In today’s fitness world there are so many myths out there that keep honest people from reaching great results. We’re constantly fed to believe that only certain types of people can be successful and get great results from exercising. We’re also led to believe that exercising and training is complicated and requires too much to learn, when really anyone can learn and practice the basics and lead a very healthy and successful lifestyle. Below are 5 common exercise myths to avoid.
Exercise Myth #1 – Sport is for Professionals
This idea applies only in the case of performance sports. Ya, to be a professional athlete you need a lot of talent and athletic ability, but you also need a ton of luck. Sports are something that I will enjoy until the day I die and I’ll never come close to being a pro athlete. As long as the aim of a regular person is not performance, almost all sports can be practiced for keeping the body in great shape. If you’re a regular guy or gal just looking for enjoyment over the boredom of running on a treadmill, then playing sports will allow you to keep in decent shape as long as you’re participating in them more than twice a week. Join a sport that gets your heart rate pumping a bit, and you won’t even realize you’re training your body.
Exercise Myth #2 – Training is Tiring
This idea is true as long as it refers to consuming all your energy (muscular and hepatic glycogen), but it doesn’t mean that training is all about making you as physically exhausted as possible. Even in performance sports, the purpose is to have effective training, so that the body can get the stimulation necessary to make sure you can continue to improve in your upcoming workouts.
People can come to the gym tired after a work day and leave relaxed (physically and psychologically) and not more tired. This is extremely useful for people with sedentary jobs, but also for those who make physical effort at work. In all honesty, after your first few training sessions, you’ll feel like a million bucks AFTER the workout, rather than before it.
Exercise Myth #3 – Training Takes Too Long
If you’re looking to be a pro athlete or making it a goal to make a team, then training can be long in terms of time, but it doesn’t have to feel long if you’re enjoying yourself. In fitness, you can get to 20 minute training, working only supersets, which could involve, directly or indirectly, all the muscles. Your training shouldn’t take longer than 1.5 hours maximum. If you focus on multi-joint exercises, you can hammer out an awesome workout in 20 minutes.
Exercise Myth #4 – Any Type of Exercise is Good for Solving Your Problems
Some exercises are more effective than others. There are situations when only a combination of exercises with a certain amount of each, can provide you with the results you expect. On top of that, repeating the same exercise all the time can have a consequence of not only losing balance in the antagonist muscles and in the joints involved in training, but also stopping progress or even regressing. Mix it up a bit and you’ll probably stick to your training longer because of a lack of boredom. And be smart about how you exercise. Don’t rush injuries just to play in your beer league opener.
Exercise Myth #5 – Older People Shouldn’t Exercise
This is true only if we refer to extremely demanding efforts like lifting really heavy weights, or doing extreme plyometric jumping exercises. There are not too many older adults looking for pro contracts or trying to impress scouts. Exercise for older adults is all about creating a healthy lifestyle in order to live a longer and more energetic life. It’s all about perseverance and fitness can be adapted without problems for older people and even for people suffering from different problems specific to old age.
So there you go everyone. A little different take on why we should never think that we can’t enjoy a healthy lifestyle because of something standing in our way like time or age. Exercise and training should never be looked at as a burden, but rather as something that can help us enjoy our lives to the fullest.
