Common Myths

This week Melanie has started to work a lot harder. When you train consistently its quite incredible how much you can achieve in a short time. The secret is knowing exactly how much to up the intensity or duration of exercises and when to do it. Try to remember this when working out, every three to six weeks you should be trying to work at higher intensities, longer durations, higher weights, more repetitions and most importantly – new exercises.

Over the years I have heard so much conflicting advice from friends, magazines and other fitness professionals. It is sometimes hard to separate the facts from the fiction. Therefore here are a few common myths.

Exercising at lower intensity burns more fat – False. Although you burn a higher percentage of fat at lower intensities, you will never achieve the massive calorie expenditure that comes with high intensity exercise. Therefore you will always burn a higher total amount of fat by working at higher intensities.

Strength training will ruin your flexibility – False. Incorrect strength training may have this effect, but an intelligently designed program in which your muscles work through their full range of functional movement will actually increase flexibility.

Running is the best way to get fit for sport – False. If you are training for a particular sport, your fitness program must be ‘sport specific'. Take into account what your sport requires – you never run more than 20 feet at a time on a tennis court, so why run constantly in a straight line for 30 mins? Try to get advice from an SAQ qualified instructor who will be able to suggest a more appropriate program.

Bigger muscles are stronger – Not necessarily true. The key factor in strength is the ability of muscles to work together as a group to stabilize and control a movement. Quite often, pure bulk is misleading and does not equate to strength. Again – training should be specific: if you want big muscles that look good on the beach your training will be different to someone who wants to run a marathon, which in turn will be different to a footballer.

 

Melanie's Diary Week Nine:

I am now starting to see an improvement in my fitness levels and lung capacity to when I started this exercise challenge eight weeks ago. When I first started the thought of running distances and exercising for an hour at a time made me feel tired and short of breath. Now I feel comfortable throughout the sessions and look forward to the next. This week Ed has really pushed me to force myself a little bit further outside of my comfort zone and I am feeling great as a result. I cannot say that I do not ache for at least three days afterwards but there is nothing as rewarding as coming out of the gym knowing you have worked as hard as you can. I am now into a routine and looking forward to each session.