MYTH #1
Strenuous exercise is better than light or moderate exercise
Strenuous workouts (i.e. those that leave you breathless for the most part of the exercise) do improve fitness far more than light or moderate workouts, provided that you are able to sustain the intensity for long enough for the fitness benefits to accrue. In fact, strenuous workouts to the general exerciser can be a potential source of injuries and so may do more harm than good. The key is to exercise at a alevel that is appropriate to your current level of fitness and progress from there.
The number of calories expended during exercise depends mainly on how much ground is covered and not how fast you cover it. In fact moderate exercise is potentially more effective and more manageable than vigorous exercise for most people.
MYTH #2
You can lose fat from specific parts of your body by exercising these parts
Research findings: 'Spot reduction' is a myth. When you exercise, you use energy produced by fat from all parts of your body, not just around the muscles that are doing most of the work.
In fact, your genes may dictate that fat disappears from say, your face or arms before your belly, even if you do endless abdominal exercises. But exercising a specific region such as the abdominal muscles will strengthen those muscles and help you hold your gut in and this may give you the illusion of thinness.
MYTH #3
More fat is lost during exercise if you perspire copiously
It is the duration of the exercise or activity session involving large muscle groups of your body that will determine the number of calories that you lose. Sweat loss has little to do with the calories expended during the acitivity. Sweating is the body's attempt at cooling the body because of a rise in body temeprature that is brought on by the increase in physical activity.
Because of our hot weather, the body tries to cool itself down by sweating and in some people, the results in weight loss immediately after exercising. But the weight lost is mainly 'water weight', and will be replenished once you re-hydrate yourself. Dehydrating yourself can be potentially dangerous and can lead to heat strain, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke.
MYTH #4
Sports drinks help you exercise safely and more effectively
Sugar and sodium are the two main ingredients in sports drinks that are potentially beneficial to exercisers. However, very few people exercise long enough to sweat away much sodium or use up their carbohydrate reserve (in the form of muscle and liver glycogen) to require any special supplementation. Research dictates that carbohydrate feeding is not necessary for exercises that last for less than 90 minutes. Water is all that is needed.
MYTH #5
Exercise makes you hungry so it can undermine your efforts to lose weight
Exercise, especially aerobic-type exercise such as jogging or brisk walking, may indeed increase your appetite -- but only in people who need the extra calories. Studies have shown that lean individuals do get hungrier after such exercise. This is the body's natural reaction to prevent them from getting too thin. On the other hand, no such effect is observed in obese individuals.
In general, light exercise may stimulate appetite while vigorous exercise will tend to suppress appetite. Even if appetite is stimulated in the short term, persisting with exercise in the long term as a lifestyle choice is certainly an effective weight management and disease-risk reduction strategy.
MYTH #6
Muscles become fat when you stop exercising
The lack of physical exercise itself reduces the caloric expenditure attributed to exercise. So people who stop exercising are indeed in danger of beocming flabby. But that does not mean that muscle actually turns in fat -- that is impossible as fat and muscles are different type of tissues.
Lack of exercise or physical activity does cause muscle atrophy -- a reduction in muscle size. This also reduces the body's caloric expenditure as muscles as a tissue consume more calories even at rest. Fat can accumulate around the muscles if you remain inactive but you can keep that from happening by eating a balanced diet and continuing with exercise on a regular basis.
MYTH #7
Strength training will not help you get thinner as it burns few calories. It causes you to gain weight because of the muscles that you develop.
This is false. Strength training using either weights (including body weight), machines or even resistance bands can substantially increase caloric expenditure, meaning burn fat.
Strength training is especially effective when it is used as part of a comprehensive weight management programme that also includes aerobic-type exercise and a balanced diet. In a study, it was reported that women who watched their diet and performed either strength training or aerobic exercise lost more weight than those who only dieted.
MYTH #8
Women who do strength training tend to have a bulky and masculine physique
The truth is, it is very difficult for women to build large and bulky muscles because women have lower testosterone levels. Instead both men and women can build firmer muscles by exercising with lighter weights -- one where they are able to complete 25 or more repetiions of the exercise.
