21 Biggest Myths About Exercise (2 of 4)

All Workout Sessions Must Be At Least One Hour

Sure, many fitness programs these days will last for an entire hour, but it’s important to keep in mind that that isn’t the bar you need to be hitting all the time. According to a 2012 study, those who exercised for only 30 minutes can get the same or even better results than those who regularly work out for an hour.

For those who worked out 30 minutes per day lost on average eight pounds over three months. Those who exercised for a day periodically only lost six pounds.

What this shows is exercising for longer periods of time doesn’t really provide much benefits in terms of losing body weight or fat.

Lifting Weights is The Way To Bulk Up

Whenever we think of weight lifting, we think of the bulky and buff people doing deadlifts. With this in mind, it makes sense for people who want to bulk up or add muscles will immediately turn to a lifting routine.

The thing is though, weight training will help, there are other factors at work. There’s actually a lot to it, like counting your calories and being methodical in how much weight you are lifting.

In truth, muscle mass gains stem from heavy weight training and an excess in calories. If you’re doing resistance training every one to three days per week and not getting enough calories, you’re likely not going to see much muscle growth.

Bigger Muscles Mean More Strength

Just because someone has more muscles than you, doesn’t always means they are stronger than you. One study in 2015 found that weight lifters and sprinters actually have stronger muscles fibres than even bodybuilders.

That’s not to say bodybuilders are weaker. They certainly have more muscles fibres than regular weight lifters and sprinters. That being said, this shows its a scenario of quality over quantity.

To Lose Fat In A Specific Area, Take Up Spot-Training

The idea around spot-training is that you are burning fat cells within specific areas on your body. You’d do this by training in that specific area more than others. For example, the training would suggest if you want to burn fat in your lower abdomen, you must do several hundred leg lifts. That or maybe doing thousands of squats in the stretch of days, you’d improve your quads.

While there is certainly some merit to doing those exercises and they are good for you, there’s actually no science behind that much being that beneficial to you.

A 1983 study once tested this by getting subjects to do 5,000 sit-ups over the stretch of 27 days (that’s roughly 186 sit ups per day.). After participants did that for so long, the study found that there was no significant change to the people’s body weight or body fat by the end of that study.

If You Want The Most Gains, Get Protein In You Stat

If you’re going to the gym, you’ll likely find so many people guzzling down protein shakes like they’re nothing. If you’re wondering what that’s all about, it’s got something to do with what’s called the “anabolic window”. It’s basically the timeframe post-workout where your body’s protein synthesis is at its max.

Another way to say that is this is the window of opportunity where your body is in muscle building mode.

Because muscles need protein and it helps with general muscle growth, people believe that you’ve got to put protein into your body within the next 30 minutes or else you’ll miss out on it. The truth is that’s a lie and that the anabolic window can be open for as long as 24 hours after workout.

That’s not to say the act of taking protein immediately is wrong. It’s merely not as important as people play it up to be. So long as you get your protein at some point during the day you should be good.