In my quest to become an off-brand Whitney Simmons, I have come across a large assortment of "tips and tricks" to achieve my fitness goals. From the internet, as well as personal experience, I have found that a few of these tricks that were too good to be true. In fact, they were tricks; they just plain didn't work. With that, here are six fitness misunderstandings that are probably preventing you from reaching your goals.
1. Supplements do the work for you.
These supplements and detoxes are, in my opinion, marketing ploys that target the insecure. Rude. They're selling the idea that you can use their product and live your same lifestyle, and that you'll somehow become super fit in the process. But a shot of apple cider vinegar won't boost your metabolism up to a rate where you can eat whatever you want. Whether it's this, skinny time tea, bcaas or another supplement, you have to know that your progress ends up coming down to you putting in work at the gym. While these can be used as tools along the way, fitness goals can be attained without supplements.
2. Doing hours of cardio will get you super fit, and fast.
Also, no. But take this one with a grain of salt, because everyone starts fitness at a different place. But if you're like me and were never overweight, just recreationally jiggly and not a big fan of swimsuits, this is not the technique for you. It is anything but optimal for fat loss, and it's extremely boring. This type of exercise doesn't build muscle, but will actually take away the shape and curves you already have. So, if you're like me and not trying to be a board, a good alternative would be high intensity interval training (HIIT) cardio. It takes a fraction of the time and boosts your metabolism for up to 24 hours after the workout.
3. You have to be on a low-carb or low-calorie diet to see progress.
If you get nothing else out of this article, please understand this: do not starve yourself. It won't benefit your physical health, and it sure as hell won't help your mental health. There are loads of websites where you can figure out how many calories or what ratio of macros to eat per day. Or, if you're able to, see a dietitian! To lose weight at a healthy rate, you should be accommodating to the number of calories you need to survive as a human while also accommodating the number of calories you need to be gaining muscle. When we gain muscle, we see our bodies change. Which brings me to point #4…
4. Lifting weights makes you bulky.
This one is targeted mainly for women. Many women look at female bodybuilders and think that if they lift even a little bit, they'll be "huge" and conventionally unattractive. There are a couple things to think about: bodybuilders are on supplements and train for hours a day 6+ times a week, all while training with a goal of competing in mind. If you're just trying to live a healthy lifestyle, your results are going to be drastically different. Lifting weights actually gives the body a lot of shape; this is where your butt, abs and overall "toned" look comes from. Companies like Gymshark and Alphalete do a really good job of showcasing muscular women in a positive light. A lot of them are bloggers too and have workouts you can follow if you're new to strength training and don't really know where to start.
5. If you’re not sore, then you’re not working hard enough.
So, the entire process of building muscle comes down to breaking down the muscle by causing a lot of tiny tears through actions like lifting weights, so that it can then build itself back up stronger. During periods where you are sore, that means the muscle has broken down in an extreme sense, (really a large amount of tiny tears have occurred). While some people like being sore because it is proof of how hard they worked out the day before, it makes it much harder or even impossible to train the next day. This leads to habits of skipping workouts, and then, all of a sudden, you haven't been to the gym in three weeks. If you're in the gym, and you're not sore and dying, don't be so quick to add another set or up your weight. Trust in your body and that it's doing what you want it to do. You can still get the gain without an overwhelming amount of pain.
6. You can target fat loss.
Throw all of those "100 Squats a Day" challenges away; they are not worth your time. Sometimes, it seems like fitness is a formula: "If I run a lot and do a lot of squats, then I should be lean with a fat ass, right?" Sadly, it's not this easy. The best way to attain overall fat loss while gaining curves is to workout your whole body. There's really no secret; it's going to the gym and working out hard. You will see your body gradually change and be so much happier than waiting for your ass to suddenly appear. [While this is the general consensus, this video is interesting and goes into the science as well as the cases where it does work! Go and learn!]
In short, do your research and ask questions. If you think you're alone in this, I promise there is a gigantic community out there who wants to help you reach your goals in a safe and reasonable way. YouTube has a ton of workouts to follow and websites like bodybuilding.com can give you tips on form and execution. Okay kids, now get those gains.
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