Fitness Facts and Myths
MYTH: Aerobics is the best way to lose fat.
FACT: Strength training actually does more to help burn fat than aerobics alone, because increasing your lean mass results in an increased metabolism. Building lean mass continues to burn fat long after you have finished exercising, but your body's ability to burn fat ends the minute you stop doing aerobic exercise. Strength training combined with aerobic exercise and proper nutrition is the best way to achieve maximum results.
MYTH: Your height-to-weight ratio is the best way to assess how healthy you are.
FACT: Body fat is the true health test. You may have the same body weight and height as another person but vary on the percentage of body fat to lean muscle. Your ideal body fat ratio will vary, depending on gender and age.
MYTH: Certain creams rid the body of cellulite.
FACT: The fibrous strands within the fat tissue become stretched and produce a dimpling effect on the outer skin. Genetics plays a big role in whether one is susceptible to cellulite. Besides cosmetic surgery, no cream will help with immediate rectification of cellulite. A balanced diet and regular exercise will help minimize the affects of cellulite.
MYTH: If a supplement is advertised quoting a study for it's effectiveness it must be true.
FACT: Product manufacturers sponsor studies and may sometimes manipulate the variables of the study in order to achieve a desired outcome that helps market their product. You should be wary of quick and easy fixes, and try to research any product before believing the packaging claims. It helps to stick with reliable brand names that have a proven record in the fitness industry. The most important thing to remember with any fitness goal is that you will achieve far-reaching results with a long-term outlook, and permanently changing your lifestyle is the best way to maintain your health and fitness.
MYTH: Muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle weighs the same as fat, a pound of rocks weighs the same as a pound of feathers. Muscle is about 25% 33% more dense (size/circumference area) than fat. This is why it is not uncommon sometimes to shape your body and lose pant,shirt and dress sizes and sometimes not lose overall body weight! But fat and muscle weigh the same.
MYTH: Certain exercises can control the shape of my muscles.
FACT: You can define, tone, or build the size of your genetic body potential, but you can not change the given genetics of your muscle physiology.
MYTH: In order to lose fat, tone-up or get bigger muscles I need to train for hours a day.
FACT: Depending on your physical goals it can take as little as 30 minutes, three times a week to shape up. To build lean muscle and increase cardiovascular efficiency you will probably need to train a little more frequently, but over training will actually do more damage than good. Quality of exercise, not quantity is far more effective. It is also imperative to rest your muscles so that they can repair and strengthen after working out.
MYTH: If I do cardiovascular exercise, I will lose muscle size.
FACT: The scientific data is a little non-conclusive as to the specific reason why you lose muscle tissue size, but long, frequent and intense aerobic exercise can reduce muscle tissue slightly. However, people who constantly measure or assess the size of their bodies forget to account for the amount of body fat surrounding the area being measured. One should be more concerned with how much body fat they have and then assess how big their muscles really are. Some of the best looking, most muscular arms I have ever seen were no larger than 16 inches in diameter, and because their body fat was low, the muscularity and symmetry of the biceps gave all the definition in the arm and it looked as big and better than some 18 inch arms. If your goal is to increase muscle mass as much as possible, too much of the wrong type of cardiovascular exercise can hinder that goal and start to become detrimental. By following the Personal Body Precision program you will see step-by-step how to achieve whatever your goal is with the right exercise approach.