Don't Fall for These Five Fitness Myths You've Probably Overheard at the Gym

Dear all,
Thank you so much for your questions and feedback will try to answer your questions of course all body types are different and it's not a rule that may apply to everyone.

#1 All depends on your fitness level.
Begginer: will suggest to keep it simple flat but constant and moderate pace.
Intermediate: Once you learned to manage your own weight and with the help of a heart rate monitor and your personal trainer to assist you, you may want start inclining the treadmill or taking a walk out to a park with hills, or to the beach that will improve your cardio and endurance making you burn more cals.
Advance: At this point you know your body, how it wks and reacts to different scenarios. Your cardio will be harder to pick up with so you may want to increase the pace, resistance. How? Treadmills or outdoors: Weighted vest,hills, sprints, intervals. Strongly recomend you to keep track of your heart rate with the HR monitors great help.

#2 yes weight training develops muscle. But not green muscle like the Incredible Hulk. Of course we all tend to think that you will start looking like a big fat man with muscle. Not at all you take your body where you want it to be with the help of professionals in Sports & Fitness.
If you didn't know specially in women the more muscle the better since will help to prevent Oesteoporosis, balanced nutrition goes by the hand of a great weight training program from your PT o Fitness Specialist.

Freshvibe: Yes the more muslce you have the more calories from fat you burn. Just keep it light, long repetitions and great nutrition.

Lady: You're totally right common sense remember we are humans and we are not made the same which may apply to me will not apply to you. Again know your body really listen to eat while youre working out try to do not talk if youre wking out with a buddie that may help to understand what's going on with your body.

jezabel: i think already answer your doubt about the intensity of the wkouts. Yes your body get's use to it when you feel or see on ur heart rate monitor your droping the intensity try a different exercise or add little weight or make a quick cardio drill to pick up the HR again during the weight training. Sometimes just by lifting a 10lbs medicine ball over your head 15 reps while you go back to your squats or back exercise will boost ur HR :)

Lady M: yes 6pk its a serious think to get not impossible but lot of nutrition and dedication.

Frantastic: Yes Pilates are great! longer, leaner muscles but again NUTRITION will determine the look and shape of your body. Will recomend to go to your specialist to get in a realistic and well balanced plan to get where you want to be.

Thanks again for taking the time to you all to write your comments/feedback.
In health,
Suyumi Q

gorda... when your body temp goes up your thermostat is "ON". I agree that you can burn calories without sweating, hell you burn calories sleeping. Heartrate up, metabolism up, metabolism up, body temperature up, temp up = sweat... remember I agree dont have to sweat to burn calories... you dont even have to workout to burn calories. Do you sweat?!

my guess is that using small weights helps build muscle which will help you lose weight? is that true?

ok so I have a guestion. My arms have slimed and are getting toned but should I go light and add reps. I have broad shoulders and my body type tends to want to bulk up. I'm trying to be careful not to do that. Pilates in my opinion rock for abs and it makes you more flexible.

Glad to see that others out there are voicing their opinions on how wrong this is ...

Susan and Lady M-isn't it more important to be healthy than skinny? I am very lean, but I have a lot of muscle tone from lifting, and my cardio has improved greatly by building muscle. I can run a lot faster and for a lot longer than I ever used to. I'm not a skinny little stick, but I have well-defined muscles that look good and I can pound the bone and skin aerobics queens into dust!

I suppose it's about priorities-I'm in great physical shape because of weights, cardio and diet. I know that I look a LOT better in a dress than a skinny person because I've got the tone in my arms and legs to pull it off. If you prefer the 'eating disorder' look with no muscle tone, I guess that's your prerogative.

Sarah Jio, do you personally disapprove of proofreading, or is it your employer who forbids it?

Explain the logic in these sentences:

"By adding hand-held or Velcro weights only slows you down, which leads to an incomplete aerobic benefit." "By adding...weights only slows you." "By adding" is now a gerund? When did that happen? I didn't get the memo.

"Daily nutrition is also extremely dependent on the appearance of your midsection." NUTRITION is DEPENDENT on APPEARANCE now? Meaning a grilled chicken breast has less protein in it for a person with belly fat than for a person with a six-pack? Did you mean to say that the appearance of your midsection is in fact dependent on daily nutrition, which is the only arrangement of those two phrases that conveys any scientific sense whatsoever and is the exact opposite of what you said?

"Many people still believe that you have to work at a very high intensity in order to get see physical improvements."

Oh, wow, we get to get see! Can we get eat too? Can we get by adding only slows? Most of all, can we get more repudiations of scientific truths which then get published on a major Internet site?

re: weights.

women tend to think that they need to only lift the lightest dumbells -not true. You will not get bulky...you will get lean and toned. work till your muscles are fatigued...then switch to lighter weights and finish the rep. Also incorporating a good diet to help shed some pounds will also help, GET OFF THE SODA (including diet) and drink more water.

and if you want a great all over toner...try kickboxing....it tightens EVERYWHERE!!!!

i like turtles

Im confused on #1. I thought using light weights would add resistance, which would increase calorie burn?!?!

THIS IS A GOOD ARTICLE. MYTH #2, I HAD TO WORK ON. TRIAL AND ERROR. MY DAUGHTER NOTICED MY ARMS GETTING TO BULKY. I LOWERED THE WEIGHT. AND ADDED REPS. NOW, I HAVE MUSCLE TONE WITHOUT THE BULK.
YOU HAVE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR OWN BODY. LISTEN POLITELY THEN USE COMMON SENSE.

I am REALLY surprised at #1 !! I use hand weights when I get on my treadmill for the purpose of burning more calories...

I don't know about #2...if that is a myth, then how come all the fitness experts, trainers, and women who make exercise videos (and advocate strength training) all have large bulky thighs and arms that I would never want to aspire to be that size? Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who is quite slim, still doesn't have skinny legs. I wonder if it is because she works out so much. I want to look skinny, and I do. The only exercise I do is walking or running and I have skinny limbs and a flat stomach. Interestingly, when I joined a gym once and started working out on the weight machines to tone my muscles, I started looking bigger (yuk). I'll stick to my method!

For those of you surprised by number one, the reason you are surprised that it's a myth is because, IT'S NOT A MYTH! As an exercise physiologist, I know the ins and out of muscle and how it's gained, and calories and how they're burned. Let me break #1 down for you. Added weight equals added resistance. When muscles have to work to sustain that resistance their fibers use energy and that energy comes from broken down biomolecules (glycogen to glucose, etc) and many of those are stored in the muscle itself, many of those are also stored in fat. It's ignorant to basically say that added resistance does nothing to burn calories or enhance muscle performance/growth. There are several other "myths" whose "truths" are inaccurate, but we don't need to go into all of them now. Hold the weights and you WILL benefit. Oh, and do your own research before trusting a personal trainer. As "credible" as that title may sound, many of them have very VERY little training (if any) regarding muscles and their anatomy and physiology. Better information can be found online...except in articles like this.

I wonder if walking with weights would help get my heart rate up. My ankles and knees won't let me go any fasterWalking hills is hard on my joints .

Thank you,thank you, thank you! Keep the reality coming!!!

The other thing about wieght is that it helps prevent Osteoporosis.
I always get compliaments on my muscle's from men and I do not think I am bulky in a size 4-6.
Some women do delvelope more bulk because they have higher levels of male hormones.

Wow superiortireshop- That post was more annoying than this poorly written article, good job.

#1 is very misleading at best, and flat wrong at worst. She apparently forgot myth #6 Fitness gurus have more common sense than the average person.

Here's a perfect example... If you run 2 miles over the exact same stretch at the exact same speed but 1 time you use weights and the other time you don't, you will absolutely burn more calories and work your muscles harder over the mile with the weights.

If, as she says, you have to stop to walk for half the mile because the weights are too heavy, then yes, you're not getting the same workout. All things being equal, though, using weights will burn more calories and build muscle faster than without.