You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of our Obnoxious Fitness Myths That Need to Die in 2025
This week we’re covering the final 3 myths:
7. Being Sweaty, Sore, and Tired is How You Determine if Your Workout Was Effective
8. Eating Healthy is the Key to Fat Loss
9. Squats are Bad For Your Knees
Fitness Myth #7- Being Sweaty, Sore, and Tired is How You Determine if Your Workout Was Effective
Most people, including many trainers unfortunately, have no earthly idea how to gauge if a workout was effective. So they look at something that is logical but isn’t actually a good measure- how sweaty, sore, and tired they are after a workout.
I break this down in my blog about Training vs. Exercise but the problem is most people exercise. Most people don’t train.
Exercise is very beneficial! BUT if you’re already taking time to exercise and you want to maximize results or the efficiency of your plan you should take it a step further and Train!
What’s the difference?
Exercise is any activity that challenges the muscles and/or gets the heart rate up.
Training is exercise with a long-term focus.
Exercise is all about TODAY and having a “good workout” but Training is all about tomorrow- treating each workout like a brick being used to build a house. Each brick alone is largely worthless, but when put together with all its brick friends you’re left with a beautiful house!
That’s training.
Since people who exercise don’t have a long-term target or plan in mind, they are just focused on having a good workout today. And since we’re only looking at today, the only way to determine if the workout was good or not is based on today’s metrics. Which largely revolve around being sweaty, sore, and tired.
But in reality, those things are BYPRODUCTS of a workout but are not the best way to tell if you got a good workout in.
The way you tell if you had a good workout is if you were able to improve your performance over what you did last time. Now you won’t necessarily see improvements every single workout, but every single workout IS designed with that goal in mind. So each workout should be enough work to drive progress, but not so much that it wipes you out and prevents you from having a great next workout.
Now back to feeling sweaty, sore, and tired. Since those are byproducts of a workout and not the goal, here’s what you should know.
If you’re not sweaty, sore, and/or tired AT ALL after any of your workouts, you’re probably not training hard enough. And if you’re insanely sweaty, unbelievably sore, and flat out exhausted after every workout, you’re probably doing way too much.
Make notes of those things if you want, but I want you to primarily focus on 2 things:
1) Am I improving my performance over time?
2) Do I feel good? (Energy, mood, sleep, etc.)?
If you answered yes to both of those questions…then you, my friend, are having great workouts!
Fitness Myth #8- Eating Healthy is the Key to Fat Loss
Oh boy, this is going to make some of you go bananas. Ha! See what I did there?
Anyways..
Eating healthy is not the (only) key to fat loss.
And TECHNICALLY speaking, it’s not even a key to fat loss.
You can absolutely lose fat with an unhealthy diet.
Now I’m not suggesting you eat unhealthy. But I am trying to prove my point.
People have lost fat throughout history with all kinds unhealthy diets.
Now, I do think eating healthy is a good idea. A great idea actually.
You should eat healthy.
But you’re delusional if you think eating healthy will guarantee you should lose fat (and if you’re eating healthy and you’re not losing fat you assume something is wrong.)
So what gives?
Fat Loss is all about 2 things:
#1 (and this is like 80% of it)- CALORIES
#2- PROTEIN
So here it goes…
As long as your calories and protein are where they need to be, no matter how horrible of a diet you’re eating (not recommending eating bad guys….chillllll…I’m just making a point)…
YOU WILL LOSE FAT!
AND….
If you’re eating NOTHING but God made it Himself single ingredient foods (as you should) but your calories and protein aren’t where they need to be…
YOU WON’T LOSE FAT!
Period. End of sentence.
If you want to lose fat, you have to be in a calorie deficit.
And in the health community, which is near and dear to my heart, you will hear all kinds of claims about hormones, insulin spiking, inflammation, and so much more. And those are VERY good and important conversations to have. BUT, as good as those reasons sound for why you’re not losing weight…it’s not true.
If you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose fat. If you’re not in a calorie deficit you won’t lose fat.
But Nate, don’t my hormones matter? Shouldn’t I not eat foods that cause inflammation? Shouldn’t I avoid the donuts and eat steak and rice and broccoli instead?
You bet!!
Again, I’m not arguing for a junk food diet. You’d probably be better off never eating junk food again.
But people lose weight with junk food all the time. And if you’re stuck despite eating healthy, this is here to help you.
Now here’s where eating healthy comes in:
Since the only way to lose fat is with a calorie deficit, eating single ingredient, real foods are BY FAR the easiest and most enjoyable way to achieve the calorie deficit.
Because real foods are often packed with protein and other nutrients, so you’ll get full and feel great on fewer calories.
This is why, despite people losing weight eating junk food all the time, most people do better eating healthy foods when trying to lose fat.
I 10/10 recommend eating real foods that make you feel great while losing fat.
Just don’t be one of these people (or if you’re one of them now, please consider changing your mind) who say “But Nate, I eat really healthy and I’m still not losing weight.”
Got it. You’re eating too many calories.
That’s not a judgment statement. But if you want to lose weight and you’re not, despite eating healthy, you’re eating too many calories. Period.
One of the most common reasons is because people that eat healthy tend to eat a ton of fats. And yes, fats are super healthy and important. But if you’re one of these people who eat healthy and aren’t losing fat, I’d bet 80% of you are consuming a ton of your calories from fat.
Again, fats are great for you. But you could reduce some of your fat intake, still get all the benefits healthy fats have to offer, and start losing fat again!
Alright, I’m sure I’ve ticked enough people off. Time to move to the next point.
Fitness Myth #9- Squats Are Bad For Your Knees
Ahh the myth that just won’t die. Squats are near and dear to my heart.
I enjoy doing them. I enjoy the strength, muscle, and mobility improvements I see from them.
And I love to see how squats can quite literally change someone’s life.
I’m going to give you a few reasons for why squats (done properly) are likely the VERY BEST thing you can do for your knees.
But first I’ll admit, if you do squats incorrectly (just like any other exercise) you might hurt yourself. Which is why it helps to work with a Trainer, even just when you’re starting your fitness journey, so you can learn to do everything correctly.
Now properly done squats are super beneficial for your knees.
My first line of evidence is the fact that we’ve worked with over 1,000 every day men and women across our Steel Strength Training locations. And you know what a lot of every day men and women have?
“Bad Knees”
I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve heard clients say they have bad knees. Many of them say they can’t squat.
With their permission of course, we encourage them to squat. And of course, we teach them to do it properly.
And what do you know…their “bad knees” suddenly turn to “good knees.”
Why is that? For one, building strength and muscle around any joint is almost always going to make that joint feel better. Especially if you’re weak in that area to begin with. Second, lifting weights doesn’t just make you stronger. It also improves your mobility.
So taking the knees through a full squat while holding a weight or with a barbell on your back is a fantastic way to improve flexibility/mobility.
All of these things lead to better feeling and better performing knees.
The second line of evidence is a bit of a logical argument.
You squat ALL THE TIME.
You sit on the toilet. You stand up from the toilet.
You do the same with chairs and sofas. Or is it a couch? My wife and I are still debating this one 😂
Anyways, you’re always sitting and standing back up. THAT’S A SQUAT!!
Also when you go up stairs, that’s like a single leg squat. Or a lunge. Which trains basically the same muscles.
So you should absolutely NOT avoid squats unless you plan to stand up the rest of your life and never take the stairs.
The sad reality is this is a myth propagated by many doctors. And the thing is, a doctor is often going to be extremely conservative with their recommendations. Because if they say yeah, go squat! And you go squat with bad form and get hurt, they’d be concerned about you suing them.
Also, many people, including doctors, aren’t very well versed in Strength Training. Fortunately that’s changed a TON over the last 10-20 years. But we’ve still got a ways to go!
The ironic thing is EVERYONE is talking about how important Strength Training is, yet so few people actually know how to properly teach it to the every day man and woman.
That’s why we do what we do at Steel.
We help everyday men and women learn how to strength train properly and to stop believing myths that keep them stuck. So they can get lean, strong, and healthy so they can do the things they love with the people they love.
If you’re tired of believing the fitness myths that have been shoved down your throat for decades, and you want to trade those myths in for a simple, effective, breath of fresh air approach that will change your life?