Top 7 Fitness Myths

Most of these fitness myths are so embedded in the heads of the American people that they refuse to accept them.

If you fail to do your research you will end up wasting a lot of your precious time in the gym.

Fitness Myth 1:  The Atkins Diet works great!  I've lost 10 pounds in one week.

• The scale doesn't lie.  You lost 10 pounds in a week.  But the 10 pounds you lost is most likely water weight. 

• Your body is mostly water.  When you deplete yourself of carbohydrates your body has less ability to store water (i.e. what would soak up more water a loaf of bread or 5 steaks?) 

• You probably lost some precious muscle mass too because carbohydrates spare protein. 

• And what will happen once you start eating carbohydrates again is you will gain that 10 pounds of water right back! 

Fitness Myth 2:  To get rid of my abdominal fat I am going to do 1000 sit-ups a day.

• There is no such thing as spot reduction.  Instead of doing 1000 sit-ups your better off spending your time doing cardio to burn the Calories to create a Caloric deficit for the day. 

• There is 3,500 Calories in a pound of fat.  To get rid of abdominal fat, or any fat on your body for that matter, the best remedy is a solid training and nutrition program including full body weight training, cardio, and flexibility, contact your personal trainer for a safe and effective program.

Fitness Myth 3:  I don't lift weights because I don't want to get big and bulky.

• 5 pounds of fat is analogous to 3 large grapefruits, 5 pounds of muscle is analogous to 2 tangerines. 

• Lifting weights increases your lean mass which increases your metabolism, helping you to burn fat. 

• Getting big and bulky requires eating excess Calories and possibly anabolic steroids for women.

Fitness Myth 4:  Lifting heavy weights will give me big muscles, I just want to tone, so I lift light weights and high repetitions.

• To tone is an evil term in the fitness world, it really doesn't exist.  You have lean mass (muscles, bones, organs, water) and you have fat which is mostly under the skin and it covers the muscles. 

• The less fat you have, the more tone your body and muscles will appear.

• Toning up requires either gaining muscle mass or losing body fat or both, period.

Fitness Myth 5:  I heard that it's not hard work with heavy weights to get into the best shape, it's long slow walks and light weight training.

• Getting into better shape, whether it be gaining muscle mass,  losing body fat or both requires your body to adapt to training stress. 
• The higher the intensity (weight closer to the 1RM) (i.e. heavy weight training for the rep range), high intensity cardio causes the greatest shock to the body forcing it to adapt the most. 
• It's so simple, but people often look for the easy way out, avoiding hard work. 
• Diet is also extremely important.  Eat too many Calories = no weight loss.

Fitness Myth 6:  If I perform cardio at a low intensity for a long time, I will burn more fat.

• This myth causes more people to not get results than any. 

• At a lower intensity your body is burning a higher percentage of fat than any other source of energy (protein and carbohydrates) TRUE, but you only exercise for probably an hour a day. 

• During that hour that you worked out,  the amount of Calories you burned is insignificant compared to the other 23 hours of the day. 

• Higher intensity cardio, preferably high intensity interval training burns more carbohydrate calories during exercise, but during the rest of the day while your body is recovering, it is burning Calories primarily from your body's fat stores.

Fitness Myth 7:  I need to get into shape for my high school reunion in X amount of time, I'm going to exercise twice a day for 2 hours, every day.

• For the most part, the more the better philosophy does not apply to exercise. 

• If you do not get the proper amount of rest and recuperation between exercise bouts, and you do not follow a solid nutrition program, you will overtrain. 

• Overtraining syndrome is not good news, it is characterized by, extreme lethargy, headaches, muscle aches, swollen glands, insomnia, and an overall shitty feeling.

More About Personal Fitness Training with Michael Behnken, MS, CSCS

Specialized Personal Training

If you train with personal trainer Michael Behnken, MS, CSCS you will be training with a unique and effective scientific exercise program.  Your training sessions will be individualized, specific towards meeting your goals.

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Bodybuilding History and a brief look at if being a bodybuilder is right for you! It takes the highest level of knowledge and discipline to be a successful bodybuilder. Do you have what it takes?

Overtraining Syndrome

Know the Dangers of overtraining and overreaching syndrome, you may not know you are going through it.  Overtraining syndrome is a destroyer of fitness goals.  It may not sound as bad as it really is.  Knowledge is power, do not fall victim to your own bad habits.