Are you impressed when facilities say they have the latest and most advanced equipment in the market etc? Does that make you want to join a gym more than a gym equipped with simple barbells and dumbbells?
To tell you the truth, high-tech equipment have only come into the fitness scene in the past few decades. Before that, strongmen trained with simple weights. There are people who train(ed) with crude equipment like rocks and still get impressive strength/performance and physique.
Try this workout with a simple sandbag:
2) You need to spend a lot of time to have a good training effect.
Have you been told that you need to spend at least an hour of training up to two hours a day to get the results you want? Does that put you off exercising because you “don't have time”?
To tell you the truth, half an hour or even less can have a good training effect too. The intensity of the exercise decreases as the duration increases. So the highest intensity exercise have the shortest duration. With a well designed training program, five to ten minutes of intense exercise can suffice.
Try this Tabata Protocol, 4 minutes of gut wrenching workout. You can do this with any movement.
3) Running is the best form of exercise to lose fat.
If i had a dime everytime i heard this, i would be rich. There is no best exercise to lose fat. Any exercise can be used to good effect, depending on how you design your training program. Running is a good exercise nevertheless.
As an aside, running is among the top ten most popular recreational activities BUT it is also among the top ten most injury producing activities. Not that running is bad, but most people do not run properly or have insufficient/improper preparation for running.
4) Machines are safer than free weights.
Related to the first point on expensive equipment, facilities spend thousands of bucks buying the latest high-tech machines to attract crowds. They tell you that they are safer than free weights because free weights are more difficult to lift and the exercises are hareder to learn.
However to tell you the truth, not only are they not needed for the general population, they can be more dangerous to your joints that you can imagine. In nature, we have to stabilize free weight (whether it be tools, groceries, babies, rocks etc) with our own muscles. We should simulate movement as we would in nature, not create artificial movements.
Machines can be used for advanced bodybuilders who want to isolate muscles which can't be replicated by free weights. They can also be useful for rehab patients. But if you don't fall under these categories, don't even touch them. Stay away from them like the plague.
5) Progress from machines to free weights.
Related to the points above, some trainers advocate starting with a base of machine exercises and progressing to free weights.
But to tell you the truth, you can and you should start with free weights. As mentioned above, you already are balancing free weights all the time, 24 hours of you life. Your body is already capable of doing complex movements, just that it may have forgotten how.
Anyway, free weights will give you better training effect than machines. So would you rather waste your time doing many machine exercises or save time by doing a few good free weight exercises?
Check out this exercise, called the Mill, trains multiple planes of motion at the same time, great for strength, endurance, joint mobility etc.
6) Heavy weights are dangerous.
You may have gotten this idea from people telling you that they injured their back lifting something heavy. It is true that the heavier the weight the higher the rick for injury. But that is not the whole truth.
The truth is that any weight can cause injury. In fact you can injure yourself lifting nothing significantly heavy, like just bending down improperly. Whether you are at risk of injury or not is dependent more on your lifting technique. There are people who can lift heavy weights without getting injured, with proper technique.
If you are not sure of your techniqe, please ask the friendly trainer at your gym and he would gladly assist you.
7) Weight training equals bodybuilding.
Or put it another way, weight training WILL cause you to get big muscles. This probably has been the message that a lot of people have been getting from the media. With physique being glorified in the fashion magazines etc.
To tell you the truth, there can be many purposes of weight training, and not all of them aim to creat big muscles. An example would be weightlifting, a sport whereby the goal is to lift as heavy as possible. The goal and training methods are very different from bodybuilding. Small people in weightlifting can and often do lift mind boggling weights.
Check out this guy, Naim Suleymanoglu, weighing less than 60kg, he can lift 3x bodyweight.
8) Kids can't lift weights.
Some coaches recommend that kids do not lift weights under a certain age, about puberty. There is a certain truth in that heavy, maximal weights can stunt growth in growing (in height) children.
However that is not the whole truth. It is only true when combined with an improperly designed training program. Everybody, and i mean EVERYbody lift weight 24 hours a day – our bodyweight.
Coupled with a properly designed training program which utilises submaximal weights, weight training can be a useful tool to develop strong and healthy kids.
Check out these kids swinging kettlebells:
9) I can't exercise because i have back pain.
Most doctors would prescribe rest for any kind of pain, probably also painkillers. Most people also who have had injuries of some sort shy away from physical activity in fear of aggravating their injury. And yet here are also those who do extreme physical exertions in spite of their injuries.
While the first two types are probably rational way to go about the problem, the third is probably not very wise. You can balance this by doing what we call physiotherapy (or rehabilitation or recovery exercises), of which the goal is to recover from your injury and regain pain-free movement. You need to exercise if you are injured, to get back to normal function.
7) Weight training equals bodybuilding.
Or put it another way, weight training WILL cause you to get big muscles. This probably has been the message that a lot of people have been getting from the media. With physique being glorified in the fashion magazines etc.
To tell you the truth, there can be many purposes of weight training, and not all of them aim to creat big muscles. An example would be weightlifting, a sport whereby the goal is to lift as heavy as possible. The goal and training methods are very different from bodybuilding. Small people in weightlifting can and often do lift mind boggling weights.
Check out this guy, Naim Suleymanoglu, weighing less than 60kg, he can lift 3x bodyweight.
8) Kids can't lift weights.
Some coaches recommend that kids do not lift weights under a certain age, about puberty. There is a certain truth in that heavy, maximal weights can stunt growth in growing (in height) children.
However that is not the whole truth. It is only true when combined with an improperly designed training program. Everybody, and i mean EVERYbody lift weight 24 hours a day – our bodyweight.
Coupled with a properly designed training program which utilises submaximal weights, weight training can be a useful tool to develop strong and healthy kids.
Check out these kids swinging kettlebells:
9) I can't exercise because i have back pain.
Most doctors would prescribe rest for any kind of pain, probably also painkillers. Most people also who have had injuries of some sort shy away from physical activity in fear of aggravating their injury. And yet here are also those who do extreme physical exertions in spite of their injuries.
While the first two types are probably rational way to go about the problem, the third is probably not very wise. You can balance this by doing what we call physiotherapy (or rehabilitation or recovery exercises), of which the goal is to recover from your injury and regain pain-free movement. You need to exercise if you are injured, to get back to normal function.
Take a look at 60+ years old Valentin Dikul, he broke his back as a teenager in a circus act. He can juggle 80kg kettlebells.
10) Crunches/Situps are the best exercise to get a six pack.
Crunches/sit-ups is not a bad exercise when coupled with a proper training program. Any exercise is useful to create a desired effect, depending on the context of the program.
However the truth is that people often do not know the dangers of doing it improperly or doing too much of it. You can get neck strain and postural problems if it is done indiscriminately.
And another truth is that, you will get a six pack regardless of them. As long as you have low bodyfat, a reasonably athletic person would have abdominal definition.
If you like a crunches/sit-up based program, check out the Beyond Sit Ups by Coach Murdock:
