The health and fitness lies you are fed

Yesterday I wrote about the need to eat well, exercise to show respect for your amazing body. The problem is many people pay attention to long standing fallacies that plague an industry with some pretty amazing minds. So here's a quick post to put a stop to the nonsense based on my study in health, anatomy and physiology, fitness programming, strength and conditioning.

A quick education into health and fitness

1. Fat is good. Well good fat is good.
Dose up on it. I'm talking nut oils, omega 3 fats that come from fish, avocado- all the very best foods. These foods will help improve your mood as well as help you lose weight.

2. Fat, protein, carbs- the chain of energy burning command.
This means that your body will burn fat first and then protein and so on. This is why people tell you to ease off on carbohydrates (like pasta) but carbohydrates are your friend you must have them in your diet. You just can't have a diet solely of carbs without an active lifestyle.

3. HIIT (high intensity interval training), tabata, Fartlek training and crossfit are your friend. They work on maximum effort in shorter bursts increasing thresholds (aerobic and anaerobic- movement with and without oxygen) whilst developing a range of muscle groups. These types of fitness are the forms you want to participate in to create a body transformation. Not regular straight, slow paced cardio. Ok? The bonus is these training methods fit perfectly with our time poor world (and over scheduled lives) and therefore leave no excuse for respecting our bodies and making that healthy change. Make it a priority.

4. The method of training purely dictates the physical outcomes.
If you complete exhaustion training (repetitions until failure) you will build muscular endurance and lean muscle mass. If  you work to intervals you will increase aerobic, anaerobic capacity, ability to clear lactic acid from the muscles and develop tone. If you do heavy weights with small repetitions focusing only on power and strength with long recovery periods in between you will be working to build your muscle and increase it's size. If you are running on a treadmill, riding your bike you will work your aerobic or lung capacity, maybe  your legs if you go fast enough or if you hit hills frequently at pace.

5. Women who lift weights will NOT end up looking like men. This is probably the biggest fallacy of them all. I'm not sure whether its simply weak minded men coming up with this notion or women who are scared they'll surprise themselves with how capable they truly are. Personally feeling strong physically is empowering in more ways than one and from experience, men (especially those with great character) do look at you differently and its not about your physical appearance- that I think is something worth striving for. So remember ladies...and men...strong women who lift weights they are those women that men ogle over in the movies. Toned, lean, confident and healthy.

6. Your muscles operate in pairs. Therefore if you work your biceps for example and not your triceps you will end in an injury. Similarly if you hold weight in your stomach your back will always be week. Furthermore men who work on their chest, arms and back and never their legs not just look disproportionate but they are also putting unnecessary pressure on the lower half of their body. Bottom line- Marvel characters can run with an excessive V shaped body humans not so comfortably.

7. Weight on a scale means nothing. Measurements are what you should go by. Why? When your measurements shrink it is because you have increased your lean muscle mass. The only concern is for women...do not measure yourself around the time of your period. Many of us bloat at this time, there's no point losing motivation over a monthly body ritual.

8. Skipping meals DOES DECREASE your metabolism and will result at some point in overeating which entirely defeats your mindset about skipping a meal in the first place. Just eat.

9. Rest days are the key to success. Rest includes things you mightn't consider as 'nothing' like walking barefoot and singing or meditating with your feet up against a wall. Without your rest days your workouts are ruined, so rest.

10. I have to work out for a long time to get the effects of exercise. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Again it depends on what you want. Yes you can easily do a few hours pumping weights no issue to have a low to medium intensity and control of your muscles is essential but if your focus is blasting fat and conditioning 3 hour gym workouts aren't for you. You need to think about what you are trying to achieve and as you are improving alter what you do. Don't start with 30 minute medium workouts if 30 minutes is easy for you- change the intensity or change the duration of your workout. Remember if it doesn't challenge you it certainly won't change you. So get sweaty!

11. I can never eat anything I want. Rubbish. You can, you just need to understand that the more you eat that has high calorific content the more you need to exercise. If you don't have time then re-evaluate your food choices.

12. Sleep. The key to nailing your life. Invest in it. I mean an expensive bed, duvet, linens, pillows all of it. Investing in your sleep will be the best investment you ever make.

Any questions? Hit me up.

Till next time...stay happy and healthy!

Jules....