| IN BRIEF: There are many misconceptions regarding exercise. We look at a few of the most common ones. |
- Exercise burns lots of calories. It's not exercise itself that burns calories. Weight loss comes about as a result of regular aerobic exercise because the body's metabolic rate is increased and therefore uses more energy/burns more calories. The better conditioned you are, the more fat you burn for energy, because your muscles adapt to using an enzyme that oxidises fat. Most importantly, physical activity can help with the toughest problem: keeping weight off. Research has shown that after people lose weight through diet control and increased exercise, the best predictor of maintaining the weight loss is whether they exercise regularly or not.
- If you don't lose weight, there's no point in exercising. There are so many other reasons to get moving besides a need to lose weight – from the health perspective it improves the ability of insulin to enter cells, so lowering the body's risk of diabetes; it lowers the risk of heart disease by improving blood clotting mechanisms, lowering triglycerides, and raising HDL ("good") cholesterol; because aerobic activity releases the "feel good" chemical endorphin into the body, it can relieve depression and anxiety; and it assists sleep quality and quantity.
- Strength-training makes women too muscular. Many women are afraid that weight training will bulk their muscles. In fact, strength training has enormous benefits for women, such as improving bone density, muscle mass, muscle strength, balance and co-ordination. And the muscles are very unlikely to bulk because women do not have enough testosterone to create big, bulky muscles. Only with supplementation, extreme high-protein diets and long hours spent pushing heavy weights would women's muscles have the chance to become shaped like a bodybuilders.
- The right exercise gets rid of "problem" areas. Exercising one area in the hope that it will burn fat away from that specific area is a waste of time. Spot-reducing is a myth. Exercises strengthen and tone the muscles, but the "saddle bags" that some women complain about at the top of their outer thighs, and the flabby "beer bellies" so common on sedentary men are caused by the layer of subcutaneous fat – commonly known as flab. No amount of work on those specific areas will remove that specific fat, because exercises to the area work the muscles in those areas – and those muscles aren't causing that flab. Only losing weight will get rid of excess fat, and where you lose the weight depends on your genes. Losing weight around the waist is easier than losing it at the hips.
- Weight gain is inevitable as you get older. Most people get fatter as they age – but they don’t have to. It's nothing to do with getting older – it's all about becoming more sedentary. A reduced physical activity level lowers the metabolic rate. This causes a gradual increase in the percentage of body fat, and produces a steadily decreasing calorie requirement because fat cells burn fewer calories than muscle cells. A lower metabolic rate means that unless you eat less, you'll gradually gain weight over the decades. But exercise can set a two-pronged attack on middle-age spread and muscle loss. Firstly, any activity makes you burn more calories, and secondly strength-training can offset the loss of muscle mass.
- Exercise needs to be regular or you're wasting your time. It takes 10 – 12 weeks of regular exercise to become "fit", which means you will have improved your cardiovascular capacity. But health begins to improve after the first brisk walk or run. People should try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity every day, but if you can't, don't let that stop you from taking even a single walk – every effort to exercise has its benefits.
- If you didn't exercise when you were younger, it could be dangerous to start when you're older. You're never too old to start. Studies performed on older people, and on people suffering from chronic disease, such as arthritis, show that they enjoy great benefits. Exercise reduces pain and increases range of motion, strength, and mobility. That's not to suggest, however, that anyone can leap into a session of vigorous exercise, regardless of their health history. Studies have shown that ordinarily inactive people, particularly men who were smokers, were obese, had high cholesterol or angina, were 10 times more likely to have a heart attack within an hour of exerting themselves (usually by jogging or heavy lifting) than at other times. It cannot be emphasised enough that anyone with multiple risk factors for heart disease should check with a doctor before beginning any exercise programme, and should start slowly.
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