Take a look at any successful athlete, sports player, or competitor in the world.
Chances are, even they’ve made hundreds of mistakes and have believed numerous myths that have later turned out to be bogus.
On the fitness journey, making mistakes and believing in myths is inevitable. But, we should do our best to educate ourselves and learn to distinguish between what’s useful and what isn’t.
To that end, we’ve put together a list of the four biggest training myths for women and what you should do instead.
- Muscle Soreness and Sweat Are Great Indicators Of Effective Training
When most people get interested in fitness, they are taught early on that two factors determine how effective our workouts are: sweating profusely by the end of the workout and feeling muscle soreness in the following days.
First, sweating is not necessarily a sign of a good workout because that is merely the body’s cooling mechanism in response to an increase in core body temperature. It doesn’t signify a good workout, and it certainly doesn’t predict good results.
Second, muscle soreness isn’t necessary for fitness progress, and feeling it doesn’t mean that you’ve had a good workout. If anything, soreness tends to be most pronounced in the first few sessions until your body gets used to the stress.
- You Need to do Tons of Cardio
And while we are on the topic of sweating, another common myth that’s thrown around today is the one about cardio. More specifically, if you ever hope to lose weight and get fit, you need to do endless hours of cardio every week.
But, the truth is, cardio is nothing more than a tool you can use to burn some calories and more easily put yourself in a caloric deficit. You don’t need to do endless amounts of it to achieve notable results.
- You Should Go All Out Every Single Time You Train
“Go hard or go home,” right?
Well, this is one popular myth that seems to make sense at first, but then, when you think about it, you realize just how terrible of advice it is.
The truth is, long-term fitness results are predicated on long-term efforts. If you go all in, you’ll be able to train for a while, but you certainly won’t be able to sustain it for a long time. Sooner or later, you’ll either end up injured or overtrained.
A much better way to go about your fitness is to do as little as possible while still making good progress. That way, should your growth slow down or stop, you’ll have room to increase the effort and volume.
- Lifting Weights Will Make You Hulk-Like
This is probably the most popular fitness myth for women, and it’s been around for decades.
Prevailing wisdom suggests that lifting weights is bad for women because it will make them ‘bulky’ and muscular. But, the truth is, muscle growth is an incredibly slow process, even more so for girls.
Avoiding resistance training for fear of getting too muscular is like not driving because you’re afraid that you’ll become a world-class rally driver.