Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about five common misconceptions about working out. This is going to be the first part in a three part series, so be on the lookout for part two coming soon. And if you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So, misconceptions about working out, there’s a lot of them that float around out there. And since this is the time of year where people start to get back on a regular schedule and get back to their routine of health and fitness, I thought this might be a good time to address some of these. There are things that come up quite a bit here as we bring in new clients and they start to learn that there is a million different ways to do things instead of the one way that we’re all told is the way to do it.
So you look at the general population, maybe you’re one of these people that you’ve got a gym membership to a big box gym and they’ve got a ton of equipment, right? You walk in and you sign up, you get the little key tag, and then from there it’s pretty much up to you. You can do the equipment, you can do the classes., you see all these people walking around, some are in shape, some aren’t, some people you might look at and think, “Wow, I want to look like them,” and others you look at and you feel their struggle with them because maybe you’re going through the same thing.
So, yeah, there’s really five areas that come back over and over and over again as far as these typical gym goers, that they want to know why people have been teaching them this and why we do things differently. So misconception number one is that you have to do long, boring cardio in order to lose weight and feel great and all those good things. Well, the truth is that, more often than not, people are doing that long, boring cardio because it’s the only machine they know how to use, right?
So if you’re new to a gym, and you walk in, and you’re looking at all these machines, you may not know what to do with any of them. And for risk of looking dumb, which is in our human nature not to want to do, we quickly run to the cardio section, grab the first treadmill, elliptical, whatever it is that we’ve seen before, jump on, and start going. Right?
So the truth is though, if you look at the other people who do that day in, day out … So maybe you’ve been going to this gym for a month and you’ve been doing the elliptical every day, and you watch these other people that come in with you. They’re at the same time, they’re doing the same thing. Man, they’re pushing really hard. Do their bodies change? Not typically, right? You’re not typically going to see the difference in physique that you’re probably looking for whenever you go to the gym. So that’s a first trigger kind of maybe that’s not the right thing. So what can you do instead?
Well, instead of long, boring cardio, we can either do some short burst sessions of cardio where we have kind of a consistent cardio pace, and then we do a burst in the middle of it for a little bit of a shorter time, and then go for our lower pace and then burst it again. So that’s called sprint training or burst training. Those are really great things to add in. You can also add your cardio into your workout and make it more of a metabolic workout, where you’re getting the heart rate lifted as you’re building muscle tone. So those are great things too.
Misconception number two is that you have to go and lift weights for an hour to an hour and a half to make anything happen and get some muscle tone. Well, honestly, that’s just not true. So training is still, I would say, relatively kind of in its toddler phase of growth because we’ve had trainers in some form or fashion for a majority of the world’s time, but as far as this being a profession and training the way that we do today, it’s still fairly new. So there were a lot of ideas that were given in the last few decades that really don’t apply anymore because research has shown us that things are different.
Now, if you’re doing powerlifting, if you’re doing bodybuilding, that’s a whole different deal, right? We’re talking about general health, weight loss, muscle tone, just overall feeling good, being fit, those kinds of things. Really, the max on that is about 45 minutes, but more often than not you can get that metabolic burst that I was talking about if you do it in about 30 minutes. So by lifting weights a little bit quicker and changing up what we’re doing … Now, obviously keeping good form, obviously … then we’re able to change the aspects of what we’re doing, burn more fat, build more muscle, and have a great time. Right? Plus we get to go on with our days and do exactly what we want to do instead of staying in the gym for a few more hours.
I’m reminded of this woman that, back many years ago whenever I was working at one of the big box gyms, she would come in and about six hours later we would see her leave. She would come to every class possible, she’d lift weights in between, she’d swim in between she, she’d go do cardio in between, and then she’d finally get enough and go, and she did that five days a week.
And that’s great that she’s that dedicated, but physically it broke her down to where she became chronically ill and had to stop exercising because it had done so much damage to her body by doing that heavy load that much. So yes, exercise is good for you. Don’t stop doing it, but you do need to lighten it up to where it’s enough for your body but not too much because it does break our bodies down little by little, and we have to take time to recover and repair, like we’ve talked about before, so we can go back in stronger and better than we were the day before.
So i’m going to end part one here. In part two we’re going to be talking more about minconceptions about working out..
If can’t wait for part two, or you want to know more about Custom Fitness and what we do here, then please give us a call. If you’re wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. Our trainers are here to look out for you and make sure that you are meeting your goals in a safe way.
At Custom Fitness, we customize a plan for you. We sit down with you and find out what your needs are and then build a health and fitness plan around that. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.