Busting Common Fitness Myths and Misconceptions

Hey guys!

There’s a ton of fitness misinformation out there. Last week we talked about how to filter fitness information, so hopefully you feel like you have a little bit of a grasp on what’s good vs bad.

Building on that, this week I’m going to take a look at some of the most common fitness myths and misconceptions to help steer you in the right direction. The article below talks about 33 workout myths, and it’s a great read if you have the time.

There are thousands of fitness myths that I could talk about, but I put together my own list of 10 that I hear all the time.

1. No Pain, No Gain

Myth: I need to push to the point of pain and be extremely sore all the time or I won’t see results.

Truth: While it’s true that you need to experience some level of discomfort in order to make improvements, the idea that you need to push to pain is entirely false. You should find a way to differentiate between some mild soreness due to activity and actual pain.

Pushing to pain will lead to an increased rate of injuries and inhibit your recovery from workouts. Plus, being constantly sore to the point where you need to skip a workout or modify daily activities could be a sign of overtraining and burnout. Recovery is extremely important for both building muscle and burning fat.

2. Spot Reduction Fat Loss

Myth: I can target specific areas of my body that I want to lose fat from. I can trim down my belly fat or love handles intentionally.

Truth: Losing fat is a process that occurs throughout the entire body and is influenced by nutrition and exercise. It’s just not possible to direct which part of the body you want to lose fat from.

You can however, target some areas via resistance training and muscle building. For example, if you are a man with a flabby chest, doing weighted chest exercises (push ups, dumbbell bench press, etc) would encourage your chest muscles to grow. Higher levels of muscle mass may distribute the fat differently on your body, causing you to like how you look more.

But that doesn’t mean you reduced fat specifically in that area, because again: it isn’t possible to reduce fat only in one area of the body.

3. Lifting Weights Will Make You Bulky

Myth: Most commonly among women that lifting weights will make them look bulky or “manly”

Truth: Lifting weights will help you to tone and sculpt your muscles, increase your strength and functionality, and improve your metabolism. Having a stronger metabolism due to having more muscle mass will allow you to eat more and be more effective in losing fat if you wanted to.

I promise, lifting weights for the average woman will not turn you into an NFL linebacker. People who are extremely bulky had to take drastic measures in their diet (including hormone therapies and steroids) to look that way. It won’t happen by accident.

Lifting weights will help you feel more confident in how you look and how you fit into your clothes.

As a fun fact, this myth is actually so common that it’s one of the main reasons I decided to become a certified personal trainer. I’m passionate about helping women realize the benefit weight training has on their body and quality of life. I guarantee this won’t be the last time you hear me voicing support in women lifting weights.

4. Cardio is the Best Way to Loose Weight

Myth: If I want to lose weight, I need to do a ton of cardio. I need to spend a ton of time on the treadmill even though I dread doing it.

Truth: Cardio is fantastic for your cardiovascular (heart) health. Everyone should be working cardiovascular exercise of some sort into their routine for the improved function of their heart and all the benefits it has to their overall health.

For weight loss however, cardio is entirely unnecessary. Yup, you read that right: you could lose fat while doing zero cardio. Your weight loss is largely dependent on your diet.

Eat more calories than you burn and you will gain weight. Eat less calories than you burn and you will lose weight regardless of how much cardio you’re doing.

In fact, many people would be shocked when I tell them that weight training is better for fat loss. Having more muscle increases your basal metabolic rate, which is just the number of calories your body burns by existing.

Muscle takes a lot more energy to maintain than fat, and thus if you have more muscle you will be able to eat more calories.

Put simply: cardio burns calories, not fat. You certainly can include cardio for the purpose of burning a couple extra calories and helping with your caloric deficit. But don’t think you NEED cardio in order to lose fat if you don’t enjoy doing it because that’s just plain wrong.

5. Carbs are the Enemy

Myth: I have to avoid carbs at all costs because they’re evil and will make me fat.

Truth: Carbs are an essential nutrient that is needed to fuel your workouts, recovery, and daily activity.

Being depleted of carbs will make recovering from workouts and building muscle extremely difficult. The key is to shoot for “real” sources of carbs such as sweet potato, brown rice, whole grains (oats, whole wheat breads and pastas), and fruits/vegetables instead of highly processed foods with loads of refined sugars.

6. You Need Supplements to See the Best Results

Myth: In order to build muscle or lose fat, I need to search for the best supplements and “magic pills”.

Truth: You can get all the nutrients you need when eating a well balanced diet consisting of whole foods.

While it’s true there are some scenarios where supplements are useful (later I’ll be doing an entire newsletter about which supplements are useful or not), the vast majority of supplements are not needed. They are marketed by companies with goals of making money, not helping you live your healthiest life.

Aim to “eat the rainbow” of foods, have a variety of unprocessed protein sources, and minimize the processed foods and you very likely will get all the nutrients your body needs.

7. My Metabolism Slows Down as I Age

Myth: My metabolism is slowing down now that I’m in my 30s, 50s, 70s etc. so that’s why I’m gaining weight. “I’m in my 50s now, so I have no hope of getting in shape”.

Truth: This is an extremely controversial one, but scientific literature says that our metabolism does not change as we get older. Rather, as we get older people are moving less and eating the same amount, thus leading to weight gain.

A 2021 study performed on around 6400 participants showed that metabolism plateaus and is basically flat from ages 20-60. They showed that only at age 60 does our metabolism start to decline, and even then the rate of decline is only about 1% per year.

Unfortunately, many people use their age as an excuse for why they can’t improve their health and achieve their fitness goals. Don’t let age stop you from starting to make better choices with your diet and exercise.

8. You Can Outwork a Bad Diet

Myth: It doesn’t matter what I eat as long as I’m working really hard in the gym and never skipping my workouts. Or similarly: I went to the gym earlier today so I can eat whatever I want this evening.

Truth: If your diet is crap, it doesn’t matter how hard you’re working in the gym. You will never see the progress and results you are looking for until you get your diet in check.

Just because you got a workout in doesn’t mean you can eat an entire pizza with no consequences. Instead of telling yourself that you can eat whatever you want because you worked out, flip the script and tell yourself that you need something nutritious and filling to help your body recover from your workout and reap the benefits.

9. If the Number on the Scale isn’t Changing, I’m not Making Progress

Myth: I’m only making progress if I see the number on the scale going down

Truth: The number on the scale is not the only measure of your progress. If you are strength training - and I suggest everyone should - and building muscle, your number on the scale could actually be going up.

I think for 95% of people, the scale is not useful at all. Focus on getting stronger, moving consistently, and eating quality foods and rest assured that your body will move in the direction. You will be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. It’s impossible to differentiate fat loss vs. muscle gain from the number on the scale, so don’t even bother looking at it.

10. Walking 10,000 Steps Per Day Will Keep Me Fit

Myth: As long as I walk 10,000 steps every day I will be in good health.

Truth: 10,000 steps alone does not constitute a workout plan, rather it should be something done in addition to other exercise. If you want to see meaningful change, you should be incorporating some degree of weight training and ideally finding some ways to elevate your heart rate a couple of times per week.

Having a goal to hit 10,000 steps is awesome! We generally should be trying to move around more than we are. But it’s not enough to provide meaningful weight loss done on its own as the only form of activity.

Ben’s Best

🍪 Made these breakfast cookies this week as a dessert. They were AMAZING. The recipe I did turned out to be about 510 calories and was gigantic. You could totally split this in half and be completely satisfied. Give it a try!

rigandhi_pt

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💭 Check out this video I enjoyed from Ali Abdaal on Youtube. I especially enjoyed the segment from 7:12-12:46. It was an interesting perspective that I haven’t really heard before. Listen on 2x speed like I did if you don’t have a ton of time

🚶 For the folks in the twin cities, check out this hike I did recently! It’s a 5 minute drive away from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and was phenomenal. Just slightly over 4 miles in total length, paved trail for around 80% of the hike, and a very pretty overlook at the top. Was a very easy hike and made for a great Sunday morning stroll.

✨ I got this Chips Ahoy protein powder from ghost recently that is delicious. I’m a full supporter of trying to get protein from whole food sources, but if you are in a pinch, this is the one I have been using recently and think it tastes great.

P.S. I have tried a bunch of different protein powders over the years, if you guys are curious about my takes on different brands let me know! I’d be happy to do a newsletter highlighting the pros and cons of each 😃 

Podcast episodes I listened to this week:

• Mind Pump: 2351: Short Workouts Vs. Long Workouts for Gains, When Losing Weight Can be a Bad Idea, What to Do When Squatting Hurts Your Knees & More (Listener Live Coaching)

  • Specifically loved the section near the very end that starts at 1:30.11 that talks about the weight not changing on the scale

• The Rich Roll Podcast: Navigate Modern Dating & Create A Healthy Love Life: Relationship Coach Matthew Hussey on Breaking Destructive Cycles, Attracting Authentic Connections & More

Weekly Action Points

1. Is there a piece of information you have heard in the past that you aren’t sure is true or not? Respond to this email with a question or fitness myth that you have so that I can tell you if it’s true or false based on what I know!

Exercise Goal for the Week: I want you to continue with exactly the same routine you had last week. What I’m adding this week actually has nothing to do with movement at all, instead I’m giving you homework.

Throughout this week, I want you to search Youtube for “benefits of weight training” or “weight training vs. cardio” (or something similar) and see what you can find. The goal is to watch a total of an hour of content related to this topic throughout the week. If you watch the videos at 2x speed (like I usually do), that means 30 minutes total or a little under four and a half minutes per day.

The goal here is two fold. Number 1: I am going to start talking about the importance of resistance training very soon and having you incorporate it into your routine. Number 2: I want you to actually practice finding fitness information.

We talked about filtering fitness information last week and this week broke down some common myths. So I’ve given you the basic tools you need to be able to find some fitness information on your own.

Nutrition Goal for the Week: I’m keeping the nutrition goal really simple this week. Your goal is to buy a big bag of carrots (minimum 32 ounces) for the week, and finish it by the end of the week. I don’t care if you put them in a salad, steam them, or eat them raw. We are just going to start getting into the habit of incorporating vegetables into our diet. This is about as simple as it gets. Buy bag of carrots. Eat bag of carrots.

That’s all I have for you guys, hope you all have an amazing week!

Ben

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