Give your back to all the BS

6 Health and Fitness Myths, Debunked

In the health and fitness world, there exist a sea of widely spread myths that we often hear about from people the moment we tell them that we started going to the gym, or that we are committed to a healthy lifestyle with some sort of physical activity, especially weight lifting. Bellow I will be explaining 6 common myths that I see spreading around in about every conversation regarding health and fitness. Being informed about the facts that makes these fictions invalid makes it easier for you to plan your fitness journey in a clean manner, free of all the false clutter that is surrounding it.

Fat and unhealthy – Slim and Fit

Not every fat individual is unhealthy, nor is every slim person fit. A study was done proving that a fat person could have a healthy functioning body with no blood pressure or diabetes. While a slim one can have high cholesterol and an abnormal blood pressure. It all depends on how physically active you are, and more importantly the type of food you throw into your stomach, even if you don’t plan on losing weight, these two things are in fact crucial for everyone.

You need to go to the gym to get fit

Many people rely on a Gym membership in order to stick to a healthy lifestyle and claim that they are not able to exercise without a good Gym. This is one of the most common myths that we do not seem to be able to get rid of. There is almost an infinite number of physical activities that you can do out of the gym and without having to pay a single dime, and people living in this century are lucky enough to have things like the Internet and YouTube were they can find the most suitable routine of physical activity to suit their lifestyle and needs, and in the way they desire. One of the best examples I can give and highly recommend as a workout away from the gym is HIIT, and I have made an entire post to specifically emphasize the significance and the importance about HIIT so I recommend you to go and take a look at it.

No pain, no gain

It is very normal to feel some stiffness or have difficulties moving around due to tired muscles. Especially a day after your workout. However, struggling with pain during and/or after your workout is far from normal as that pain could be an indicator of a damage happening to your joints and bones. Also serious issues as a result of lifting weights could be the reason behind this pain. A backache for example could be a symptom of a back problem and an exercise of any kind could be dangerous in such situations. 

Muscles will turn to fat when I stop weight lifting

The only way for muscles to turn into fat is magic, as they are two different things in our bodies. It is okay to take some time off after you have gained a decent amount of muscle mass. That is not going to turn your muscles into fat and gain weight, instead it is going to help your muscles to heal and refuel, and the moment you start after your break you will feel more energized because of the rest you took.  The only thing that you will have to make sure you do is eat less than when you used to lift weights. Because you are technically burn less calories when you the level of your activity drops. However, the break shouldn’t be too long, otherwise your muscles will start to shrink as prolonged inactivity sends a message to our brain that we no more need this mass because we are no more creating that sort of resistance when we lift weights that causes our muscles to grow. It’s a natural adaptation mechanism in our bodies.

Working out? Eat whatever you want.

Eating healthy and working out goes hand in hand for maintaining a healthy fit body. You cannot be eating 3 slices of pizza, 2 burgers, shakes, chips and chocolate with exercise and expect to have your weight going down. No matter how much you burn on your workout it will not be enough to burn half of what you ate. The only correct way of losing weight is by working out and eating moderately in order to see results.

Best workouts are in the morning.

It does not matter when you do your workout. A morning workout would be a necessity if you work in an army for example, otherwise you don’t have to restrict yourself to working out in the morning because you think or were told that workout timing is a big deal. Free time is hard to find nowadays as life is getting more and more competitive and more demanding of our time. You have the flexibility to initiate your workout whenever you feel comfortable and free. And you will burn the same amount of fat and build the same amount 
of muscle regardless if you were working out morning or even midnight.