We want to know: What is the worst fitness advice you've ever gotten? There's so much bad advice out there, let's help each other figure out what has and hasn't worked for us!
This post may include affiliate links.
"Drink less water".
I have several conditions that basically make my body think it needs to store as much water as possible. I'm a human equivalent of a sponge.
I did the body composition analysis thing at a gym once and the trainer looked at it and went like: "dunno, maybe you should drink less water?".
He was being serious. He was being dead serious.
Luckily I know better than to follow such rubbish advice.
“Just eat less, exercise more! It’s so easy, the weight just slid off!”
Ok, let me rephrase that for you
“Have an eating disorder”
The worst fitness advice I got was to "just go running." You're ignoring the pain I'm already in, my fitness goals, and my current body. The trainer was also ignoring that I don't like to run. You can find fitness in a million ways, but it will only be fitness for you if you like it and have consistency with it.
"Just run more often, you'll start to enjoy it more"
Enjoy what? The endless pain? The burning lungs? Feeling like I am about to unalive? Enjoy the 'fitness benefits' that I clearly don't seem to be getting? SERIOUSLY, ENJOY WHAT??!?!
Exercise more! Walk, run, ride a bike. Those are easy. Yeah, I can't walk for 10 minutes without pain and falling, let alone running. Biking jars the spine and CIPN (chemo Induced Peripheral Neuropathy) makes it painful to pedal. Swimming I can do, but I don't have a pool & can't afford a membership anywhere. Some days I barely make it out of bed. I have spinal stenosis and a lot of other stuff. I think I know better what I can handle
"eat more."
Weeeeellll excuse me princess! i'm sorry that i have a metabolism able to out speed the flash!
"Calorie count is all that matters--not what the calories are from." Because 600 empty Krispy Kreme calories are totally going to get me through a 12-hour shift just as well as 600 calories of whole grains, lean protein and veggies with no sugar crash. I definitely won't be hungry again in 2 hours. Or eventually be hospitalized for malnutrition. Ok, Belinda.
Belinda and I agreed to disagree.
somebody told me to just jog more. in the middle of a pandemic. while living in a suburb where kidnappings are common.
"No pain, no gain!" Turned out I was jogging around with a stress fracture in my foot and it was getting worse with every step. Only went to the doctor when the swelling started to concern me.
My friend's ex-boyfriend told her she should try being 'a little' bulimic. "Not like a crazy amount but just enough to keep yourself thin." Suffice it to say the only weight she lost was 170 pounds when she dumped his ass.
Once had a P.E. teacher tell me to 'just keep going. Push through the pain and go past your limits.' normally not bad advice but I have a bone marrow/blood condition. I don't know what but when my legs start hurting thats a sign to stop, because they get really weak. If I did 'push through' I would of ended up on the ground crying in pain and unable to walk or move, and I would not have made it throughout the rest of the day. But to prove a point I did it and then i made him drive me to the E.R. in the hospital where my mum worked so i could rat him out.
Also, he had me down on a sheet 'medically inhibited' or whatever so he knew about the condition.