7 workout myths

7 Workout Myths Your Trainer Wishes You'd Stop Believing

August 27, 2016 by Caitlyn Fitzpatrick

 

With new weight loss tips coming out every week, it's hard to know what truly works when it comes to looking and feeling your best. Do you need to be in the gym for hours a day to reap the benefits? Does it matter if you stick with the same workout routine every day? Are you supposed to go for a sweat sesh on an empty stomach? To make sure that you're really making use of your time in the gym, we talked to Chris Kelly, a CrossFit level one trainer and certified personal trainer in New York City, to debunk those workout myths that are holding you back! If you believe any of these common misconceptions, it's time to erase them from your mind and get back into the gym with a fresh perspective.

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Myth 1: Cardio is the only way to lose weight

People think that just because you tend to sweat more during cardio, it means that that's the best way to drop the pounds — but that's just not the case. "Strength training burns more calories over time than cardio," Chris said. Your body's metabolism speeds up for a longer period of time after lifting weights and calorie burning continues hours later.

Myth 2: You shouldn't eat before working out

"This one can get a little bit tricky depending on what you're doing," Chris explained. There's a difference between lifting weights and training to run a marathon. But the general rule is to fuel your body properly 90 minutes to two hours before a workout. Two tablespoons of your favorite nut butter along with whole-wheat bread or oatmeal is a great option. And adding a piece of fruit will allow your body to convert the natural sugars into energy easily so that you're ready to go! But steer clear of high-fiber foods, as it can upset your stomach.

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Myth 3: Lifting weights will make you look bulky and manly

This is probably one of the most widely talked-about workout myths, but it really depends on how much weight and how many reps you're doing. Doing more reps with a lower weight helps you tone, and doing fewer reps with a higher weight contributes to bulking — but only over an extended period of time. Chris explained that adding extra weight to your routine once or twice a week won't suddenly make you bigger, but it will help you develop strength (and who doesn't want that?!).

Myth 4: You have to spend hours at the gym to get a good workout

Research says that 10 minutes of exercise at a time, three to five times a day, has major health benefits. "So if your schedule is crazy and you're unable to work out, if you're able to spend 10 minutes before work and during your lunch break, it will help," Chris suggested. The key here is not allowing your body to get bored with the same workout, so switch up which muscle groups you're working out every day over the course of a week.

Myth 5: Working out a lot makes up for a poor diet

Not every person benefits equally from the same meal plan and workout regimen, so it's all about finding the ones that works best for you. But it's pretty universal that your body needs lean protein, complex carbs, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. So you may be thinking — what about those people who eat donuts every day but still look GQ-worthy? Looking healthy on the outside doesn't necessarily translate to being healthy on the inside. It's a very real possibility that high cholesterol is lurking under a toned body because of a lack of proper nutrition. Chris advises his clients to add something to their diet instead of telling them to give something up. So if chips are their go-to afternoon snack, he tells them to also grab a piece of fruit. Over time people tend to wean off of the chips and make healthier choices.

Myth 6: More is better

Depending on your goals, adding more weight to strength training can be counterintuitive. Just because someone is lifting more weight or going longer with cardio doesn't mean that they're benefiting more. Ask someone with big muscles to run on a treadmill and you may just smoke them. "Pick a program that's going to help with all areas of your fitness," Chris said.

Myth 7: Being sore after a workout always means that it's working

Some people experience delayed onset muscle soreness — which means that the sore feeling after a workout doesn't kick in until up to 48 hours afterwards. So feeling sore or discomfort after that time raises red flags. "There's a difference between being sore and being in pain," Chris confirmed. To help your body recover properly, there are a few things to remember: don't work the same muscle groups on back-to-back days, eat complex carbs and protein to rebuild the muscles, hydrate, sleep, and stretch.

Image Source: Bravo

Break this habit

The Number 1 Bad Habit You Need to Break If You Want to Lose Weight

January 20, 2016 by Leta Shy

                     

     

Kimberly Snyder might just be the queen of detox. Not only does she have practically all of Hollywood sipping on her Glowing Green Smoothie, but she also just released a new book, The Beauty Detox Power ($19), to address the more emotional aspects of what it means to detox. In fact, she believes in how your emotional state helps or hinders weight loss so much that she wants you to stop a habit that's common among many women. If you do, you'll see weight-loss results even faster, Kimberly promises.
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Your new mission? Stop with the negative talk if you want to lose weight. It may sound like it won't be effective, but Kimberly's reason for wanting you to stop body shaming yourself in order to see the pounds drop actually has scientific heft. "Most people don't even realize what they're saying to themselves, and most people only think that the only factors that affect their weight are what they're eating and how they're working out," Kimberly said. In fact, studies have shown that your thoughts matter when it comes to your waistline. Kimberly points to a Harvard study that followed 84 cleaning women; half were told that their physically demanding jobs met the requirements for exercise as set by the Surgeon General, while the other half weren't given any information about their activity level and calorie burn. After a month, researchers found that the group of women who were told that what they were doing was good for them lost body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and BMI — even though they hadn't changed anything about their actual physical habits or altered their diets at all. The other group, on the other hand, didn't lose any weight. "Your thoughts are nutrition in the way that food is," Kimberly explained about the study results. "Your mind really has a big part in shaping your body. If you keep saying to yourself, 'It's so hard for me to lose weight, I'm just going to gain it back,'" then you aren't setting yourself up for success.
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Kimberly's advice to stop with the "I'm fat" talk can be easier said than done, especially in a world of constant online judgment and photoshopped images of the "ideal" woman. Even Kimberly herself admits that she used to participate in casual body bashing when with friends. But knowing that thoughts can affect actual change should help you nix the habit, she says. "It's just a shift in listening to what you're saying," she advised. "Stop saying negative things about your body, whether it's out loud or in your head. It's the first important thing" if you want to lose weight.

the 3 best Abs exercises

3 Intense Bodyweight Moves to Tone Your Lower Abs

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

              

 

The infamous lower-belly "pooch" plagues plenty of women, but finding the right moves to target this problematic area is easy. Whether you're a yoga star or gym rat, there's an exercise on this list to suit your taste.

1 Boat Pose (Navasana)

 

For all the yoginis out there, a few rounds of Boat Pose will challenge your strong core and tighten up those lower abs:

• Begin sitting on your mat. Bend your knees and lift your feet off the floor, balancing on your tush. Keep the spine long and straighten the legs as much as you can without rounding the back. If this is too hard, then keep the knees bent — you're still working your core.
• Perform six rounds of Navasana, holding the pose for five breaths each. Or challenge yourself and try to hold for 30 seconds to one minute without a break!

                

2 Ab Scissors

 

For anyone who grew up dancing, you'll be well acquainted with the ab scissors that rock your lower abs while lifting your booty:

• Lie flat on your back. Extend your arms so they're against the sides of your body with your palms pressing into the floor, or bend your elbows and place your palms under the back of your head. Bend your knees and draw them into your ribs. This will make it easier to pull your navel in toward your spine and actively press your lower back flat on the ground.
• Lift both legs straight up toward the ceiling, continuing to engage your abs and pressing your lower back into the ground. Keeping your core strong, slowly lower your right leg down toward the ground until it is a few inches above. Then slowly scissor your legs, lifting your right leg back up as you lower your left leg down toward the ground.
• You may not feel this until you do it for a while, so repeat this move for a total of 20 to 30 times on each leg (or more if you're still not feeling it).

                

3 Elbow Plank

 

Boot camp buffs and ladies who love a traditional gym routine will love the elbow plank that gives an all-ab workout:

• Start on the floor resting on your forearms and knees.
• Step your feet out one at a time, coming into a plank position.
• Contract your abs to prevent your booty from sticking up or sinking. Your spine should be parallel to the floor, with your abs pulling toward the ceiling.
• Hold 30 seconds and work your way up to one minute, as you get stronger.

Cutting sugar

The Surprising Things That Happen to Your Body When You Cut Sugar For 10 Days

July 12, 2016 by Leta Shy                   

If you need more convincing that refined sugars are wreaking havoc on your health, then look no further than this newest study, which shows that cutting added sugar for just a few days dramatically improves health.
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The study, published in Obesity, followed 43 obese children with chronic metabolic conditions such as hypertension. The researchers changed their diets for nine days, substituting their normal snacks and drinks with ones that kept the calorie counts the same but restricted sugar — so instead of sugary yogurts, pastries, and cereals, the kids were fed hot dogs, bagels, fruit, and pizza. The results were "striking," says lead author and pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig, MD. Even though the children were eating the same amount of calories, just eliminating added sugar from their diets improved almost all areas of their metabolic health, such as lower blood pressure, LDL ("bad") cholesterol, blood sugar, and insulin levels, and improved liver function tests. Plus, even though the experiment was designed to maintain weight — the children were given more food whenever they started to lose weight — the kids told researchers that they felt fuller on the lower-sugar diet.
Lustig calls this finding "the strongest evidence to date that the negative effects of sugar are not because of calories or obesity." "This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it's sugar," he says. The findings are also a clear indication that monitoring added sugars in your family's diet is extremely important for improving health and may affect how your body deals with cravings and satiety cues. Added sugars can show up as many different names on ingredient lists, so it pays to read nutrition labels and go for unprocessed foods whenever possible. Take it from Lustig, who explains that when it comes to what you put on your plate, a calorie is not just a calorie, and in fact, "sugar calories are the worst."