The Hard Truth about Exercise

People often worry more about the statistics than the results. We worry about blood pressure, BMI, weight…A lot of people are always counting calories, fat grams, sugar intake, and anything we can think of. Whenever we go the gym, we are bringing the same “measuring mindset” as we keep track of reps, calories burned, steps taken, heart rate. Does statistics do tell us something about ourselves?

Yes, it is true that there are cases when they do tell us something about ourselves, but it does not apply to everyone as everyone is different from the other. It is important to know what really count in a gym.

• The treadmill’s calorie count: Though, the apparatus asks for your weight, height, and gender, the calorie count is not that accurate. The reason is simple as I already stated in the second paragraph: someone with 35% body fat will burn calories at a very different rate than someone with 17% body fat-even if their weight and height are the same. The major downfall of the calorie counters it makes people think that they achieve something even though it is not true.

• The number on your heart rate monitor: A lot of people think that whenever they heart rate goes up they are working intensely. However, throughout several workouts, we may notice that heart rate may get lower-even though were still working hard. To know if you are in an intense training is by mean of the “speak test”: having a conversation while at training means that you are not working that intense.

• Your weight: People think that weight is greatly irrelevant-overweight, and obesity connected to lots of medical problems, from cardio condition to diabetes. What people do not know is that it is not the only indicator of whether or not were in shape. Weight loss can happen overtime. Whenever that happens, we think that we hit a plateau because we have reach our goal. However, it only means that as our muscles grows bigger, we also burn more fat, and muscle are heavier than fat.

Looking at the statistic is just distracting us from our goal. Most of the time people tends to slack from the exercise routine that they were doing. Try to remember that the statistic does not really indicate a fit body as it is in the way our body feels. Whenever we notice that our stamina and strength are improving, we can be sure that we are in the right path. These are the reason why they are personal trainers. The personal trainer can help us achieve fitness level we want to achieve. Learn from what you have learned from this article in order to shape your workout regimen, also in evaluating your improvement.