8 Myths

Myth 1: Walking is a great way to get fit and lose weight

If you power walk for 10 minutes on a flat road, you will burn around 20 calories..which is the content of a raw carrot. If you run for 10 minutes on a flat road at about 10km/h you will burn around 100 calories, which is a regular skim-milk flat white with no sugar.

Myth 2: Low-intensity exercise burns more fat than high-intensity exercise

The argument here is that low-intensity exercise sources almost all of it’s energy from fat stores, which is true. This little charmer was put out by the equipment manufacturers to encourage more people to cruise around the cardio gear thinking they were burning fat because they were training at 65% of their maximum heart rate while flicking through a copy of Cosmopolitan. It’s pretty simple… the harder you train the more calories you burn!

Myth 3: Never train on an empty stomach

Well, this one is the source of plenty of debate. When you havn’t eaten for a while, such as first thing in the morning , your body is glycogen-depleted and you are more likely to use stored fat as an energy source. If you eat before you train..you are burning off the food you just ate…if you train on an empty stomach..you are burning fat and building muscle. If you really want to - eat a light snack half and hour before hand such as a piece of fruit which is the best thing. And a big glass of water.. Personally, I love to train before brekky.

Myth 4: You shouldn’t train with weights every day

Sure you need to give your body time to recover from a hard weight-training session, but you can still train with weights every day if you are training specific parts of the body in each session. For example: legs on Monday, chest and biceps on Tuesday, back and triceps on Wednesday and so on.

Myth 5: Pilates, yoga and stretch classes are great for weight-loss

Pilates and stretch classes are fantastic for posture, strength, flexibility , breathing and mind-body connection. But for weight loss? Shithouse. The heart rate simply isn’t elevated enough to burn calories at any significant rate. Yoga and pilates, fine for your mind.. but if you wan’t to lose weight, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Myth 6: You can spot-reduce fat

You just can’t. End of story.

Myth 7: Women get big if they train with weights

Last time I checked, us chicks were loaded up with a little thing called oestrogen, which makes it tough to build muscle mass. For that you need testosterone. So… no, this one’s a fairytale. However, we can all change the shape of our bodies for the better with resistance training, which means that your muscles will become more defined, toned and shapely.

Myth 8: I’m not a sweater

hmm..If you are not sweating, then quite simply..you are not training hard enough! Every one sweats… some people just use this as an excuse… they plain and simply didn’t train hard enough.