10 Friendly Pieces Of Fitness Advice You Should Never Take

As an athlete, trainer, coach and owner of this website, I’ve heard some pretty absurd things in regard to health and fitness over the years.

Here’s some of the worst and most common fitness advice you’ll hear – make sure you ignore it.

New gym-goers get handed out a lot of bad fitness advice. We’re going to cover some of the worst of it in this article. There’s nothing more detrimental to your long-term fitness results than bad advice.

#1. Push The Limit

“Go big or go home”

Thing is, if you’re just getting into training, you could easily injure yourself if you were to push it like the seasoned meat-heads… It’s not really a smart training strategy. The way you start to see results in the weight room is through small, incremental gains that eventually add up to the body you desire.

You should lift to technical failure. You should attempt to do as many reps as you can, while still keeping perfect form. If you ever lose the perfect form, stop. You should just barely be able to complete your goal reps… then you can slightly go up in weight next time.

If you need help with your form or don’t really know how to go about your workouts… But don’t want to hire a personal trainer, I’d definitely check out Exerscribe. 

Exerscribe takes your body through the Movement Efficiency phase, to build foundational joint mobility and stability. After establishing a strong foundation, you’ll then go through Force Optimization, which focuses on building advanced muscular development and strength. The last phase is what we call Mechanical Synergy and brings out your inner athlete by emphasizing power, speed and agility. It’s incredibly convenient and is all operated via your smartphone.

#2. Workout Through The Pain

It’s not terrible to have a little soreness in your muscles. All that means is you’ve pushed yourself and created microscopic tears that will heal up and result in new (hopefully lean) mass. Ultimately, those pushes will lead to gains in strength and size.

There’s a colossal difference between pain and soreness, though. Ignoring pain is a quick way to be unable to work out for the rest of the year.

Look for pain-free alternatives that work out the same muscles. Change your movement pattern, grip, or angle to not put stress on the joints.

#3. Too Many Sit-ups & Crunches

Sit-ups and crunches can help you get a six-pack, but they also have a downside:

Consistent spinal flexion can enhance your risk of developing back problems. Some trainers recommend a lot of sit-ups and crunches, but they could damage you.

Instead, try stability exercises. If you resist unwanted motion, you are exercising your core in the right way.

#4. Overtraining

More than an hour and a half of ongoing, moderate exercise can weaken the immune system, and increase your chances of coming down with an illness. This effect can last up to three days.

You need to give yourself enough time to recover after working out and don’t put too much stress on your body while you’re training.

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#5. Wearing Weight Belts For Every Exercise

Weight belts only need to be worn on your heaviest lifts, you don’t need it the entire time you’re at the gym. If you give continuous, external support to your core muscles, you will end up weakening those muscles over time.

Deadlifts, overhead presses, and heavy squats all train the abs without any special gear; a belt reduces this benefit.

#6. In Order Shed Pounds, Exercise Like A Mad-Man

If you really want to lose weight, you have to get your diet under control. Exercise is great – and there are a lot of health benefits – but losing weight is more about your diet. Eating healthier foods and taking in fewer empty calories is crucial.

#7. Run Slowly For A Long Time To Lose Weight

Slow cardio is just inefficient.

New research shows that 15 minutes of high-intensity interval training is more effective for weight loss than 40 minutes of slow cardio.

#8. You Can’t Get Enough Amino Acids From Plant Food

You can certainly get enough amino acids from plants.

Plant sources aren’t complete proteins, though, so you cannot get all your amino acids from a single plant. Eating both beans and rice can give your body complete proteins.

#9. Exercise More & Eat Less

Everyone has a different body, metabolism, and dietary needs. Just eating less and exercising more won’t work for everyone. Everyone needs to eat the right food, an adequate amount of calories, and exercise as much as their doctor thinks is safe.

You might’ve heard a lot of bad fitness advice in your time, and this list probably addressed some of it. You’re now going to be off to a stronger start in your effort to become healthier.

#10. You Need Supplements

This is probably one of, if not the biggest misconception when it comes to fitness. 

You DO NOT need supplements. I repeat, you DO NOT need supplements to get into shape. If you train with intensity, eat whole unprocessed foods and make water your primary drink of choice while getting an adequate amount of rest each night, your body will be in optimal condition without any expensive, inneffective and possibly dangerous supplements.

Health by choice, not by chance.

 -David Aston