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Fitness Tips and Myths
Lets talk about fitness tips and myths:
Fitness Tip - To burn fat when exercising you must get your heart rate up to 70% to 85% of your max for 30 minutes.(You can figure your target heart rate by taking 220 minus your age and then multiplying that by 70 to 85 percent. Example if your 30 years old take 220-30 = 190 times .7 to .85 = 133 to 162. So you must get your heart rate between 133 to 162 beats per minute for 30 minutes to burn fat.)
Myth - You can spot exercise fat off certain parts of your body. Wrong, you can not spot exercise fat off your body. (example: doing situps to decrease the size of your stomach or leg exercises to make your legs smaller)
Fact - The only way to firm certain parts of your body is to lose the fat that covers these parts, and spot exercising does not help you lose fat.
Fact - Certain parts of your body carry more fat on them and those parts will be the last to lose the fat as you lose weight.
Fitness Tip - The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. You burn 30 to 50 more calories a day for each additional pound of muscle.
Fitness Tip - Always use proper technique when lifting weights. Two reasons for using proper technique are you are less likely to injure yourself and you can concentrate and isolate the muscle you are trying to work better. (example: never arch your back when doing bicep exercises. Arching can lead to injury and your not isolating the bicep muscle as much because your using your back to lift)
Fitness Tip - When trying to get ripped abs or tight thighs use the 80 to 20 ratio. The 80 to 20 ratio is (cardiovascular exercise and diet), and (muscle building exercises). When trying to tighten parts of your body like your abs or thighs concentrate 80% or your efforts on cardiovascular training (getting up to your target heart rate and burning fat), and diet ( watching your fat intake and the calories you eat). Muscle building exercises such as ab exercises should be focused on 20% of the time. Remember most people have enough muscle development, the problem is having too much fat on top of their muscles, hence the 80 to 20 ratio.
Myth - Using light weights and doing high reps will help to become more ripped and toned, WRONG. Becoming ripped and toned is a combination of low body fat and developed muscles. Doing high reps does not burn fat because your heart rate does not get high enough, and your heart rate is not sustained for a long enough period of time. Furthermore, lifting light weights does not develop your muscles. The best way to get ripped and toned is aggressive weight lifting using proper technique to develop and grow your muscles, coupled with a good diet and proper cardiovascular training.
Myth - Women should not lift weight because they will become bulky, WRONG. Because of women's hormones it's very hard for women to become bulky. As a matter of fact the little amount of muscle a woman can add can be very beneficial. Muscle can be a good fat and calorie burner, because muscle burns more calories than fat.
Fitness Tip - Never over eat or starve yourself. Think of eating on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being starved and 10 being stuffed. Never eat past a 7, and never let yourself get under a 2. If you starve yourself and get under a 2 you may stuff yourself at the next meal to make up for being so hungry.
Fitness Tip - To help fight hunger throughout the day and keep hydrated drink plenty of water. Drinking water throughout the day keeps your stomach full and helps fight against unnecessary snacks. Also it helps keep your body hydrated.
Myth - If you stop training the muscle you have will turn into fat, WRONG. Muscle and fat are two separate and distinct properties. Muscle cannot turn into fat, and fat cannot turn into muscle. Your muscles will start getting smaller after you stop training, and usually people will start burning less calories. You start burning less calories because of less muscle, and less calorie burning training. The combination of less muscle, and increasing fat because of the slower metabolism makes it appear as though muscle has been replaced with fat.
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