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Are you spending hours at the gym, but not seeing any results? Chances are, you’re going about your fitness plan the wrong way.
We’ve all heard bad health advice before—but some bad tips are a lot easier to spot than others!
Of course, you already know that the M&M diet is not actually going to help you lose weight, but did you know that water won’t either?
Before you fall victim to any more bad fitness advice, here are 5 common myths you should stop believing today:
- Crunches will give you a flat stomach: Even if you do 1,000 crunches a day, it’s not likely that you’ll see huge results. Crunches just don’t burn a lot of calories, which is really the way to lose fat anywhere on your body. Another problem? You can’t actually spot-train the fat on your stomach. The best way to get rid of belly fat is to reduce your overall body fat first. Combining cardio with strength training will help you achieve the results you’re looking for. Instead of wasting your time doing crunches until you pass out, try doing planks and bridges. Aside from engaging your entire core, planks also require you to use strength from bigger muscles—like your shoulders and butt—to speed up your metabolism and help you burn fat.
- Lifting weights makes women bulky: If you’ve been avoiding the weight room at the gym because you’re scared of getting bulky, you have nothing to fear. The fact is that men have about 20 to 30 times more testosterone than women—which is why it’s so easy for them to get bigger. Unless your goal is to turn into the Incredible Hulk, you probably won’t. In fact, adding a few weights to your routine will actually help you burn a lot more fat than cardio alone. Even if you stay moving on the elliptical machine for 45 minutes, your metabolic rate will go back to normal after about two hours. On the other hand, by focusing more on weight/resistance training, your “after-burn” can last for well over 24 hours.
- Stretching helps your body recover faster: While stretching after an intense workout does offer certain benefits, a recent study from the University of Milan found no significant changes in blood lactate levels—a measure of how fatigued your muscles are—in individuals who religiously stretch after exercise. Basically, stretching after a workout will not help you feel less sore the next day. What stretching after exercise does do, however, is increase joint flexibility.
- More gym time is better: Any health and fitness expert will tell you the same thing: Don’t exercise every single day. No matter how intense your regime is, your body needs rest to recover. If you continuously train daily, you may eventually injure yourself—which will put you out of commission for a lot longer than just taking a break. Depending on how strenuous your workouts are, you might consider taking a day off as often as every other day or just once a week. It may sound way too simple, but the key is almost always to just listen to your body.
- Drinking water will help you lose weight: Whoever started this trend, saying that water is the Holy Grail to a slimmer waist and glowing skin, is wrong. You do not need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Everybody’s hydration needs are different, so you may even feel the need to drink 10 glasses of water a day! It’s important to stay hydrated, but consuming gallons of water is not going to make you feel full or flush the toxins from your body. One great rule of thumb to keep in mind when you’re trying to stay hydrated: Drink enough for your urine to turn pale yellow. The darker your pee, the more dehydrated you are.
Which of these myths surprises you the most? Tell is in the comments!
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