Here are three fitness words that are used widely on the internet, but in reality, they are often misunderstood, or they do not mean anything. These words are frequently used to clickbait and scam people. So it is necessary to have the correct information and not fall for such scammers, of which there are too many.
1: Toning
This might come as a surprise, but there is no such thing as toning in fitness. Yes, muscles cannot be toned. Muscles can either grow in size, which is known as hypertrophy or they can shrink in size, which is known as atrophy. Muscles cannot tone. When someone thinks of toning, what they imagine is a lean physique with little muscle like Brad Pitt, Bruce Lee, or Zac Efron.
This is why people say stuff life, “I do not want to get bulky muscles, I just want to tone them.” After this, they start doing lightweight exercises cause of another misconception that heavyweights will make you bulky and lightweights will make you toned. If a person lifts heavy weights then he will become like Ronnie Coleman in 24 hours, so he has to lift light weights to tone the muscles and not make them bulky. However, there is no such thing as toning and there are no special exercises for toning. Lifting lightweights do not tone the muscles instead, they improve endurance and not muscle size. If the goal is to build little muscles or bulky muscles, heavyweights should be lifted, at least above 30% of 1 rep max. When the muscles have reached the desired size, they could be maintained by lifting the same weight and not progressively overloading. Lightweight exercises are not the answer.
The word toning is used to fool women into believing that they need special exercises. Women believe that if they lift heavy like men, then they will become big like men with 16-inch arms and 45-inch chests. But that is not true cause women have neither the testosterone nor the same baseline muscle as men to become bulky. Women do not have to do special toning exercises as they are completely useless. Also, the reason why Brad Pitt, Zac Efron do not have big muscles like Steve Reeves is because of their genetics and not some special toning exercise.
2: Pain
Pain is now normalized and it is also looked upon as a good thing. “No pain, no gain.” The rocky movies popularized this. When an average person reads or hears such things, he feels that pain is what causes muscle growth. If it hurts, it is good. However, the reality is quite the opposite. Pain is not a good thing. Yes, the muscles hurt the next day of the workout. That is known as muscle soreness. It happens as the muscles have received a new stimulus. The muscles have got some micro-tears due to the exercise. After some days the muscles recover. The soreness itself is not what causes muscle growth. When a person becomes more experienced, soreness reduces to a great extent. Even without soreness, growth takes place. The aim should be to increase hypertrophy while reducing pain and not the other way round. Here, it is important to understand that soreness is normal and every human working out will experience it. So, if the pain is happening due to soreness then there is nothing to worry about.
But, if the pain is something related to joints, ligaments or it happens during workouts, then it is not a good sign. If there is pain during the workout then stop the workout at that time. While working out, there will be some discomfort. The muscles will feel some burning effect while lifting weights which is normal. But, pain is different and if it is not addressed at the correct time, injury can take place. Discomfort, burn, soreness are normal. But, if it does hurt, then stop the workout and seek medical help. Do not say, “no pain, no gain” and keep pushing through the pain. An athlete should be pushing through discomfort, burning sensation, soreness, NOT PAIN. If pain caused growth then people will use some advanced laser or micro knife and induce micro-tears to the muscles.
Bonus: Take
Whenever people talk about supplements, they used the word take. “I take protein powder.” “I take creatine.” “Which supplements should I take.” But, it should be stopped from now on. The word take is used for medicines that give instant benefits. A tablet gives instant relief from a headache. Supplements are not medicines and they do not give instant results. Using the word take creates the illusion that the muscles will grow big superfast like Bane. Stop using the word take and instead say, “I eat protein powder, I drink a protein shake.” This will create realistic expectations for people who are new to fitness.
3: Melt Burn Lose
These words are used by almost every fitness influencer. The problem with these words is that they create false expectations. Ice “melts” within minutes. Matchstick “burns” into ashes in a matter of seconds. A person can “lose” his wallet in two seconds. When these words are used along with fat, it creates the expectation that a person will lose fat within minutes or overnight. Most of the ads that advertise some sort of cream or lotion to apply on your belly and claim that it will burn fat. They actually show smoke coming out of an actor’s belly. The viewer believes that the fat is really burning. On YouTube, there are many videos claiming to burn fat overnight, do this to melt your body fat, lose fat instantly. All of this creates a lot of false expectations in innocent people. They start to believe that people can lose dozens of pounds in a matter of days.
Coming back to reality, fat loss takes months to years. It depends on how fat a person is in the first place. If you have to lose 30+ pounds, it will take more than a year or even years. Now, there are people who have lost 30+ pounds in a matter of months. But, many of them easily gain it all back. The viewer does not see what happens after the transformation. They just see the before and after pics. But they do not know what happens after the transformation or what happened during the transformation. Many people never get lean because they try to lose fat instantly and end up gaining it back. If that is not desired, then understand that fat loss, fat burning or melting is a slow process. The real fitness experts on YouTube know this very well and they make their viewers aware of this. The scammers invoke false hope of losing fat overnight. So, use words like burn, melt and lose but know the real process behind it. Do not take the words literally.
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