Fit For Lax: Fitness Myths Busted!
Submitted by walax on Mon, 2006-04-24 11:34.
Features
When we started talking about doing a weekly article on WALAX about fitness, there were a lot of ideas passed around about what the content would be and how we would present it to the lacrosse public. Some of our goals included: on and off-season workout routines, information on supplementation, nutrition, periodization and a variety of other topics.
All of the information was to be presented in an educational manner simple enough for everyone to understand, but comprehensive enough that everyone could benefit from it. We all agreed that these articles should be better than any we had ever seen. We did not want this to be like your average fitness article, one paragraph of useless information with three sub-par pictures to learn one exercise. What good is that by the time you have enough movement patterns to create a workout you would be too old to use them! We want this to be different information you can use, and learn more than the general public usually does about fitness. Basically we want you to know the WHY not just the how. Our belief is if you know why you are doing something you will use it more, and do it better. During this year we will be busting a lot of fitness myths. Things people have always been told, but actually have no scientific basis. You are going to have to open your mind and realize that NONE of this information is opinion. If we put in an opinion it will be surrounded by the words IN MY OPINION, otherwise it is factual information from sources like the National Academy of Sports Medicine, or the American Council of Sports Medicine just to name a few.
As the articles are written feel free to e-mail me questions regarding the articles at [email protected]. I will be happy to respond as soon as I can. Please know I do have a full time job, I do this for the love of lacrosse so it may take me a few days to get back to you. But enough about that let’s get to some fitness myths that prevail throughout the industry and give you the truth and the myths behind them. Let me know if you have any more myths or fitness questions you would like me to discuss and I will post your question and the answer in an article about once a quarter.
Fitness Myths
- Crunches are great for giving you a six-pack! If you have a gut do crunches and they will go away.- Actually nothing could be further from the truth. There is no such thing as spot reduction. You cannot do a crunch to shrink you belly. Think about it this way, if you do bicep curls do your biceps get smaller? Of course not they get bigger the same is true with your abs. When you work them they get bigger not smaller. To get a smaller waist you have to do cardio and eat right so that your abdominal fat decreases. Again for example if you have a layer of gelatin and you stick a pebble under it there will be a bump. The pebble is your abs and the gelatin is your body fat. Now think if we stuck a tennis ball under the gelatin instead of the pebble the bump would get bigger but you would still have the fat over the top. That is exactly what happens when you do crunches and eat garbage. Now cut the Gelatin layer in half and keep the pebble under it. Are you starting to get the idea here? In order to have a true six-pack you have to cut down the body fat and increase the muscle underneath. Crunches are great, just not for weight loss.
- In order to get stronger I have to use free weights. – This is absolute garbage, and can actually hurt you if you are not careful. Free weights when done incorrectly can destroy joints and growth plates. We will discuss this more when we get to strength training but get used to body weight and stability balls that is where true strength lies!
- Stability balls are for Girls – If that was true than if I was a boy I would RUN from girls because they would all kill us in a strength competition. Stability balls help to promote functional strength (Defined as, the ability to move throughout three dimensional space without getting injured) very important for a lacrosse player. I once had a 300-pound NFL lineman tell me that Stability balls were for girls until I had him do a stability/ strength competition against a 110-pound girl and she killed him! We changed his workouts and his strength went up about 25% and he went from a second string player to a starter. It works!
- Speed is genetic I cannot get faster – Then why do pro athletes spend thousands of dollars going to camps to get quicker. And why are Olympic athletes always training? If speed was static there would be no reason to train right? Speed can increase but it takes power and most important (but often neglected) flexibility.
- I can’t lose weight it is just genetic. – Although it is true that some people are genetically pre disposed to a lower metabolism, we can all still lose weight. But you have to put down the garbage and eat right. EVERYONE’S body works on the first law of thermodynamics. (Remember this is a physics LAW not a theory) Energy in vs. Energy out. If more energy is expended than taken in your body will drop weight. If more energy is taken in that released you will gain weight. Simple right? We will get to what food choices are correct in later articles.
There are 5 we will continue to release more as the year goes along. If you have any questions you want answered please e-mail me at [email protected].
