Five ridiculous fitness myths

The title says it all. The fitness industry has many methods of keeping myths alive so they can make money to address the false problems these myths create.

Myth 1: You need fancy/specialized/expensive products

If you have ever been up late, you have seen some silly infomercials for some ridiculous fitness products that make outlandish and foolish claims for fitness success. They suck. And, the companies that produce and market them prey on the weak and lazy. They promise fast results with little or no work.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against these companies producing these products, nor am I against them marketing and selling them. What I am against is the willingness of people (i.e. you and me) to buy into the “shortcut scheme”. You don’t get in shape by being lazy. You get in shape by working.

The Truth: There are no shortcuts

The truth is that you need none of these things to achieve your fitness goals…unless one of your fitness goals is to waste money on stupid, useless products. In which case, congratulations. Welcome to Sucksville, population YOU.

There are absolutely no shortcuts to achieving fitness goals. You have to put in the work to get the results. Save your money, spend your energy.

Myth 2: You can spot reduce

Spot reduction is the ridiculous idea that if you work a particular area of your body (e.g. your inner thigh), then that spot will begin to get firmer or less flabby. On the surface, it seems like a viable idea. Ironing a spot remove the wrinkles. Polishing a spot makes it shine. Cleaning a spot removes the dirt. So why is this different?

Because those things are inanimate objects and your body is a system of processes, and those processes react in certain ways to things that happen outside of your body.

The Truth: Fat loss occurs beyond your control

Your body will pack on fat in a specific order. For example, you may put on weight in your thighs first, then your stomach, then your face.

You with me?

So here’s the kicker…you will lose weight in the exact opposite order. That means you will lose fat in your face first, then your stomach, then your thighs. So you can work your stomach all you want, but you will never get a six-pack until you start losing fat FROM YOUR ENTIRE BODY. You’ll have very strong stomach muscles under a nice, thick layer of fat.

The only way you can get firmer is to lose the fat and you do that by working your whole body, not by working spots.

Myth 3: You can eat whatever you want

I love food. I don’t mean I enjoy an occasional meal. I mean, I LOVE food. It borders on unnatural. And I make no apologies for that. So when I hear or read an advertisement that claims, “Eat whatever you want” or some other paraphrase, it makes me think of what that would mean for me. I would eat a Chinese food and ice cream buffet.

Five times a day.

Every day.

That is, until I would have to be loaded onto a flatbed truck.

And that truck would remain parked in front of the buffet.

The Truth: Fitness requires sacrifice

Sorry folks, but the you can’t eat whatever you want. You have to make choices that lead to your goals. If you really want to get fit and lose fat (those two are not necessarily the same) you can’t do all the same things that got you fat and out of shape.

It’s that simple.

You have to change something. You have to make a sacrifice. You don’t get to eat whatever you want. You get to eat in moderation and you get to eat healthier foods. If you don’t want to, then you really don’t want to get fit and lose fat.

Myth 4: You need to lift weights

Don’t get me wrong, lifting weights is a great exercise. It helps build lean muscle mass, strengthen bones, and it can assist in improving your cardiovascular endurance. But, dude, seriously, you don’t have to lift heavy, hard, and often to lose fat or gain fitness. The primary advantage of lifting weights is to build muscle.

But lots of muscle does not make a person fit. It makes them have a lot of muscle. You need to decide for yourself what “fitness” means. If it means “having a lot of muscle”, then eat a ton and lift heavy, hard, and often.

However, if it means something else, like, say, losing 10 pounds, then you won’t have a lot of luck with weight training. There are lots of muscular folks who cannot run more than a quarter mile. Fitness is an individual goal.

Decide what yours is.

The Truth: Resistance training comes in a variety of forms

That doesn’t mean you should have some kind of resistance training in your fitness routine. You should, but it doesn’t have to require a gym membership and fancy equipment with attachments and complicated lever and pulley systems. You can use your own body weight. Exercises like lunges, push ups, crunches, planks, etc. utilize only body weight and the make for great exercises to strengthen muscle.

Myth 5: You don’t have to work hard

We are bombarded with silliness about how easy it is to lose weight or get fit (all you need to do is buy my product/system/contraption). People don’t get out of shape overnight. They don’t lay down looking like Adonis and wake up look like Homer Simpson. It takes time to get out of shape.

The reality is that it takes even more time to get back into shape. If you fall for the “get thin quick” scheme, then you really aren’t interested in being fit and thin. You’re interested in short cuts.

But, there are no short cuts.

The Truth: Your results are directly proportional to your efforts

You want to get fit. You are going to have to work. The harder you work, the better your results.

That’s life. You want it, you work for it. Period. You want to pretend and play, then that’s what you’ll get. You have to be honest about where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to get there.

Then you work. Hard.

Period.