Fitness Facts & Myths: 7 You Didn't Know
Fitness Facts & Myths: 7 You Didn’t Know
When it comes to fitness and dieting, there’s a lot of preconceived notions out there about what’s the most effective. But here at Jetsweat, we’re breaking it all down for you.
Fiction
Eating in a calorie deficit and lifting heavy will create muscles. Proper nutrition is the key to being able to sustain a healthy lifestyle but eating in a calorie deficit is only necessary when trying to lose weight or body fat. It’s more important that you are eating the right foods to fuel your body in order to maintain and nourish your muscles. Lifting heavy weights can definitely help create and grow your muscles but it’s not the only way that you can gain muscle. It’s more important that you’re lifting properly and getting enough reps in for an effective workout.
Fiction
More reps are better. While the number of repetitions that you get in are an important factor to getting the most effective workout it’s not necessary about the quantity. Depending on your fitness goals, doing less repetition with heavier weights will help increase your strength. While vice versa, more repetitions and lighter weight will help create hypertrophy which will help with muscle stamina.
Fiction
I need to workout at the gym for an hour and a half in order to get an effective workout in. This is a huge misconception for many people. Time has nothing to do with how effective your workout is. It’s about what you do during that time that matters. You can get an amazing workout with just three compound exercises with proper weight that aims at your target muscles.
Fact
1-2 hours before you workout you should eat a meal. While many may think that eating a full meal before you workout sounds terrible and that they wouldn’t be able to hold it down. It actually is quite the opposite. Although, it does matter what you fuel your body with beforehand as a milkshake would be very different from a turkey and cheese sandwich. Nourishing your body beforehand can actually help increase the performance of your workout especially if you include eating carbohydrates beforehand. According to 2013 research published in Sports Medicine. “Carbs are your body’s primary fuel for any high-intensity workout, and when your body is fueled, your body is going to put forth a better effort and get a better value, both in terms of caloric expenditure and muscle growth.”
Fact
Post workout you should consume something with protein in it. Your post workout routine is an essential part of your recovery and you should try your best to consume protein afterwards in order to support your muscle growth. According to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition having anywhere between 20-40 grams of protein within 45 minutes after working out will best optimize muscle recovery and growth.
Fact
You can’t outwork a poor diet. Some believe that if they exercise or work out enough it will balance out their unhealthy diet. But, unfortunately that’s not the case, even if you were to do an hour of cardio it still wouldn’t balance out eating McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All calories are not created equal therefore your body trying to process ice cream versus a vegetable stir fry are quite different.
Fiction
Rest days are bad for you. Rest days are necessary to allow the body a proper recovery so that it is ready to go for the next time you workout. Everytime you workout your muscles are getting microscopic tears in them and rest days allow for the tissue to heal and grow in order to make the muscles stronger. Resting is also a good way of preventing muscle fatigue and injuries.