Fact: Exercise is just about the best thing you can do for you body

Ever heard of Lipitor? If you haven’t, you must not watch TV or read magazines. Lipitor is a cholesterol drug that is given to people with high cholesterol to prevent heart attacks. And some studies show that it has some helpful effects. But studies of exercise show that even moderate exercise can be as much as 20 times as effective as Lipitor in helping with heart disease. Similar studies have been done comparing exercise to drugs for treating depression, Parkinson’s disease, and a host of other ailments. Across the board, exercise is good for just about everything that ails you. In addition, exercise, unlike drugs, doesn’t have any negative side effects. What amazes us here at ReEvolution is that the exercise that people do in these studies (generally just running at a steady pace) isn’t even the best kind of exercise. It’s based on outmoded theory, and doesn’t take account of how our bodies are meant to move. And it still has amazing effects on health. Exercising the ReEvolution way will serve you even better.

Fiction: All Exercise is Good for You

You hear everywhere these days that “exercise is good for you”. This statement is about as meaningful as saying “Food is good for you”. While it is generally true that food is good for you, some foods are bad for you. The amount of food you eat is important too, as is when you eat it. The same things hold true for exercise. Exercising the ways our bodies are meant to is wonderful for our health. But a lot of forms of exercise are actually bad for us. For example, using machine based weights like chest and leg press machines can twist your muscles out of shape leading to poor posture and joint pain. Ever notice how many amateur body builders are stooped forward, with their shoulders drawn in and their backs curved? Free weights and cable machines (which are free to move in every plane) come closer to the way our bodies are meant to move, and are, thus, a lot healthier. Take a look at Improving Posture and Alignment for more.

Another common exercise mistake is going for long bouts of cardiovascular exercise with no breaks. Workouts that last over 45 minutes begin to tear down joint tissue, release inflammatory chemicals into your body, leading to aging, and can actually be dangerous for your heart. A number of prominent distance runners have died young, some at the end of long runs! Our bodies are meant to move in bursts of activity followed by rest. Our Exercise Overview discusses this at greater length, and your free ReEvolution Fitness Action Plan includes a personalized cardio program based on these ideas.

Fiction: Carbs Make You Gain Weight

Low carb diets aren’t quite the rage that they once were, but a lot of people are still terrified of eating carbs, believing that they will invariably lead to weight gain. The opposite is true.