Common misconceptions about female fitness

Getting the best results from exercise can be difficult nowadays. Open any paper and you'll find a lot of hyped-up exercising tips claiming that you can actually lose weight in a very short period. But most likely these approaches are neither sustainable nor healthy for your body. And sometimes, taking a step in the wrong direction can set you back a long way, thanks to injury. So it's always best to do your workouts properly if you want to get the most out of them.

There are many misconceptions out there that can give people the wrong ideas about exercise. If you’ve been taken in by any of these myths, then it’s time to get your fitness facts straight.

Women should not train as hard as men

Most women have athletic potential to do high intensity training. The notion that women aren't as strong as men, or are unable to lift heavy weights, is simply a misconception. Sure, men and women have different goals, but they can actually be achieved with the same training programs. If you want to get a tighter and more toned body, you have to build muscle. In order to do that, you must lift weights and provide the body with enough calories to recover. Lifting those tiny dumbbells, so often marketed at women, just won't allow you to build up your muscles to give you the toning you want, even over multiple sessions.

It is also harder for women to build up and to increase the size and strength of their muscles than men, because they can’t produce as much testosterone as males. And to ensure a similar amount of bulk is gained, women have to train twice as hard as men, not the other way round.

One plan works for every woman

You may have come across a variety of workout plans, each presenting different training approaches that promise amazing results. But don’t expect to find the one plan that works for everyone. The fact is that every woman reacts to foods, training, and other factors very differently, so what works for others may not produce similar results for you. The only way to find out is to try lots of different exercises and programs, and to measure the results. One of them is sure to work better than another.

The ideal solution is to come up with your own fitness strategies, multiple training options for multiple environments, and a flexible diet plan. But heed these words of advice: the best diet and workout programs are the ones that you can stick with and follow consistently.

Muscles turn into fat when you stop working out

This myth about muscle transformation never seems to go away, so let’s get the facts straight. There is a process called “hypertrophy”, in which your muscle increases in size in response to strenuous training, good nutrition, and rest. However if you stop training for a while, a contrastive effect known as “atrophy” will occur. In this process your muscle fibers will shrink. But muscles don’t turn into fat when you stop working out - they simply become smaller due to inactivity.

If you take a long break from the gym and abandon healthy eating, naturally your body will store greater amounts of fat. That is what it has been programmed to do. Many women might relate this fat increase to the absence of training. You can prevent this by maintaining a regular diet when you’re not working out. Stick to healthy eating habit, and at the same time try to keep your body composition by doing light exercises, even if you don't have time for a full workout.

You can eat anything you want as long as you exercise

This statement is so far from being true that it can damage all your efforts to get in shape. We all have different metabolic rates that determine how many calories we burn while being inactive and while exercising. And metabolic rates can change depending on our age and even the climate. If you eat more calories than your metabolism lets you burn, you will gain weight regardless of the amount of exercise that you do.

The concept that you can eat whatever you want may have come from people with very high metabolisms. These people rarely put on weight, no matter how much they eat. Ladies who are not so lucky, however, should control what they eat even if they’re exercising hard.

Starting a workout program is one thing, but performing it correctly? Well, that can be challenging! Contact us today and see how we can shape your routines to get optimum results.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.


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