5 Weird Yet Common Fitness Tips That Don’t Work – and What to Do Instead
Fitness is full of misconceptions, misinformation, and straight-up lies. These are five weird yet common fitness tips that don’t work. While they are commonly spread, they either have no scientific base or are very unhelpful.
Learn what weird yet common fitness tips you should be avoiding and what to do instead to gain physical and mental benefits from your fitness journey.
5 Weird Yet Common Fitness Tips That Don’t Work
Getting straight to the point, here are the five weird yet common fitness tips that have little to no benefits and what you should do instead to progress well on your fitness journey. Remember that wellness and physical health is a journey, while we may have goals and destinations in mind, it is important to enjoy the trip.
1. Pushing Every Day
Many people will tell you that you need to push yourself every single day. If you show up for a workout you have to be giving 100%, no, 120% minimum. Every time you come to a workout you need to be the best version of yourself, push yourself, and really try, or else what are you even doing?
This is just not true. We will not be 100% motivated every single day. There will be days when we are more tired, for a variety of reasons. Maybe we haven’t been sleeping well, maybe we’ve been using our energy for other life activities like family reunions or playing with our kids. Whatever the case is, it is not reasonable to expect 100% all the time. This will make you unmotivated and hate fitness.
What to do instead:
Listen to your body more. When you are tired, you should rest. Whether that’s doing recovery activities like taking a walk or some simple stretching, listening to your body is the most important part of fitness. Pushing yourself when you just don’t have it in you can lead to injury and negative thoughts towards fitness. Another thing you can do is when you don’t feel motivated, show up to your workout but give a little less effort. That way, you are still showing up and putting in work, but you are also honoring the way your body feels and accepting that some days you may feel a little weaker than other days.
2. Fasting + Fitness
It’s commonly said that one of the best things you can do for fitness is to train when you have not eaten. This will make the body use up the fat reserves that you have, which will provide much more energy and increase your strength and endurance by miles. If you’re not doing fatness fitness you are missing out.
Again, this is completely untrue and has no scientific base. A recent study compared two groups, one that ate before a workout, and another that worked out fasted. As it turns out, both groups burned the same amount of body fat, meaning that a fasted workout was not better at burning body fat.
What to do instead:
Eat. As simple as that.VFuel up before your workout. You’ll have more energy, at least psychologically, because you will feel satisfied. Plus if you make meals full of healthy fats, carbs, and proteins, you will get through your workout easier. This will also help you feel more comfortable when you are working out. Remember to fuel up after working out for your muscles and body to recover properly. Check out this guide on workout recovery here.
3. Cutting all the Time
Many people think that you need to be cutting a lot. Bulking is barely even part of the plan, it’s all about cutting. This is when you reduce your calorie intake to be in a calorie deficit. People will start a cut and continue to train to at the very least maintain muscle mass. Cutting is also a way for you to reveal the muscle you have worked hard for.
However, cutting all the time reduces your body’s ability to make muscle and gain strength. This can even put your body into survival mode in which your metabolism slows to conserve more energy. It is not something that should be done all the time, nor is it something that should go on for a long period.
What to do instead:
What you need to do is eat well. If you are training, it is normal for you to need more food to fuel your body. Eat healthy fats, carbs, and proteins to increase your ability during your workouts. If you’re hungry you will not be performing well. Plus, if you are cutting, cheat days are good. Have reset days in which you eat normally, not out of calorie deficit. This reset will let the body know that no famine or starvation is happening.
4. Weighing Yourself Constantly
Many of us have certain goals that we want to achieve when we step on the scale. Maybe it is losing 20 lb, maybe it is gaining 10 lb of muscle. Whatever the case is, many times we tend to define our worth and progress by a number on a scale. This is not helpful.
It can lead to eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and a plethora of mental and physical issues. Weighing yourself constantly will only contribute to problems.
What to do instead:
Focus on how you feel. Instead of defining your goals by a number on a scale, define them by how you feel. Check-in with yourself and your body. See if you are feeling stronger, healthier, etc. Check out your range of motion, are you more flexible, can you run farther? Take note of your mental health. Do you feel clear-headed? These are just a couple of questions you can ask yourself instead of relying on the scale.
While it is fine to check in, especially when it is monthly, it is not helpful to weigh yourself every day. The body naturally fluctuates up and down due to many factors such as water weight, food, etc.
5. Power Through the Pain
No pain no gain. That is what we are told all the time. It’s on t-shirts, it’s on mugs, it’s everywhere in fitness. While there are some benefits to pushing yourself, you should not be in pain, no matter what the workout is. For example, when you stretch, you should feel tightness and strain, but never pain.
Pain means you are likely to be injured. For example, if you are lifting weights and you are having difficulty that comes in the form of pain, you should not be pushing through. This may lead to bigger tears in the muscle which can become grave injuries.
What to do instead:
Fortify supporting muscles instead. Do some warm-up exercises which engage The supporting muscles. This may help you push yourself during a workout without experiencing pain. Be sure to stop if you do feel something painful, as you do not want to be injured and have to stop for months to heal.
If you are running, and you feel pain in your foot, the solution is not to power through and keep running. The solution is to slow down and listen to your body. Take a small break, take a few deep breaths, and slow down.
The Takeaway
These weird yet common fitness tips that don’t work can have grave consequences. Listening to some of these unhelpful tips may lead to physical injury or mental health issues. Be sure you know what these problematic tips are and learn what to do instead to enjoy your fitness journey in a way that is both helpful and full of joy.
Remember that health comes from within. Eat nutrient-dense meals, exercise when you can, at least 3 times a week, and take care of your mental health. Daily habits become the building blocks for emotional, mental, and physical health. Take care of your gut health too! Learn everything you need to know about gut microbiota today for free here.
