9 Deadly Myths About Exercise

I have a lot of thoughts on exercise.  Fortunately for me, I also have a blog.  People have a lot of weird ideas in regards to exercise and I’d like clear a few of the more popular myths up.

1. If Women Lift Weights They’ll Get Bulky

This is not true.  Men build more muscle than women because they have more testosterone.  If you’re a woman and you lift weights you’ll get fit, not bulky.  A lot of people in general avoid the weights because they “Don’t want to look like a bodybuilder.”  You will not accidentally start to look like a bodybuilder.  Even when men lift weights they won’t accidentally start to look like a bodybuilder.

Women who only do cardio end up looking like Olive Oyl from Popeye.  Having a fit body is way sexier than having a skinny body. This is not my personal anecdotal opinion, this is science. If you want to break some hearts, get off the elliptical machine and go do some squats.

2. If You Want to Lose Weight do Cardio.

Cardio is fine.  Do cardio if you want.  Just know that lifting weights burns way more calories than jogging or any other dumb cardio machine in the gym.  In addition to burning more calories during the actual event, weight training causes your body to keep burning calories even after you stop.

Muscle burns fat so the more muscle your body is comprised of the quicker your body will burn off fat.  If you want to lose extra body fat get off the elliptical and go do some squats.

You know who does only cardio at the gym?  Guys with tight pony tails who wear jeans to the gym.  That’s who.  Don’t be that guy.  Get yourself some athletic shorts and go hit the weights.

3. Your Exercise Program Should be Hard Enough to Make You Hate Life

This is super important.  Your exercise program should improve your life, not make you hate it.  If your workout is so hard that you’re near throwing up, then you will most likely burn out and stop going all together.  Find an exercise program that makes you feel better when you leave the gym than when you first got there.

You should be excited to workout, not dreading it.  The whole point of being fit is to improve your quality of life.  That doesn’t happen if you have to spend the rest of your day curled up in the fetal position.

Here’s my current basic exercise program and why I’ve chosen this approach.

Related: Easy 4-Day Gym Rotation to Help You Impress Strangers and Kids

4. Your Workout Should be Easy Enough That You Can Talk to Your Friend in the Middle of a Set

This is also not true.  Your body only changes when it’s being pushed.  If your workout is so easy that you can carry on a conversation during the middle of your lift it means you aren’t challenging yourself enough.

I see people who have been consistently going to the gym but their body never changes because they don’t push themselves.

Now, if the only way you’ll get yourself to the gym is if you can sit and talk with your friends the entire time, go for it I suppose.  It’s better than not working out at all.  If your goal is to reshape your body then you need to be lifting weights heavy enough that it requires your entire concentration.

A good rule of thumb for general fitness is you should be able to lift the weight between 8-12 reps per set.  You’ll do less reps but higher weight if you’re attempting to build strength, more reps but lower weight if you’re attempting to build muscle mass.  More on that in a minute.

Quick Vocabulary Lesson:
Rep: Is short for repetition and is one complete motion of an exercise.
Set: Is the group of consecutive reps. 
Example: I did 3 sets of 8 reps of bench press.

5. If You’re Working Out You Can Eat Whatever You Want

Wrong, bitch.  Even if you look like you’re physically in great shape you need to be eating a healthy diet because your body needs vitamins and nutrients or you’ll die.  Probably not right away, but eventually you’ll die.  You’ll die at an earlier age than you would have if you had just eaten broccoli sprouts.

But more important than living a long life, diet is super important to reaching your physique goals.  Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.  If you want cut and defined abs then you need to eat healthy.  This means lots of greens, lots of protein, limited carbohydrate intake, and cut out as much sugar as possible.

People will jog on a treadmill for 30 minutes then go home and drink a coke and treat themselves to a box of donuts and wonder why they aren’t losing weight.

It doesn’t matter how much you train, if you aren’t replenishing your body correctly then you aren’t going to grow bigger muscles and lose all that back fat.  If you want to get huge muscles you’ll need to increase your caloric intake.  Just make sure you’re eating healthy fats and lots of protein, not lots of simple carbs and sugars.

6. Eating Fat Makes You Fat

Speaking of eating healthy food, don’t buy fat-free foods.  Fat-free foods are gross and you won’t have any friends if you fill your fridge with fat-free stuff, food or otherwise.

Healthy fats are important to keep your body running at it’s optimum level.  Eating healthy fats such as nuts, avocados, and coconut oil aren’t the reason people get fat.  People get fat by getting too many calories from sugar and carbohydrates and living sedentary lives.

Carbohydrates can give you energy but if you don’t burn them off, your body turns that fuel to fat.  Sugar is basically worthless and is the main reason why American’s are a bunch of fat asses.

7. You Have to Spend Hours in the Gym in Order to See Improvement

People tend to think, in order to get the ideal body, they need to spend hours and hours in the gym.  This is simply not the case.  I’m stronger and have a more muscular body than any other point in my life and I’m doing it by consistently doing 45-60 minute sessions and taking lots of steroids.

In order to build muscle and lose fat, consistency is the key. Consistency and weight training. It’s far better to do a focused twenty minute workout five days per week rather than doing one three-hour lolly gagging session per week.

People naturally want to spend a long time in the gym when they’re first starting a workout program.  The problem is motivation goes away after about a month and you’re left trying to struggle through these long workouts.

Focus on one or two major muscle groups per workout and try to limit your total time in the gym to less than an hour.  This will help keep you consistent and avoid burnout.

Oh, also I was joking about the steroids.

Easy 4-Day Gym Rotation to Help You Impress Strangers and Kids

8. High Reps Build Strength, Heavy Weight Builds Size

A common misconception about lifting weights is what makes someone strong vs. simply big.  People think lifting heavy weights will get them huge muscles.  Jokes on them though, it just makes them actually strong.  Yes, your muscles will get bigger if you lift heavy weights, but if you’re goal is strictly aesthetics it’s a better use of time to lift slightly lighter weights but higher reps.

This doesn’t mean you want to lift a super light weight forty times to gain size.  The weight needs to be heavy enough that you’re struggling to complete the last few reps.

Generally speaking, lifting a weight that’s heavy enough you can only do it once or twice will build strongman muscles, lifting weights that are heavy enough you can only do them 12-15 times builds bodybuilder muscles.

If you’re trying to build big showy muscles then you want to isolate each individual muscle as much as possible.  If you’re building for strength you want to incorporate lifts that use several muscles at once.

Sets of 2-6 reps are ideal for building strength

Sets of 12-15 reps are ideal for building size

Sets of 8-12 reps are ideal for general fitness

Don’t worry about strength vs. size for the first while.  The important thing is getting in the gym and doing some kind of exercise.  It will take a while to get used to lifting weights but once you get used to it it’s way more fun and fulfilling than just doing cardio.

9. The Larger the Muscles The Stronger The Athlete

This isn’t really that helpful of a factoid for your average person but it’s interesting.  Strength and size aren’t exactly correlated.  People see bodybuilders (Think Arnold Schwarzenegger) and assume they are the strongest men in the world.  Bodybuilders are strong, but they aren’t even on the same planet as powerlifters or old men.  Old men are super strong.

Powerlifters are completely unimpressive looking other than being large humans.  They are impressive in their size, but until they start lifting like a thousand pounds, you wouldn’t know whether they were among the world’s best powerlifters or just your average fat guy.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the term ‘farm boy strength.’  You take your average bodybuilder and have him follow a farmer bucking hay for a couple hours and he’ll be on the floor gasping while the farmer is barely on his second can of chew.  Strength and size, not exact correlations.

10. Muscles Grow While You’re Lifting

Lifting weights doesn’t increase muscle size or strength while you’re working out.  Lifting weights just breaks down the muscle fibers.  Muscles actually grow in size and strength when they recover.  That’s why it’s important to get enough rest after you’re done exercising.

If you want to look like you have bigger muscles try wearing one of those tank tops where they get really skinny in the back. Those don’t look ridiculous at all.  Also, make sure you hold your arms away from your sides when you walk.  If you do those things all the girls will flock to you like you’re Starbucks in the fall.

Neat, huh?

In conclusion:

Some of you may be wondering how these myths are deadly. You may be tempted to suggest I just threw the term ‘deadly’ in there as a form of clickbait.  Others may have noticed there were ten deadly myths in this article even though the title clearly says nine deadly myths.  I hear you.

Listen, everyone can benefit from an exercise program that includes weights.  The important part is to be consistent with your workouts.  Whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle mass you need to workout consistently to see results and have friends.  Don’t be afraid to use the weights.  Weights do a much better job at burning off fat than cardio alone.

No matter how hard you exercise it’s important that you’re refueling your body correctly.  Eat healthy fats and protein and limit your carbs and cut out as much sugar as possible.  Neither bread nor ice cream is going to help you get a six pack or live to the ripe old age of 93.  However, they will help you not be alone your entire life, so…point is, don’t be a weirdo health nut who only eats kale.

If you enjoyed this article please share it and also stop buying fat-free foods.

Here’s a few more articles relating to health and fitness for you.

1. Easy 4-Day Gym Rotation to Help You Impress Strangers and Kids
2. The 5-Minute Workout
3. The 10-Minute Workout