Fitness Beliefs That Will Get You in Trouble

What you believe determines how you will act. This is true for fitness beliefs that you may have learned over the years. Some are just a little eccentric like believing that exercise is only effective if you do it in the morning. But some ideas can get you into trouble because they have potential to harm you.

No pain, no gain
Many people believe that unless exercise ‘’hurts’’ them in some way, it isn’t doing them any good. This is a dangerous belief because they may continue to exercise even if they are in pain thinking that this is the way exercise is supposed to be. A minor problem that could have easily been solved by changing their exercise shoes or by modifying the way the exercise is done becomes a chronic problem.

Exercise does require some effort for you to make improvements in your fitness level (that’s why it’s called working out) but you should never feel pain in the joints or muscles. If it hurts, stop, slow down, or modify your exercise.

Drinking water
Some people don’t drink water during exercise because they believe it will cause stomach cramps. This is not a good idea because you need to immediately replace the water you lose through sweat when you work out. Water is the most important nutrient to an exercising individual because exercise performance is directly related to your state of hydration.

Some people also believe that drinking lots of water will make them fat. You might wonder who would ever believe that but I’ve met intelligent people who have fallen for this erroneous belief. They usually complain of being bloated or manas. No wonder. The more you limit your body’s intake of water, the more the body tries to retain whatever little you give it. A simple way to know if you are drinking enough water is to look at the color of your urine. Experts say it will be dark yellow if you are drinking too little and, conversely, will be pale yellow or almost clear if you are drinking enough water.

Sweat
“The more you sweat, the more fat you will lose”. These are several beliefs rolled into one. First is the belief that all weight lost on the scale equals fat loss. So when people lose three pounds from sweating in the sauna, they assume they have lost three pounds of fat. The reality is they have only lost three pounds of water.

The second belief is that if you are not actively sweating while you are exercising, very few calories are being burned. People don’t realize that the temperature and humidity of the surroundings also affect the rate of perspiration when you exercise. Running on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym will produce less visible sweat than standing outside in the heat of the noonday sun and yet will burn many more calories.

The third belief is the use of rubberized or plastic clothing while exercising to produce even more sweat and thus “burn more fat”. This is dangerous because you can overheat and this can cause your heart to work harder than it should.

Exercising to lose weight
Exercising only to lose weight is an attitude that gets people into trouble because, first, losing weight with the help of exercise is a slow process so people get frustrated and stop exercising. Second, even if they are patient with the weight loss, they stop exercising as soon as they reach their goal.

Either way, this attitude is detrimental to their health because they miss out on all the other benefits like improved cardiovascular efficiency, a better immune system, less stress, better sleeping patterns, cancer protection, normal blood pressure, etc.

Besides, they will probably eventually put back the weight they lost because lack of physical activity was one of things that contributed to their being overweight in the first place.

Eating junk
“I can eat whatever I want because I exercise”. The quality of food you eat makes a big difference to your health. Even if you are exercising regularly, this is no excuse to eat junk. Exercise will protect you to some extent but there is no substitute for good nutrition. You may be super-fit but your arteries can still be clogged from eating the wrong things.

Instructors
The sexy figure of a female instructor or big muscles in a male instructor do not necessarily mean that they are knowledgeable about the principles of fitness. It can simply mean they are genetically blessed.

The danger of believing a well-endowed instructor who has no professional training is that you are putting your body and health in the hands of an individual who only knows what works for their own body. Since everyone has different needs, the exercise program that works for the instructor can actually be injurious for you.

There are many professionally trained instructors who may not fit your standard of what “fit “ looks like. This doesn’t mean they are not good at what they do. Judge their competence more by what kind of professional training they have had rather than just their appearance.

I know it can be it’s hard to take advice from an individual who looks more out of shape than you do. So, while I don’t believe that fitness instructors have to possess a Miss or Mr. Universe type body, they should at least be firm and not flabby and have strength and stamina.