Exercise Myths

Is the statement, "no pain, no gain" accurate?

No pain or no gain is not necessarily a true or false. If you are always going for the burn and think you have to be in pain all the time then that is not true. However there is often times some pain associated with the progression that your body goes through; the different stages of progression to make yourself better. Let me clarify this for you; good pain and bad pain: good pain you feel it symetrically left and right. You feel it symetrically perhaps front and back. You feel it more in the belly in the center of the muscle. If not long lasting, there's no residual inflammation. Bad pain: clicking and popping associated with the pain, you know unilateral pain; you know just one elbow hurts or one knee hurts. Pain that persists. Pain that has redness and inflammation, and pain that is deep within the joint or at the tendon for an extended period of time. That is bad pain. So no pain, no gain depends what kind of pain we're talking about. Think about what would constitute good pain and that, to an extent, as long as it's within tolerable limits and your not overdoing it actually is desirable.

Will weight training make women bulky?

There are so many women that still are concerned about bulking up from lifting weights. Let me ask you a question. Ladies, when's the last time that you worked-out for three weeks and you woke up and you were just enormous? You absolutely looked like Sheera Warrior Princess. It's not going to happen. Women only have about 1/1 of the testosterone in their bodies as men have and just from that simple physiological difference it is impossible for women to gain that much muscle mass. It just won't happen.

Do "fad diets" really work?

Fad diets don't work because no diet works. What are the first three letters? Die. Your body thinks its dying. It should be: food intake modification, lifestyle enhancement, meal modification. Things like that. Things like "I'm going to change how I perceive food, not let food control me." Anytime you have any deprivation of any kind, your body feels deprived. When's the last time you deprived yourself of anything and felt good about it? Here's the other thing, too. People say, "I want to lose weight." Have your ever lost your keys? Did you want them back? So, why would you want to lose anything? Why don't you just, release the pounds? Let them go and you feel better about it, don't you? You're just letting it go rather than losing it, because anytime you lose something you generally want it back. So, no losing weight; you're releasing weight. No dieting; you're modifying your food intake. Enjoy the process!

Do over the counter diet pills really work?

Diet pills. People always ask "Should I take diet pills? Are diet pills safe? Which diet pill is best?" We have to be very careful about this. The FDA has pulled many diet pills off the shelves because they've deemed them unsafe. What happens is that a lot of the diet pills help what's called thermogenesis, which allows you to expend energy as heat, increases blood pressure, and increases your heart rate in certain individuals. So, people who generally want to take a diet pill are overweight. Therefore, they probably already have higher blood pressure, and then they exercise, which raises your blood pressure. So, if someone is overweight with potentially high blood pressure, they exercise (which increases your blood pressure during the activity), and then take a stimulant, and that's why people were dying, getting sick, and having heart conditions because of diet pills. There are some herbs which can safely increase your metabolism which can be used in lieu of that, and they are cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and ginger, and there are others as well. Those will safely increase your metabolism and help you manage your blood sugar levels. I would suggest doing something like that, which is very safe, instead of taking diet pills. You can put these herbs in your food and it actually tastes very good. There is no evidence that any of those things are harmful in any way.