Fitness Fact vs. Fitness Fiction Part II

Ok. So Last Week is over. And, since you are only as good as your last battle, your chance for redemption is at hand. Here is the second half of the fitness fact vs. fitness fiction quiz. Good luck!


Fact or Fiction:

1) Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.

2) You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.

3) An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.

4) As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.

5) Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.

….







Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine" will get rid of belly fat.

FICTION

Ab machines sell. Period. Take a look at all of the infomercials out there right now capitalizing on your new year’s resolution to lose weight. “Perfect abs for three easy installments of $19.99”… why wouldn’t you want that?

The truth is that the best machine to use for your abs is the front door to any fitness facility. A good stomach comes with regular cardiovascular exercise, proper diet habits, and a gradual increase in muscle mass from weight bearing activities. This trio will lead to a decreased amount of overall body fat… over time.

You already have abs, they are just hiding under body fat. And yes, genetics do play a role.

You need to sweat to burn calories; the more you sweat the more calories you burn.

FICTION

Look, you can sweat so hard that you are re-defining the catch phrase “making it rain in the club” and still not be getting a great workout. Have you ever heard of the “executive workout?” You know; go to the gym, jump in the hot-tub, hit the sauna, and do some stairs on your way up to the sports bar. Sure, at the end of that hour you spend at the club you have certainly dropped some sweat, particularly in the sauna. But you have not necessarily burned that many calories.

Sweating is your body’s way of cooling itself; if you are hot you will probably sweat. But sweating does NOT guarantee a great workout.

An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.

FACT

A good workout will burn calories while you are exercising. A great workout sends you back to where you came from still burning calories. Within the industry, this phenomenon is referred to as “Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption” or EPOC.

Typical aerobic workouts will not burn significant calories after the fact. However, power based workouts intermingled with high intensity cardiovascular exercise has been shown to significantly boost EPOC. Certain training philosophies are founded on this concept, but they are not for everyone.

As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.

FICTION

There are none so righteous as the newly converted. Sometimes, particularly at the outset of a new exercise program, it’s easy to get so excited about being back into the game that you overdo it. You feel great the entire time you’re exercising, perhaps only a slight degree of burning. Watch out, you’re more likely to feel the pain later rather than sooner.

The real pain does not usually set in until up to two days later. When you get out of bed in the morning and feel as if someone has surgically removed all of the muscles in your body, filled them with rock salt, and re-inserted them in your sleep.

This is referred to as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). DOMS is misleading because it can lead you to believe that working out is always painful and it shouldn’t be. DOMS is a serious deterrent to beginning, and sticking to an exercise program.

The great news is that at the start of a program you don’t need to push hard to see results. The outset of a program is the time to build habits, not muscle mass.

Machines are a safe way to target and sculpt all areas of your body.

FICTION

Isn’t it true that you can sell a machine more than a technique? Who was it that originally began telling people that it was the “machine” that gave you the results? It was probably the same person selling the machine.
The main “machine” being used in any workout is your own body. How you use your “machine”, and how long you use it at a given time, will be the measure of your safety and your results, nothing else.

Don’t buy into the marketing; if the machine is not set correctly for you then you may still be at risk of injury. Furthermore, if you are not aware of your own bodies’ intrinsic compensation patterns then you may be doing more harm than good and setting yourself up for injury down the road.

Unless you have a coach or a trainer to give you a list of beneficial machines and can show you how to set them up for yourself, you may still be at risk of injury.