Exercise and common myths.
Overtime, great amount of information about exercise and in general  physical activity has been built up on the internet. Plenty of guidelines and
articles are available in books and newspapers, since people are getting more sensitized
to fitness and health issues. However, some pieces of information are not accurate or
they may be contradicting to each other, causing confusion and misconceptions to the
reader. In this page we will try to put things in order by making clear what is true and
what a myth is, regarding exercise. Nowadays, a lot of sciences, like pathology,
physiology and geriatrics, deal with issues related to physical activity and fitness. Thus, plenty of
information is released quite often. The problem is that although in many cases this
information is based on solid evidence, sometimes lacks adequate documentation and leads
to premature conclusions.
We commit ourselves that this page will be updated as soon as new reliable announcements
come to the surface of publicity. Now let’s proceed to the issues that
follow.
 The best time for
exercising is after meals. Perhaps some slow, easy-going walking is
acceptable but nothing more demanding than that. After a meal, a lot of blood is required
in the digestive system. In fact, the reason why many people get sleepy after a meal is
that the brain does not get enough blood to be fully functional. Laborious physical
activity after a meal will cause a lot of strain on your heart by increasing the blood
demand in your muscles, when this amount of blood is needed for digestion in the
gastrointestinal track.
Exercising certain
parts of the body will reduce the topical fat in this area. This is not
true. When our body gets more energy from foods than the needed amounts, fat accumulates in certain areas, like hips, neck and around
the waist. When we consume more energy than we get, because of either increased physical
activity, low caloric intake or both, the
procedure works the other way around and the fat sheds equally from all of the parts of
our body. There is no exercise whatsoever that affects just the local fat.
Drinking water
just before a training session will cause muscle cramps. This is absolutely
wrong. If you do not drink enough water, you get dehydrated because of the perspiration
and the muscle cramps are inevitable. Thus, you should drink plenty of water before,
after and, if necessary, during the exercise session.
Only overweight or
obese people need to consult their doctor, before starting an exercise
plan. This is false. Only a physician can determine an individual's ability
to be involved with a certain exercise program. Of course, it is very unlikely for a
doctor to discourage somebody to exercise, unless there is a very serous and temporary
reason. On the other hand, not all exercises are suitable for everyone. An exercise plan
will be set, according to a person’s medical history, age and level of fitness.
Even people who are considered healthy can experience problems, while training, if they
have an undiagnosed medical condition, such as diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Stretching after
exertion can prevent muscular soreness. This is not true. Stretching helps
in maintaining the flexibility of muscules and joints but it cannot prevent delayed onset muscle soreness to occur.
On the other hand, proper warming before and cooling down after exertion can help.
Any exercise can
reduce body fat. This is true but if you really want to lose weight, you’d better choose to do aerobic exercise. However, anaerobic exercise will also help you to burn
calories while exercising and increase the basal metabolic rate, as well. In general and
in a simplified way, a well scheduled training plan must include 85% of aerobic and 15%
of anaerobic activity.
Muscle tissue will
convert progressively to fat, if a person stops regular exercising. Despite
the fact that muscle and fat are two distinctive types of cells and transformation from
one type to another cannot occur, this perception includes some traces of truth. This is
because the biological material that participates in muscle structure, under certain
circumstances can be metabolized and the new molecules can contribute to the formation of
fat. For instance in cases of muscle atrophy, a great amount of the released protein
will convert to glucose, which in turn,
will be used for energy production. If not all of it is used, part of the remaining
glucose will be turn to fat.
Of course, the mechanism can work the other way around. A fat cell will always remain as
such and it will never turn to a muscle fiber. However, regular exercise contributes to
reduction of fat in the relevant cells and increase of muscle volume.
Heat has a
beneficial effect on injuries and contributes to faster healing. In
general, this is false. Usually pain caused from injuries, such as a twisted ankle or an
aching elbow, occurs because of internal bleeding and/or swelling. The pain occurs, due
to the increased pressure applied on the nerves, located in the affected area. In such
cases, heat will deteriorate the problem, because it will contribute to further swelling
and increase of the internal pressure. On the contrary, ice along with taping is the
required early treatment.
Exercising must be
as much as possible. This is not correct. Excessive physical activity can
sometimes be harmful, since our body needs time to rest and recover. In fact, the
majority of health experts advise that regardless what the exercise is, it must be done
no more often than every second day or three times a week. Otherwise, injuries may occur
and the results will not be the expected ones. As a matter of fact, athletes that follow
systematic training plans know that rest is equally important as diet and
exercising.
Weight training is
not appropriate for ladies, because it will result in bulky muscles. Not
true. Increased muscularity is a result of combination of training and the action of
testosterone which is a male hormone. In
women, testosterone is present in very small quantities and by no means can lead to
muscle growth, unless the hormone amounts increase beyond the normal levels due to
anabolic steroids
abuse.
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