Seduction is oftentimes associated with sexy activities, or at least something in that realm.
Until now. People are seduced in their everyday lives. Seduction is being lured, enticed, or bribed into something.
The fitness industry is great at seducing people (me included). I’ve been seduced more times than I care to admit in the past with various rules I thought I had to follow if I wanted to achieve any progress.
These rules are so tempting at times, because we see so many people do them. Fitness doesn’t need to be black and white. There’s more than one way to master the skill of fitness and achieve lifelong healthy habits.
Following a set of rules that cramp your style, make you feel bad about yourself, and causes you unhappiness isn’t what you should call an awesome quality of life. Allow me to share with you 10 of the lamest fitness rules you need to quit following immediately.
Lame Rule #1- No Carbs at Night
We’ve all heard the rule, eat your carbs in the evening and you’ll get fatter. Eating carbs at night doesn’t make you fat or cause you to gain weight. Eating too many calories is what causes weight gain.
Your body doesn’t magically say “hey its 7pm, I’m going to store all the carbs into my fat cells now.”
There isn’t such a thing as daytime and nighttime metabolism. Here’s a study where individuals ate carbs in the evening and got leaner(the irony).
Feel free to eat your carbs at night, allow yourself 2-3 hours before going to bed. This helps digestion and allows insulin to return to baseline levels. Carbs also help trigger serotonin release, which will help induce sleep and relaxation.
Lame Rule #2- You Must Cut Out All Carbs to Lose Fat
We live in a carb phobic society where carbs are public enemy number one when it comes to weight gain. Obesity rising isn’t because of carbohydrates, it’s because people eat too much.
Low carb diets are great for those who are sedentary, but for the active folk, it’s a terrible idea in the long run. Constantly working out without properly replenishing your body with carbs halts your recovery. Other signs of needing more carbs include increased crankiness, brain fog (not getting enough glucose), and issues on the toilet (hello constipation).
Lame Rule #3- Cardio is Needed for Fat Loss
Seduction runs rampant when it comes to our dependence on cardio. Cardio isn’t the only way to lose fat, in fact depending on your fitness goals, it can be counterproductive. Cardio is a great tool to include once you have your nutrition under control, you are strength training consistently, and your stress levels are under control.
Cardio burns plenty of calories, but that’s only while you’re exercising. Weight training burns calories during and after exercising leading to more calories burned.
When it comes to battling the bulge, fall in love with weight training. Save the cardio for when you hit a plateau.
Lame Rule #4- (Insert diet) is the Only Diet That Will Work
Whether it’s Paleo, intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, Mediterranean diet, or a Japanese village style diet…they all work. There isn’t one diet plan that has to be used over the other.
Are there diets that are more optimal for people and their specific lifestyle? Absolutely.
The key is tailoring your diet to cater to your lifestyle without adding extra stress (there’s enough of that already).
Resist the carefully marketed seduction techniques that you see. Install a way of eating that makes you happy and is sustainable over the long haul.
Lame Rule #5- You Need Supplements to Make Progress
Supplements aren’t a necessity. They’re meant to ‘supplement’ an already established healthy lifestyle. Think of supplements as icing on the cake. Supplements don’t replace the hard work it takes to make a transformation, no matter how sexy or awesome that new supplement ad sounds.
Stay consistent with lifting weights and eating real foods. There are no quick fixes. Get plenty of rest.
Then. Just maybe. You should consider using supplements.
Lame Rule #6- Fat Can Be Spot Reduced Through Exercise
Whether it’s abs, thighs, butt (glutes if ya fancy), or arms, men and women are equally obsessed with the idea of toning up a specific area.
Sadly, those thousands of crunches or hundreds of reps on the inner thigh machine won’t expedite fat burning in those areas. If you have a lot of bodyfat to lose, those areas will still be hidden underneath the existing layer of fat. You can’t pick and choose where bodyfat will burn off from. Focus on reducing body fat through eating healthier.
Lame Rule #7- You Need Soreness for Progress
“No pain. No gain.”
“Don’t quit. You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Get a reward from it.”
Those are two of the most seducing rallying cries that many use for fitness motivation. I’m here to tell you though, you don’t need to be sore, ‘hurting’, or in pain after every workout to experience results.
Muscle soreness is the result of small tears in your muscle fibers.. It’s common to be sore after the first few workouts after implementing a new workout routine or program.
Constantly being sore is a great sign you aren’t recovering enough. You grow and become stronger by taking adequate amounts of rest.
Lame Rule #8- Go Gluten Free To Get Results
If you have celiac disease, problems with lactose, or other food allergies, then you should by all means avoid foods that don’t suit your well being.
If you don’t have these problems, please stop using gluten free or any other ‘free diet’ as the reason why weight isn’t falling off. It’s not the wheat, rye, nor milk that is making you bloated and miserable. The junk included in your diet is causing these problems.
If you feel better by eliminating certain foods, then by all means go for it. Just don’t blindly follow some fad diet without testing on yourself. It could all be in your head(non celiac gluten sensitivity for example).
Lame Rule #9-You Need a “Six-Pack” to Look Good.
Look around at newsstands and every health, beauty, and lifestyle magazine has some guy or girl showing off their perfect arms and midsections. Our culture is obsessed with body image to a fault.
If it isn’t abs, then its reducing thighs, toning arms, or that ridiculous thigh gap nonsense. While it’s great to have goals of improving your body composition, your entire self-worth shouldn’t rest on these goals.
You’re good enough already.
Ladies. Embrace your bodies as they are. Striving to make yourself stronger and improving your current self is great. Improve your body for you and only you. If a guy or anyone else has a problem with your body…tell them to go kick rocks.
Guys. A six pack isn’t the end all be. Obsessing over your body gets in the way of living life. Having racks and racks of muscle isn’t as important as you think(can we say overkill).
Working out only for the six pack, toning the arms, tightening the thighs is shortening yourself of all the awesome benefits working out provides.
The key to happiness and a lifelong habit of exercising is to find motivation that goes deeper than just physical appearance.
Lame Rule #10- Women Shouldn’t Lift Heavy.
This rule is slowly seducing less women as time goes along.
I encounter women everyday who keep lifting the 5 lb weights and performing endless sets of tricep kickbacks. They’re working hard, but results aren’t following. The problem lies with woman being afraid to lift heavy.
Lifting heavy is what gives ladies the ever so desired ‘toned look’. Due to different ratios of specific hormones, it’s near impossible for women to develop the same muscular build of males.
So feel free to start squatting, hip thrusting, and deadlifting your little heart away.
Remember, our society forms these generalized ideals of what’s attractive; you can choose what you find attractive.
What are some lame fitness rules you wish would go away? Comment below or tweet at me.
Featured photo credit: Method Fitness via flickr.com
