Lumped in health and fitness together as focussing on one without the other to me is like riding a unicycle on a Tour de France stage - technically possible, but making life difficult for yourself. YMMV, of course.
Inspired by a few points I saw on this blog on the most irresponsible ‘fitspiration’ photos. My favourite one is this implicitly stating that you should exercise until you puke, which surprisingly isn’t that healthy.
Anyway that’s just my pick of many myths that should be buried - have any pet peeves that keep hanging around the topic like a treadmill fart?
I still see athletes on TV taking a drink (of water, Gatorade, whatever) on the sidelines) and then spitting it out.
This appears to be a hangover from the days when it was believed that hydrating during physical activity made you “waterlogged” or otherwise unfit. I remember coaches promoting this inane idea back in the days when I was competing.
I was just reading “Summer of '49” (about the baseball season featuring a down-to-the-wire battle between the Red Sox and Yankees) and it talked about players who craved a drink or a candy bar as a pick-me-up during a long, hot day’s play, but felt it would have made them look weak.
Unbelievable stupidity, and it’s not yet completely eradicated.
8 glasses of water a day for everyone as a general rule of thumb. I think that started when someone figured you need about 1ml of water per calorie eaten per day, so 2000 calories is 2L of water, about 8 glasses. But a lot of water is in food.
Also the amount of exercise needed to improve health is nowhere near the amount needed to lose weight and keep it off. Doing a few hours a week of walking will improve your physical (and maybe mental) health but will not do much to change your weight. So even if you aren’t losing weight, you are still experiencing benefits from exercise.
This next one isn’t so much a myth, as much as a lack of information. But a lot of lifestyle factors will affect your life expectancy. How much education you have, what income you have, how well you sleep, how many social connections you have, how you handle stress. Nobody talks about that stuff, but it can affect life expectancy by years.
Good lord, am I tired of the hydration trend. I somehow lived to adulthood without carrying a jug of water with me everywhere, and then suddenly everybody was chronically dehydrated. Oh, and you can’t hydrate with coffee. If you drink something caffeinated, you have to drink twice as much water to flush it out. But that water shouldn’t be flavored or it doesn’t count. Ugh.
Wow, that blog post is dumb.
The one I think needs to die is the “it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you get X calories.”
It matters. Your body responds to different nutrients differently. Certain things (processed carbs) make you crave more of the same, and that shit is awful for your body. If you cut the crap out of your diet, you can really just eat as much healthy stuff (protein, vegetables) as you want, and you’ll be fine.
You mean the images its commenting on or the comments themselves?
Another one that sticks around particularly on informercials; spot losing belly fat by doing sit-ups. Apparently it is possible though in the way that demolishing an apartment block with a toffee hammer is; in that the effect may be trivial and there are better ways of doing it.
You claimed that the poster said “you should exercise until you puke” when it actually says nothing of the sort. The poster is saying that it is OK to display behaviors that exhibit weakness or are “unmanly”, but it is not OK to just stop trying. It seems fairly straightforward.
Mainly women(and a few men)-“I don’t want to lift, I’ll get big”. That’s like being afraid a paper clip will turn into a car.
Unless you have the right genetics, work like a dog and maybe (moreso the women) load up on the steroids, you ain’t gettin’ big.
As far as the puking, that does apply to competition. IF you push your absolute limits and you have the experience and good pacing instincts, you might do the finish line heaves.
Counter-productive in terms of daily workouts.
Or that you need to drink 8 glasses of pure water (by which I mean tap water, not distilled water), as opposed to juice, coffee, or other liquid. Cripes, if you eat fresh fruit, drink coffee, milk, and a soft drink every day, you might need just 8 ozs of water to get the rest that you need, which is one cup, and what was originally meant by “glasses,” anyway, and yet I know people who have somehow translated the requirement into eight 20oz glasses of water from the tap every day. That’s almost a gallon and a half. Every. Day.
I actually know one person who went to the doctor for frequent urination and thought she might have diabetes or something. When the doctor found out how much water she was forcing herself to drink, she told her to knock it off, and wouldn’t you know it, she started sleeping through thew night. 'Course, hypochondriac behavior, and embracing health myths like drinking 160 ounces of water every day seem to happen in the same person a lot.
It is straightforward; it straightforwardly says puke, and the context is exercise. Hence the background of a guy with exercise equipment. And no, that’s not ‘OK’ behaviour to display, quitting before you void your stomach content is.
I have worked out until I puked. It didn’t feel great but what did feel great is that it didn’t kill me or make a mess of the gym.
I have worked through the pain. It didn’t damage my body and it made me realize that my limits weren’t the point where it starts to hurts.
And I did get a little obsessed with 4:30am wake ups and 6 days in the gym and long bike rides where I suffered all the way home. But not so obsessed that it took over my life or took away from what else I had to do such as work and be a parent and cook dinners and help with homework. In fact it helped me manage stress much better than I had in the past.
So I didn’t stop until I was proud. It felt fucking awesome to lose 80+lbs and look great. And it absolutely gave me confidence. And women did notice. And that felt really nice. Made dating a little easier too. But the best part was that I kept it off 10 years later and I’m going to do everything I can never to be overweight again. Because it sucks in so many more ways.
So yeah… I’d like to bust some myths about health and fitness: It’s not easy and it’s not supposed to be easy and if you want it to be easy then perhaps you don’t want it badly enough.
Yes, I don’t throw my guts up when I go to the gym, therefore ‘perhaps I don’t want it bad enough’. Or perhaps I like my tooth enamel, or just don’t like the none too pleasant sensation of throwing up. Give me a goddamn break.
:rolleyes:
No exercise program I know says, “repeat until you puke”. So let’s not pretend this is a common occurance in the gym. Sometimes you push harder than you realize and sometimes you end up with a bit of nausea. So like an adult, you get to the bathroom and do it in the privacy of a stall. Or you stop the bike and walk off the trail into the bushes.
I feel like I’ve spent half my life in the gym and can only remember a few times actually needing to throw up. I’ve thrown up more due to stomach bugs or having too much to drink than due to hard exercise. My tooth enamel is just fine, thank you very much.
It’s happened to me once or twice and I went home and smacked myself for eating too much beforehand or pushing the limits way too far; what I object to is that it’s something to brag about or somehow link to the notion that you have to push yourself until that happens. I mean it shouldn’t be a contentious point that you can be fit and healthy without needing to throw up.
