5 common fitness myths busted
Everyone starts their fitness journey somewhere, but not all of us are fortunate enough to have a professional trainer to guide us through the various aspects of physical fitness. Standing amid the last sputtering flames of the global COVID-19 pandemic, 57 percent of the people returning to gyms are working out by themselves, and there’s a surge in fitness influencers taking to social media like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and any and every new latest buzz. But more often than not, influencers have hidden motivations while posting their content, be it sponsors, increasing their audience appeal, or convincing viewers to buy their merch.
There have been many cases in which social media influencers use PEDs like SARMS and prohormones, and then use that resultant doped-up but impressive physique to promote supplements that are sponsoring them, all while claiming they are natural, or “natty”, which refers to someone who has never taken hormones and steroids.
So before you nosedive into a mountain of useless supplements, training techniques and workout routines, make sure to read this article and confirm using your own scientific research on what you should be doing with your health. After all, you only have one body. Better to do some boring five-minute research than attack it with a social media platform worth of consumer goods.
- You need to take protein immediately after your workout
This is a baseless argument many people make, not only on social media, but in your nearest gym as well. It’s so popular that it’s hard to workout in a public gym and not hear it. According to them, your muscles, that are torn and exhausted after your workout, need fresh protein for optimum growth and repair. It is true that your muscles have micro-tears in them after your workout, and need to be repaired over time to grow, but this ‘time’ in question is days, not hours and minutes. There is no special time for protein either before or after exercise. Damage repair immediately after exercise and for perhaps an hour is recycling amino acids from damaged muscle fibers. After that, the muscle is repaired over the course of 48 hours or more. So just because your gym-bro told you that you need that ‘scoop of whey after pumping some iron’, you don’t have to worry that skipping your post-workout meal is going to waste your hard work in the gym.
2. Doing ab exercises will burn belly fat
This is such a common myth that you don’t even need a gym to hear about it. I hate to break it to you, but there is no way to lose fat from a single area in your body. That’s called spot reduction, and it doesn’t exist. You can do the opposite though, you can do spot gaining, which means gaining muscle mass in a single area in your body by training that part more. Doing ab exercises will train your core muscles, which are mainly your upper and lower abs, serratus, obliques, and lower back. You will see a gain in size of these muscles, but as long as you have that pestering layer of fat above them, no matter how well you train your abs, they will not show from under that chub. If you want to lose belly fat and flex a pair of abs this summer, you’ll have to lose body fat from your whole body to bring out the muscles beneath it. That’s when the hours spent in working out abs are going to count.
3. Women who do weight training will look bulky and ‘manly’
This is a ridiculous concern for a lot of women who workout. Lifting weights and training upper body holds a stigma of looking too muscular and bulky for women, which is untrue. This type of training is as healthy as it comes and is recommended by professionals not only to men but women as well. As women age, they become more prone to getting osteoporosis, which is a condition where one loses bone density and they become brittle and have a higher chance of snapping at small stresses such as a fall or even a cough. Lifting weights is the perfect counter for osteoporosis as it boosts bone and muscle strength. And for women who don’t want to go for that bulkier look, wipe off your sweat because weight lifting also has variations to it which yield different results, in respect to the number of repetitions done, the weight of the resistance, and the rest between sets, and you can choose which way of weight training suits your body goal.
4. More the sweat, more the calories burnt, better the workout.
We all have seen those T-shirts that show hidden print when drenched in sweat, usually saying stuff like ‘You can go home now’ or ‘Proof of my work’. Unfortunately, simply using the amount of sweat perspired as a measure of calories burnt in the workout is silly. Doing the exact same workout in wintertime and summertime will have huge differences in the sweat you see on your tee but that doesn’t mean you burnt more calories through it in summer. Perspiration levels vary from person to person as well, some people are naturally more prone to sweating while others may have underactive sweat glands. Sweating more means you might be healthy in terms of your filtration system, but it does not equate to better workouts. Otherwise I would just lock myself in a hot car for an hour everyday and get that six pack.
5. You need to take whey protein powder to see gains in muscle mass
This myth is often promoted by influencers, companies, and producers to sell their nutrition products. In my opinion, one should be skeptical of any commercial product that has too good reviews by health sites and influencer pages, but this one is definitely a myth. It is true that you need a lot of protein to gain muscle mass fast, around 0.8 grams of protein per day for every pound of bodyweight, but that can easily be achieved naturally from your diet as well. Long before the invention of whey protein tubs or even Planet Fitness existed spectacular bodybuilders and athletes, from Greek wrestlers to Roman gladiators (these guys were not only natural, but vegetarian as well) to powerlifters in ancient Egypt. You can get your daily protein intake from meats, eggs, fish, sprouts, soy, among many others, without having to worry about powders. Not only is whey not required, but it is in fact inferior to natural protein as well. Whey goes through your digestive system faster than you can say ‘do you even lift bro’, which means your body isn’t able to absorb and utilize 100 percent of the amount you drink.
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These myths were once things I believed myself, but now I know better thanks to countless talks with gym trainers and hours spent doing research on the net. I have been guilty of turning up the thermostat while working out to get more sweaty, I have stuffed myself with high protein meals right after my workout, and I have done all of the above at some point. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and stop believing common myths like these, through confirmed scientific research. Happy fitness!