When gearing up to enter the, to some - namely me, unchartered territory of exercise, it’s useful to have a list of do’s and don’ts on hand. Far from being a checklist of gym (park and sidewalk…) etiquette, I stumbled across an article that claimed to ‘bust’ fitness myths. A starting point. Or, the starting block if you will.
We all know that working out regularly “helps the heart and lungs work more efficiently and improves strength, endurance and flexibility,” but there are still a number of tall tales circulating about exercise.
A rumor doing the rounds is that muscle turns into fat when you stop exercising. The good news is that this is biologically impossible. As muscle and fat are different types of tissue, the two are not interchangeable. True, working out will make you gain muscle, burn calories and in turn, reduce fat. So naturally, when you cease exercising muscles fade away. The reassuring thing is, any new bulges that you notice are not the result of muscle transformation, but the increase in fatty deposits. Nice.
If you thought that last myth was frightening, this one will chill you to your very core: the calorie readings on cardio machines are not always accurate. Audible gasp. According to an Exercise Science Professor, most machines can be off by as much as 30% or more when a reading is estimate by age and weight as opposed to fitness level and gender. Hold off on suing the equipment makers, distributors, suppliers… and gravitate towards machines that use heart rate to estimate the number of calories burnt to gain a more accurate perspective of your achievements (or lack thereof.)
A true story disguised as a myth is that you can break up the recommended 30 minutes a day into three bite-size chunks. Ignore the reference to food because there will be no time for snacking! The 10 minute bursts should be intensely executed to comply with that all-important work-out quota.
Grateful as I am for this information as part of my ‘learning something new every day’ program, there is one myth that I just cannot get to grips with: Women who lift weights will bulk up like men. According to an article I read, this is untrue as men build bigger muscles due to the high levels of testosterone they possess. That is to say, a Rocky-like physique will not creep up on a woman in normal circumstances. Define normal circumstances. I’m assuming that the article is referring to a lack of hormone-inducing drugs being taken, for whatever reason. But I wonder if the author paused to consider women who have a history of “natural muscle” in their genes?
Case in point; me. To be fair, every gym bunny (and I use that term with affection) I have ever met has lusted after upper arms like mine – the very same that I refer to as the “hereditary curse”! Not to knock the fact that “weight bearing exercises build strong bones and help women reduce their risk for osteoporosis” but I know for a fact that the mere proximity to a set of dumbbells triggers an alarm in the you-can’t-wear-cap-sleeves, image-aware area of my brain.
All in all ‘busting’ fitness myths is as helpful preparation for exercise as stretching (during NOT before) as long as you adhere to the age-old advice of not believing everything you read, including that calorie counter!
Posted by Jamaique Campbell on January 26, 2010 12:17 PM
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