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Myth 1: Targeted weight-loss
According to Livestrong.com, crunches aren’t necessarily the best exercise to reduce the flab around your tummy. You need to look at your body as a whole. So doing bicycle crunches and sit ups alone won’t help flatten your stomach. These exercises are designed to strengthen your abdominal muscles. The best way to lose fat around your stomach? Cardio exercises! Or, learn how to do the stomach vacuum exercise... with a name like that we can only imagine the results!
Myth 2: Stretching will prevent injuries/soreness
Remember how your physical education teacher used to make you do a 10 minute stretching routine? Well, research done at the University of North-Hampton suggests that she was just wasting your time.
Stretching before a workout can actually slow down your performance . Instead, try to incorporate a 10 minute power walk or five minutes on the bike to get your body warmed up. And the stretching shouldn’t be completely forgotten. Exercise physiologist Mike Bracko suggests that it is best to stretch after a workout: "Everyone is more flexible after exercise because you've increased the circulation to those muscles and joints and you've been moving them.”
Myth 3: Weights will make women bulky
There’s this misconception that heavy weights are a woman’s enemy: women must just stick to aerobics, cardio and light dumbbells and apparently the weights section is a complete no-go area. Well this isn’t true. In fact, lifting weights can be extremely beneficial for a woman’s physique.
Building lean muscle helps you burn fat faster. So don’t be afraid to lift those weights, especially if you want to get a toned and lifted behind. Light weight training will not make you bulky because you need a certain amount of testosterone in your body to build mass, says Kelly Wade of ShapeDaily.com. It would take years of training and possibly a hormone imbalance for you to end up looking like The Hulk.
Myth 4: No Pain, No Gain
You know that part in tae-bo when Billy Banks tells us to push harder, to feel the burn? Well, feeling the burn isn't always the answer. Sometimes you have to slow down. When you start feeling uncomfortable and extremely tired you might as well stop exercising. When your body starts giving up on you, you will lose form and when that happens you will no longer be doing the exercises properly. Pace yourself, do as much as you can and don’t try competing with the person next to you.
Myth 5: The longer the better
We’ve all seen them… those people who spend hours on the treadmill or the cross-trainer without seeming to even break a sweat. But, don’t worry. You don’t have to be the first one arrive and last to leave the gym for you to lose weight. It isn't necessarily about how long you exercise, but about the intensity. Edward R. Laskowski, M.D of MayoClinic suggests that “...we should aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. If you want to lose more weight or meet specific fitness goals you may need to exercise more.”
Vary the intensity of your workout. For instance, jog for three minutes and then sprint for 30 seconds. The point is to get your heart rate up so as to burn more calories. Check out this WebMD article on how you can blast away the calories by doing intensity interval Training.
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According to Livestrong.com, crunches aren’t necessarily the best exercise to reduce the flab around your tummy. You need to look at your body as a whole. So doing bicycle crunches and sit ups alone won’t help flatten your stomach. These exercises are designed to strengthen your abdominal muscles. The best way to lose fat around your stomach? Cardio exercises! Or, learn how to do the stomach vacuum exercise... with a name like that we can only imagine the results!
Myth 2: Stretching will prevent injuries/soreness
Remember how your physical education teacher used to make you do a 10 minute stretching routine? Well, research done at the University of North-Hampton suggests that she was just wasting your time.
Stretching before a workout can actually slow down your performance . Instead, try to incorporate a 10 minute power walk or five minutes on the bike to get your body warmed up. And the stretching shouldn’t be completely forgotten. Exercise physiologist Mike Bracko suggests that it is best to stretch after a workout: "Everyone is more flexible after exercise because you've increased the circulation to those muscles and joints and you've been moving them.”
Myth 3: Weights will make women bulky
There’s this misconception that heavy weights are a woman’s enemy: women must just stick to aerobics, cardio and light dumbbells and apparently the weights section is a complete no-go area. Well this isn’t true. In fact, lifting weights can be extremely beneficial for a woman’s physique.
Building lean muscle helps you burn fat faster. So don’t be afraid to lift those weights, especially if you want to get a toned and lifted behind. Light weight training will not make you bulky because you need a certain amount of testosterone in your body to build mass, says Kelly Wade of ShapeDaily.com. It would take years of training and possibly a hormone imbalance for you to end up looking like The Hulk.
Myth 4: No Pain, No Gain
You know that part in tae-bo when Billy Banks tells us to push harder, to feel the burn? Well, feeling the burn isn't always the answer. Sometimes you have to slow down. When you start feeling uncomfortable and extremely tired you might as well stop exercising. When your body starts giving up on you, you will lose form and when that happens you will no longer be doing the exercises properly. Pace yourself, do as much as you can and don’t try competing with the person next to you.
Myth 5: The longer the better
We’ve all seen them… those people who spend hours on the treadmill or the cross-trainer without seeming to even break a sweat. But, don’t worry. You don’t have to be the first one arrive and last to leave the gym for you to lose weight. It isn't necessarily about how long you exercise, but about the intensity. Edward R. Laskowski, M.D of MayoClinic suggests that “...we should aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. If you want to lose more weight or meet specific fitness goals you may need to exercise more.”
Vary the intensity of your workout. For instance, jog for three minutes and then sprint for 30 seconds. The point is to get your heart rate up so as to burn more calories. Check out this WebMD article on how you can blast away the calories by doing intensity interval Training.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook
