Why are there times when people lose their objectivity and adopt ideas that lack of logic sense? At the moment I noticed the most dangerous fitness myth, this question arose in my mind in a shocking way because of the fact that it was an extremely empty idea, without fundaments, and it lacked of many of the angles that are present in a complex topic as fitness is.
Although there are no relevant reasons for someone to decide to support this myth, it is a fact that a huge number or persons take it as true without knowing that this can have a very negative effect in their lives, their children lives, and the children of their children lives. Trying to understand this human behavior might take me a lot of years of psychology, sociology, or some similar university career studies, but my interest is not that, my interest is to try to help those people that have this myth in their heads to "kick it out" for them to improve their lives by getting rid of it, and that is why I decided to write this article.
I can hear you asking: "well, what is the myth?" Do not worry, we are now going to the point. The story goes like this...
I am a person surrounded by a lot of fitness related stuff and on occasions I write articles about fitness that are published at various places, among them, www.FitWebClub.com which is a community website about health and lifetime fitness. Once, I mentioned a fitness article I wrote when I was talking to a good friend of mine for him to read it, but amazingly the word fitness made him react defensively with an argument that I call today "the most dangerous fitness myth", he said: "Fitness is for empty and superficial persons!".
I realized that this myth keeps many people from perceiving the whole view about what fitness really is and that, unfortunately, might have serious and harmful consequences for them and their following generations. Later we will see negative facts about this, but first some positive ones that show how false this myth is.
Fitness make people look better physically, that is a fact, but that is just part of the picture because it is not just about the looks, it is about health. The looks, in fitness, are a benefit that results from the improvement in health and body performance of an individual. People with fitness (good nutrition, exercises, etc.) in their lives are healthier than people without it and anything that can improve health is always a good thing, nobody can deny that. "Fitness is for persons who want to be physically healthier!" (1st kick to the myth).
The healthier you are, the better you feel physically and "mentally". Fitness improves self-esteem. It is a fact that a good self-esteem improves the live of an individual in many ways, good moods to socialize with other persons, more energy for work and spare time activities with friends and family, more self-confidence for professional career, more success in romantic relationships, among others. A good self-esteem is something that benefits a lot the life of a person and fitness contributes to it enormously. "Fitness is for persons who want their personalities to contribute to the improvement of their daily lives!" (2nd kick to the myth).
Human beings live in society, why? because society is something good in general terms that brings a lot of potential benefits to every individual. Fitness is a social activity that, in addition to promote personal relationships among people, exposes us to more positive and healthier habits which reflects that it is a good influence. Social communities with good influences are also present at the internet currently, www.FitWebClub.com is a fitness focused one. What do you prefer for your children? for your family? bad influences or good ones? If you are very young, if you are not a parent yet, then, what do you think guides people toward the best future? it is an easy question, bad influences or good ones? Good influences always guide you to a better life and fitness is a good influence for everybody. "Fitness is for persons who want to be part of positive environments!" (3rd kick to the myth).
I could keep kicking this myth with more arguments for hours, but if you still resist to take it out of your mind and you do not want to kick the myth with me, let's talk about the negative facts (United States data) I said earlier I would mention, they reflect serious consequences from the lack of fitness in the lifestyle of people:
Overweight and obesity are increasing for both adult and children, for 2-5 y/o from 5.0% to 13.9%, for 6-11 y/o from 6.5% to 18.8%, for 12-19 y/o from 5.0% to 17.4%, for 20-74 y/o from 15.0% to 32.9 (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This overweight and obesity situation is very serious and dangerous because it increases the risk of many diseases including the following (source : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) :
Do you remember that I mentioned that this myth might have an extremely negative effect in your life, your children lives, and the children of your children lives? This point is an example about it, parents are passing their unhealthy habits to their children without noticing that it will harm them, it have been mentioned that young and future generation might start dying earlier than previous ones. Now, if you compare the previous list of diseases with the following, which presents some of the leading causes of death (source : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), you will notice that more than one third of deaths are the result of diseases that are related to overweight and/or obesity.
Total number of deaths : 2,398,343
- Heart disease : 654,092 (27.27%)
- Cancer : 550,270 (22.94%)
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) : 150,147 (6.26%)
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases : 123,884 (5.17%)
- Diabetes : 72,815 (3.04%)
Are you getting how bad can the lack of fitness be? and it is not only about the looks, right? it is about health... let's continue. In addition to all the above, most studies show an increase in mortality rates associated with obesity. Individuals who are obese have a 10% to 50% increased risk of death from all causes (source : National Institutes of Health). "Fitness is for people who want to enjoy a long and top quality life!" (4th "mega" kick to the myth).
Now that you have seen some positive facts about fitness and some negative ones about the lack of it, it is up to you to decide which way to take. I hope you start kicking out of your mind this and other fitness myths, but, most important, I hope you help your friends to do it also because I'm sharing this with you not for you to keep it, but for you to share what you know now and help others, we need fitness to spread among everyone for our own good and the good of next generations.
by Franz Mendez
