourself to tax your heart, lungs, muscles and bones. Be reasonable and don't risk injury. Feeling pain is not ok and can be your body telling you something is wrong. If it doesn’t feel good and you continue to push through you risk serious injury. Stop and look for a way to modify the regime or exercise. 

If you exercise, you can eat whatever you want. A healthy diet goes hand-in-hand with a sound exercise regimen. No amount of exercise will make up for a bad diet and unhealthy food choices. Be thoughtful about your food choices, including a balance of protein, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while indulging less in sugary processed foods. You can’t out exercise a poor diet! 

Exercise requires a hefty time commitment. Regular physical activity recommended by Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans includes 2 hours and 30 min of moderate intensity physical activity per week. A good example can be brisk walking 10 minutes 3 times a day on 5 or more days a week. Think of ways that you can build physical activity into your day. If working from home, take a 10 minute walking or exercise break. A break out of your normal routine can also be helpful. Use of stairs instead of the escalator or choosing to walk instead of taking an uber to meet a friend can be beneficial. 

There's a magic bullet out there. There is no quick fix. Dietary and nutritional supplements often use deceptive, misleading or fraudulent advertising. There are many variables that can affect our weight. Some of these include genetics, stress, not exercising, eating poorly, and lack of sleep. 

Muscle weighs more than fat. In simple terms, a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.  The difference is that muscle tissue is much more dense than body fat. Therefore, a pound of muscle will take up much less room in your body than a pound of fat. Muscle is significantly more vascular (has a better blood supply) than body fat and will cause you to burn more calories at rest.

Exercising at low intensity burns more fat. Many people believe that lower intensity training is in the fat-burning zone. But in reality, you're burning a greater percentage of total calories -- including fat calories -- when you exercise at a higher intensity.  High intensity training will also boost your metabolism long after the workout is done. This does not happen with low intensity training. The basic idea when you're trying to lose fat is to create a caloric deficit. The type of training does not matter so much as creating that deficit. High Intensity training just creates the deficit more efficiently than low Intensity training.

Good luck staying healthy, fit, and uninjured in 2023. If you need help with your journey you can seek the advice of our physicians or rehabilitation professionals.