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Feb 14

Dispelling common fitness myths – The Philadelphia Tribune

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Every day we get new information about health and fitness topic like what to eat, what to wear or how to exercise. Remember when people tried to vibrate the fat off with those crazy vibrator belts? Or what about diets that had people drink liquid protein three times a day and skip food. How do we know whats true and whats not?

Keeping the body healthy is one of the most researched topics around. That means theres a lot of good information available on health and fitness but there are a lot of pie-in-the-sky myths, too. All research techniques are not created equal and many findings are biased depending on where the funding comes from. For example, if a company hires a research group to experiment on its product, it would make sense that the results would be slanted in favor of that client. I have personally had researchers admit to me that they sometimes sell themselves when they receive money from a client to test a product or theory.

Using common sense can help you sift through a lot of fitness nonsense. But since common sense is not always common, Ill help you dispel some of the fitness myths people still live by.

Myth 1: Eating one meal a day will keep the weight off!

People who do this eventually lose muscle tone and collect fat on different parts of the body. Your body knows it needs energy in the form of food (calories) to perform the thousands of chemical actions which take place throughout the day.

When you eat one meal a day your body thinks its being starved. To prevent starvation your body will slow down the rate at which it burns calories and store fat. Your body stores this fat because it provides a good source of reserved energy. It cant depend on you to give it what it needs throughout the day but it knows it can depend on stored fat.

Dieting does not burn fat or calories. Eating 3-6 small meals a day will allow your body to get the energy it needs. Digesting these meals actually causes the body to burn calories. Eating small meals throughout the day and exercise both stimulate your body to burn calories. Muscle tissue uses more energy than fatty tissue so a well-toned body burns calories at a faster rate than a flabby body.

Myth 2: You should stretch before you warm up!

You should always warm up the body before you stretch. Stretching your muscles before you warm up can cause injuries. Doing a warmup before you stretch allows for increased blood circulation and releases hormones, which aid in stretching. When you exercise muscle size can increase up to 20 percent. A warmup allows this to happen slowly and gently. To warm up do some type of continuous movement exercise such as brisk walking, light jogging or jumping jacks for 5-10 minutes. If youre lifting weights you can warm up by doing a 2-3 sets with lightweights for each body part you work. Stretching is not a necessary part of a fitness program.

Myth 3: If you stop lifting weights the muscle will turn into fat!

Fat and muscle are two separate tissues. One does not turn into the other. Fat is found between the muscle and skin. Fat is also distributed throughout muscle tissue but the fat that makes a body look out of shape is found beneath the skin. Many once-toned bodies take on a flabby appearance for several reasons. The most common have to do with the fact that the person becomes inactive and neglects to modify the amount of food he or she eats once they stop training. Steroid use also causes changes in a persons muscle-to-fat ratio once a person stops using them.

To keep excess body fat from accumulating you need to do some form of aerobic exercise 3-5 times a week and do muscle-toning exercises for each body part two times a week. What you eat is also important. The average healthy diet should be high in complex carbohydrates (55-65 percent), low in fat (15-20 percent), and include a moderate amount of protein (20 percent or .7 grams per pound of body weight). An athlete may require 5 percentmore protein than the average person.

Myth 4: Doing 100-500 situps a day will give you a great set of abdominal muscles!

Developing a great set of abdominal muscles (stomach/waist) does not require a high number of repetitions and you dont need to do them every day. Your abdominal muscles are like the rest of the muscles in the body. Five hundred repetitions for any exercise is too much. You dont do 500 bicep curls or 500 squats. Doing that many repetitions will open you up for injuries.

Abdominal exercises done properly will help you get the tone you want. When doing abdominal exercises do them slowly and deliberately. When you do them quickly you are using inertia to help with the movements more than muscle. While you lift, exhale and suck your abs in as if you are trying to button a pair of jeans that are too small. If you allow the stomach to come up in a rounded shape you will develop hard, round abdominal muscles (a hard pot belly). As you return to relaxed starting position inhale and let your abs stretch so you can fully contract with each lift. Do 10-12 repetitions for each set. Do 3-6 sets of each exercise. Pick 3-4 different exercises.

Doing aerobic exercises will burn the fat on the sides and on top of the abs so you can see that hard-earned muscle. A diet low in fat and sodium, high in complex carbohydrates and moderate amounts of protein will also make a big difference in how your abs look.

Myth 5: You need exercise your lower abs to reduce a lower stomach bulge.

There is no such thing as lower abs. Those great abs youre going for is actually one long muscle, called the rectus abdominis, that extends from below your chest to your pelvis. To work your abs, you should do exercises to target all four muscles: the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques and the transverse abdominis.

Second, doing crunches will not help you get a six-pack if you have a layer of fat over your abdominal area. In order the see the muscle, you must reduce your body fat.

Myth 6: If Im not sore the next day, I didnt workout hard enough.

Many people use muscle soreness as a gauge of how good their workout is. Tiny tears in the muscle fibers cause muscle soreness and, while some soreness is expected if you regularly change your program, being sore for days after your workout most likely means you overdid it. If youre sore after every workout, youre not allowing your body time to recover, which is when you experience the most muscle growth.

To prevent soreness, you should warm up before your workout and cool down before and after. If you experience soreness, rest for a day or so. If you do the same exercises that caused you to be sore in the first place, lower the intensity.

Myth 7: If I cant work out often enough and hard enough, I might as well not even do it.

The general rule for weight loss is to do cardio 4-5 times a week for 30-45 minutes as well as weight training 2-3 times a week. Some people simply dont have the time to work out that much and they think, since they cant do all of that, why do any of it? Remember: Any exercise is better than no exercise, even if its only a 15-minute walk. Being physically active is proven to reduce stress and make you healthier. So, even if you cant make it to the gym, you have no excuse not to do something active each day.

Myth 8: Strength training will make me bulk up.

Some women avoid weight training because they dont want to bulk up. However, strength training is a critical element to maintain a healthy weight and strengthen your body. Wayne Wescott, weight training expert and Ph.D., researched the effects of weight training on women and found that the average woman who strength trains two to three times a week for eight weeks gains 1.75 pounds of lean weight ... and loses 3.5 pounds of fat ... women typically dont gain size from strength training, because compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that cause bulking up.

Myth 9: If I eat more protein, I can build big muscles.

Building muscle mass involves two things: Using enough weight to challenge muscles beyond their normal levels of resistance and eating more calories than you burn. With all the hype about high-protein diets lately, its easy to believe that protein is the best fuel for building muscle but, according to the American Dietetic Association, muscles work on calories which should be predominately carbohydrates. The remainder of the calories are divided between fat and protein.

If you consume too much protein, you run the risk of creating nutrient imbalance, kidney strain or dehydration. Plus, excess protein results in extra calories that are either burned or stored. For muscle mass, you should incorporate a healthy eating plan, as well as a workout that combines cardio exercise as well as consistent weight training.

Dont take everything you read or hear as true when it comes to your health and fitness no matter what the source. ask yourself these few questions when trying to evaluate information:

1. Is the information being used to advertise a product?

There are a lot of infomercials out today that seem like real information.

2. Who paid for the research?

You always have to consider the source because no one is going to do a bad study on themselves.

3. Do I believe the information just because I want to believe it?

Be objective, know whats being explained. Lead with your head, not your heart.

4. Do the experts agree?

Experts do disagree but some of them should support the new information.

5. If you still cant make heads or tails out of it ask me, Vince.

If I dont know the answer Ill try to find it for you.

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Dispelling common fitness myths - The Philadelphia Tribune

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