Facts and myths about sport

Slim people don’t need to exercise. Falsehood. Research has shown that from a health point of view, it is better to be overweight, but to play sports, than to be thin and not move at all. Activity not only helps to maintain a nice and slim figure, it also has a beneficial effect on blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Movement helps strengthen bones and reduces the risk of depression. Only with exercise can we strengthen our muscular suit that supports the spine and internal organs. Photo Shutterstock

You need to eat something within an hour after exercise. Truth. After each activity, the body immediately begins to regenerate and requires protein and complex carbohydrates. If we do not provide them, it will use up its natural reserves of readily available energy, i.e. muscles. This means that all your effort (running, fitness or cycling) will be wasted. Before starting the activity, it is worth preparing a regenerative meal, e.g. a portion of cottage cheese (it has a lot of protein), a piece of chicken, baked fish or groats with meat. It may also be a good idea to eat a cereal bar. Photo Shutterstock

Exercise during menstruation increases bleeding. Falsehood. In healthy women (e.g. without anemia), playing sports has no effect on the amount of blood lost. What’s more, during menstruation and a few days after it, the body’s efficiency increases. It is lowest just before menstruation, when the body begins to store more water. Activity has also been shown to be an excellent way to reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Photo Shutterstock

Aerobics does not make you slimmer. Truth. This may be the case, especially for people who attend classes at various levels of advancement. As a rule, classes are conducted at a variable pace quickly and slowly, and then the heart rate jumps very much. And ironically, the body then switches to anaerobic effort (instead of aerobic), in practice these are several seconds of intense exercise, during which we are not able to exchange a word with a friend who is exercising next door. Speed ​​effort is, in other words, anaerobic training, where the source of energy is muscle glycogen, not the fat that we want to get rid of so badly. With such intense bursts, the body simply chooses the simplest and fastest solution. Photo Shutterstock

To have effects, you need to sweat a lot and get tired during training. Truth false. It depends on what effect we want. If the goal is to improve endurance, then really strenuous training will help us achieve it. Then exercises on a treadmill, stepper or oars until the end of their strength make sense. When it comes to getting rid of excess weight, you have to remember that fat tissue cannot be sweat out. We excrete it along with urine and feces, but only when the body “takes it” out of the belly or belly. How can I make him do it? It is enough to exercise at a moderate intensity, i.e. one with a heart rate of 60-70%. our maximum value. It is calculated using a simple formula: 220 – age = 100%. Only after half an hour of effort (brisk walking, jogging, jumping, cycling) has passed, the body begins to use up fat reserves. This is why slimming training should last an hour or an hour and a half and should be repeated 2-3 times a week. Photo Shutterstock

Before each activity, you need to warm up. Truth. Warming up activates and prepares the body to load, gives a signal to work at a higher speed. Warm, flexible and stretched muscles make training more effective. Warming up also reduces the risk of injury and pain after exercise (commonly referred to as soreness). Photo Shutterstock

For health, one longer walk is better than two shorter ones. Truth. English scientists organized three groups of walkers and closely followed their morphology results for the next quarter. The long distance runners walked for 40 minutes a day, the middle distance runners had two 15-minute walks, and the short-distance runners were instructed to walk three times for 10 minutes. All hikers had reduced levels of bad cholesterol, but long-distance runners had by far the most favorable blood lipid profile. Photo Shutterstock

After training, you no longer need to do any exercises. Falsehood. After each activity, you should do stretching exercises – stretching. Stretching increases muscle endurance and accelerates their regeneration. Its role is to relax the fibers and improve blood flow. Photo Shutterstock

During the slimming treatment, it is better to measure yourself with a tape measure than to stand on the weight. Truth. Playing sports increases weight because muscle weighs more than body fat. It may even be that we can finally fit into old jeans, and we will gain 5 kg. Photo Shutterstock

When we stop training, muscles turn to fat. Falsehood. These tissues have a completely different structure and do not merge into each other. When we stop exercising, the muscles go limp and gradually their mass decreases. If we do not change the diet (and there is no effort that burned excess calories), the body begins to accumulate fat and it becomes more visible on the arms, thighs and abdomen. The comforting thing is that there is such a thing as muscle memory. Thanks to it, return to form, even after a long break, is much faster for those who used to train than for beginners. Photo Shutterstock

Isometric exercises do not work. Falsehood. You only need to spend 90 seconds a day to strengthen a specific group of muscles, and you can do isometric exercises anywhere and you do not need specialized equipment. The training consists in tensing the muscles without stretching them, you can do it, for example, by pressing your hand on the table or by squeezing your folded hands as if in prayer (great exercise for the bust!) Or by pressing the back of your head against the pillow when you do not want to get out of bed in the morning. Perform the exercise in a series of: 10 repetitions of 8 seconds of pressure. Photo Shutterstock

If someone has back problems, they shouldn’t use a breaststroke. Truth. This style of swimming (especially swimming with an open frog) forces us to take an unnatural position – the head is high and the neck is unnaturally bent. Strong muscle tension in this position can cause neck pain. Frequent frog swimming may also aggravate the curvature of the spine in the lumbar region (the so-called lumbar lordosis). The frog should not be used by people who have problems with the hip and knee joints. The safest for the spine is backstroke. Photo Shutterstock

Calves get bigger from cycling. Truth false. It depends on the load. The most indicated rate is 80 to 90 crank turns per minute. Individual feelings are another yardstick. If you want to slim your calves, you need to keep pedaling light. When we put a lot of force into them, the calf muscles will actually increase in volume. Photo Shutterstock

Nordic walking, i.e. walking with poles, activates as much as 90 percent. the muscles of the body. Truth. This discipline harmoniously develops all the muscles of the lower and upper body. It also reduces the load on the knees and back, and relieves tension in the shoulder and neck area. When walking with poles, even the muscles that we do not use every day work. It has been calculated that this sport engages nearly 90 percent. from 650 muscles of the body. That is why it is used both to improve the form and for multi-directional rehabilitation. Photo Shutterstock