This Fitness MYTH Needs To End

If you get most of your fitness info online, you’ve discovered how challenging it can be to know what's true and what is off-base. Some of the false claims you come across are relatively harmless and may only slightly stall your progress. Others, on the other hand, can set you up for an injury. For example, here is a title of an article that our Boston personal training team came across the other day…

You won’t believe how sore this 15-minute bodyweight HIIT workout will make you

As much as soreness and sweatiness have been popularized as sources of pride and a sign that we trained hard, here’s the truth...

They do NOT equate to an effective workout. This doesn’t mean that breaking a sweat and experiencing mild soreness are a bad thing, but anything beyond mild soreness is a sign indicating that:

1) you need to improve your exercise technique AND/OR 

2) you’d benefit from scaling things back a bit, especially if the soreness persists for several days (our personal trainers consider it excessive soreness if it persists for 2 days or more).

How sweaty and sore you get are not indicators of an effective workout

So, what are the best ways to measure progress? Here’s some pro tips from our Boston personal trainers…

✅ Improved exercise technique, improved posture, and improved mobility/range of motion in your joints are all things to celebrate. Living pain-free is a great goal for anyone. How well you move defines how you live.

✅ Logging your weight lifting sessions and tracking your improvements in strength, especially in the primary movement patterns like the deadlift, is a great way to assess progress, especially since it translates to everyday life. The more you can deadlift with excellent technique, the easier it will be for you to pick up real-life heavy objects, such as furniture, off of the ground.

✅ Reductions in your resting heart rate are a sign of improved cardiovascular fitness as it indicates that your heart is functioning more efficiently. The best time of day to check your heart rate is first thing in the morning, right after you wake up and before you get out of bed.

✅ Increases in your energy levels, mood, and quality of sleep are all awesome signs of progress.

✅ Progress photos are a great way to assess changes in your body composition over time. Our personal trainers recommend taking photos from the front, back and side. For a more accurate comparison, try to wear the same clothing each time.

Our personal training team hopes that these tips help you on your fitness journey.

Drop a 💚 if you’ll look at training progress differently moving forward and let us know if our expert personal trainers can be of support in any way in helping you reach your goals.

Limited spots are available. We offer both private personal training at our fitness studio in Boston and also virtual personal training via zoom. Apply for one-on-one fitness coaching here