Out & About Autumn 2021

Out&About wellbeing

FITNESS

Fitness instructor VICKI BROWN busts some myths about health and fitness

T here are so many myths linked to the health and fitness industry, so I thought I would highlight some of the popular ones and debunk them, to hopefully give you a little more clarity when it comes to your own health, fitness and wellbeing. You need to train every day Try and train consistently, but this does not mean you have to train daily. Rest and recovery are a vital part of making progress. For most people, training hard daily would put a high stress on the body and potentially affect sleep and lead to increased hunger. For example, less intense sessions focusing on quality and then keeping general activity up is most likely to be maintained long- term. Workouts need to be long to be worthwhile – at least one hour Consistency is far more effective than length of single workouts. If you find you never have enough time for an hour workout, try and find 10-15 minutes in your day – even one to five minutes if you are struggling to get started. This will increase your likelihood of completing sessions and doing themmore regularly.

of running. It may aid the balance of energy

expenditure and get you running fit, plus a great timesaver if you only have a small window of exercise opportunity or a lack of equipment available to you. You can turn fat into muscle/muscle turns to fat if you stop training Think of them as two separate things, they do not transform into the other. They increase in number and volume, but do not change what they are in the sense of muscle and fat. If you were to stop strength training, your body will not hold on to muscle it does not think it needs. As muscle mass decreases your body will not need to expend as much energy which can lead to gaining weight. Therefore, maintaining muscle mass is a good goal as we go through life. You have to start exercise young/ you can’t start lifting weights when you are older It is never too late to start. Whatever your age it is important to start from your capabilities, build a strong foundation and then try and be consistent, for life. The benefits to your physical and mental health are huge. It is not too late to start or get back to something that you used to enjoy. Go for it! n Are there any more myths that you have heard and not sure if they are true? Get in touch with me and I’ll try to answer them for you in future editions.

You can target an area and spot fat reduce Your body will reduce fat as it chooses. Unfortunately targeting the area you want to see change via exercise will not lead to this happening. Often you will see the quickest change in the last area you notice that weight has been put on. There are areas of our bodies that are predisposed to hold more fat. For example many women will have greater stores of fat around our reproductive system –stomach and hips – and therefore it is often the last place the body will want to lose it. Lifting heavy weights makes women bulky Building muscle is a slow process and therefore

building enough that would make you look considerably bigger would take a relatively long time. Without the high levels of testosterone, lifting weights ultimately helps prevent losing muscle mass and increase bone density in women. Building muscle should lead to a ‘toned’ look and perhaps a change in body shape. If you build muscle and have a high body fat percentage sometimes this can make you feel bigger. You must run to be fit and/ or lose weight If you want to be good at running, you need to run. It is a way to increase your cardiovascular fitness, but you do not have to do it to achieve a good level of fitness. Finding something that you enjoy and find easy to access is a good way to maintain a good fitness level, but ultimately your body will adapt to the activities in which you participate. A good question to ask yourself: what do you want to be able to do? Weight loss can come with or without the activity

Vicki Brown runs LiveFitNow, Wash Common, Newbury. T: 07879 447829 www.LiveFitNow.co.uk

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O&A AUTUMN 2021