Fitness Myth Busters

Come on, you’ve heard them. Even people who don’t workout are familiar with most of them. “Cardio is necessary to get lean.” “People who play sports like golf, baseball, or basketball shouldn’t lift weights because it will make them slow and tight.” “The thingamajig or whatchamacallit is the best exercise for giving you washboard abs.” “you need to use high reps to shape and tone your muscles.” “Eating a diet high in fat will make me fat.” It goes on and on.

Unfortunately, many personal trainers, local muscle head know-it-alls, and of course, the media are the biggest perpetrators of training and nutritional myths for competitors and non-competitors alike.

The hard part is that some myths have been around for so long and repeated so often, they are accepted as gospel. Because of this, dispelling these myths and getting people on the right track can sometimes be a daunting task.

If you’re reading this, you’re going to be ahead of most, including the majority of personal trainers. As your reading through this article, you’ll need to open your mind and forget about all the sensationalized fitness and nutritional principles you’ve heard over the years that promise everything and deliver nothing. There are no quick fixes.

Myth: Training your abs using the right machines or exercises will give you the washboard abs you want.

Now, I’m only going to say this once. You can do abs until your blue in the face; I don’t care if you do 1000 reps of any ab exercise three times a day. If you don’t get rid of the fat covering the abdominal wall, you’re not going to see diddly squat. There is no magical exercise or combination of exercises that will give you abs.

There is no such thing as spot reduction. A physiological fact so essential yet so ignored to sell products or training methods to unsuspecting, naive people. How fast and where we lose our body fat is genetically programmed. The only way to lose body fat in any area of your body is to eat correctly.

A strict diet was responsible for the definition in my abs in the below picture. I never did any direct abdominal work.

Michael Furci

Myth: You should lose weight before you start to train with weights or you’ll just bulk up.

Lifting weights is precisely what you want to do if you’re overweight. Moreover, if you had to choose only one type of exercise, weight training would be it by a long shot. Some of you are asking, “What about cardio?” “What about it?”

It’s muscle that drives the metabolism. When we lose weight through dieting alone or with cardio, we lose both fat and muscle. The less muscle we have, the slower our metabolism. The only way to build muscle, which is what you need to raise your metabolism and get lean, is weight training.

Myth: The best way to lose fat is to do cardio.

Screw cardio and all the people that are still perpetuating it's weight loss benefits. I know that's a little harsh, but cardio is utterly overrated for the average person or physique competitor trying to lose body fat.

Now don't get me wrong, walking or jogging around the block or on a treadmill is better than doing nothing. But I'm not, and you shouldn't be, concerned with what's better than nothing. Better than nothing doesn't even make you average. The average in this country is fat and unhealthy, so if you're going to put the time into training, use it wisely.

Have you been to any one of the gyms across this country? What percentage of people who perform cardio are lean? How many people do you see making gains by performing cardio? More people are doing cardio today than ever, and we are still as a nation fatter than ever. You can't outrun your mouth.

There are three things to keep in mind about cardio when trying to get leaner. One, it doesn't build muscle. Two, it doesn't preserve muscle while losing weight. Both are extremely important if your goal is to get leaner and stay that way; as we lose weight, the body does not discriminate where it comes from. When we diet, we lose muscle and fat, particularly on a low-calorie diet, and performing cardio accentuates this phenomenon.

Third, unless you enjoy cardiovascular training, it's just not worth the time. The work to benefit ratio is dismal. So, unless your goal is high-level endurance, and you're willing to bust your butt and perform 60 – 90 minutes of intense cardio a day, and hinder your muscle-building capacity, cardio is not worth it.

If you do nothing but diet and cardio, you may lose some weight, but your results will be less than expected. Your appearance and overall shape will stay the same. If you have excess fat around your butt and narrow shoulders, your proportion will remain. Though the trouble spots will be a little smaller, you'll also have less muscle than when you started; it's muscle that gives the "firm" appearance to body parts. Those who lose weight without weight training become smaller fat people. Inevitably, these skinny fat people gain the weight back, as evidenced by so many yo-yo dieters out there.

The best and only form of exercise for reshaping, improving, and maintaining your health is progressive weight training.

Myth: If you want to shape and tone your muscles you should do high reps.

There are two myths contained in the statement above. Let’s take them on one at a time, shall we? It’s still a widespread common misconception that specific exercises are considered shaping exercises. One of the most common is the preacher curl. It was and still is widely accepted that preacher curls help build the bottom half of the bicep. This was welcome news to those who have short bicep muscle bellies. Unfortunately, it is physiologically impossible to change the shape of any muscle on our bodies. If it were, don’t you think we all would be doing it? And if we were all doing it, wouldn’t our physiques look similar to the popular “look” at the time?

High repetitions and cardio has nothing to do with the look Cathy attains for her competitions. Her definition and muscularity are due to a diet high in protein, moderate in saturated fat, and low in carbs. Her workouts are intense, with an emphasis on quality not quantity.

If you have small flat glute muscles when you start training, you're going to have smaller flatter glutes than most, 20 years of training later. If you have narrow triceps, they're always going to be on the narrow side. If you have high thin calf muscles, you're always going to have high thin calf. These examples of muscle genetics are not meant to discourage you but to encourage realistic goals. You can always add size and a more positive appearance. But getting your muscles to change shape is not going to happen.

"I want to make my muscles look more tone, so I'm doing more reps." "I don't want to be big; I just want to be more tone." If a guy ever says that he needs to be slapped and have his estrogen levels checked. I am just kidding. The tonus of muscle has nothing to do with its appearance. Muscle tone is the amount of tension a muscle exerts at rest. One can appear more cut or more defined with a proper diet and weight training, but it is impossible to look more tone.

Myth: I’m not sore today, so I must not have had a good workout yesterday.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) a day or more after a training session is a sign one probably had a good workout. However, not being sore the days following a training session does not correlate with whether you had a good or bad workout. The factors you should be paying attention to is the intensity level. Were your sets done with 100 percent intensity? Meaning, did you take your working sets to failure using proper form. Another factor is productivity. Did you make any gains? Did you increase the amount of weight you used, or did you increase the number of reps with a particular weight? How you felt while training is another factor. Did you feel sluggish, or did you feel energized and ready to push it?

Myth: Eating a diet high in protein is unhealthy and will damage your kidneys and liver.

Thank God this one isn't quite as common as it once was, but it's such a classic I had to include it. There is not one study to support this myth. I defy anyone to show one study that supports the myth a diet high in protein will harm the liver, kidneys, or is unhealthy in any way to a healthy individual. You will find, however, a mound of evidence supporting the benefits of higher protein diets.

Protein repairs and maintains everything in our bodies, from hormones to muscles. Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids. Essential meaning, we have to ingest these for survival because our bodies cannot manufacture them. Many researchers now believe we have many other amino acids that should be considered "conditionally essential" because of their significance and our inefficiency at producing them. These include glutamine, arginine, cysteine, taurine, glycine, tyrosine, and proline.

Suppose one isn't eating enough protein or it's of low quality. In that case, your body will get the essential amino acids it needs from your muscle tissue. This is a big reason why vegetarians, especially vegans, have a more challenging time gaining and maintaining muscle than those who eat meat and fish.

The lack of quality protein makes it harder for anyone to gain muscle in the gym, let alone somebody who follows a vegetarian or vegan diet. Vegans are extremists, and there is no hope. At least a Lacto-Ovo vegetarians can get quality protein and supplements, e.g., protein powder, eggs, kefir, milk, and cheese, from dairy products derived from grass-fed livestock. Vegans must resort to combining foods. To consume protein, some resort to eating soy products, which are detrimental to your health.

Now for all you thin-skinned readers, I’m talking about optimizing your body’s ability to get lean, healthy, and more muscular. I’m not saying being a vegetarian will make you unhealthy. I’m saying it’s not the most advantageous way to go. Moreover, if you’re not eating whole natural animal products because of health concerns, you need to revisit the research. However, if you’re not eating animal products because you’re concerned about the animals’ welfare, then I have to respect that.

Vegans are another story. This way of eating is unhealthy. Without modern science and supplements, a vegan could not survive. It’s impossible to ingest all the essential nutrients one needs through plant sources only. This lifestyle is incredibly irresponsible, flies in the face of science and physiology, and should be avoided.

Myth: Eating more protein will make me fat.

Our anatomy and physiology dictate that we eat protein from animal sources. Why anyone would consciously eat a diet low in protein is beyond me. Although, with so much misinformation out there, I guess it’s understandable. I recommend 1 g/lb of body weight. However, if you train with 100% intensity, which is how you should train, you need upwards of 1.5g/lb. At the very least, you should consume a portion of protein with every meal. Don’t worry; eating more protein will not make you fat.

Protein, in and of itself, has little to do with getting fat and has nothing to do with being unhealthy. You see, a calorie is not a calorie. A calorie of carbohydrate does not equate to a calorie of protein when being metabolized in our bodies. Protein is not likely to be stored as fat compared to carbs, because protein requires a lot of energy to metabolize and assimilate. And as a bonus, protein lowers the glycemic index of other foods, which helps to ensure your pancreas secretes small amounts of insulin. The higher your insulin levels, the more fat you’re going to store.

To put it quite simply, if you do not consume enough quality protein, you will not only put a halt to your efforts to lose body fat and gain muscle; you can lose some of the muscle your working so hard to get.

Myth: Strength training is too dangerous and will stunt the growth of children.

If a child doesn’t start playing sports in the primary grades, they will be behind. Children are placed in uncontrolled environments where they run, get tripped, collide, changing directions at high speed, and a whole host of other forces being applied to their little bodies with little thought being given to rest periods and offseason. This type of neglect is directly responsible for the striking increase in sports-related injuries, e.g., ACL tears. But God forbid a child is put on a strength training routine, which is a controlled environment.

Contrary to what many parents fear, numerous studies show the benefits of strength training, including; increased bone density and development, injury prevention, and improved athletic performance. These far outweigh the dangers parents needlessly worry about. So do your kids a favor and get them interested in proper weight training early.

Myth: After 96 hours of not training, a muscle will start to lose its size and strength.

The most significant component of any training program is training frequency. How often can, or more importantly, how often should I train per week? Optimum recovery time between training sessions is essential if one is going to continue to make progress. Training frequency, which is determined by one's recovery ability, is often a forgotten part of most training protocols.

Don't be so concerned with how many training sessions you can handle per week. Be more concerned about the optimal amount. More is not always better. There is no reason for going to the gym if you're not going to make progress. In every workout, if you trained properly and had fully recovered, you should be able to add some weight or do an extra rep.

The ability to recover from workouts is genetically predetermined. Some individuals can handle a high volume and frequency of training, but most can handle only minimal amounts. It would be best to determine the frequency at which you should train your body parts by keeping a detailed training log. How do you know where to go if you don't know where you've been?

Myth: Athletes or weekend warriors who play sports like golf, baseball, boxing, soccer, hockey, and basketball shouldn’t lift weights because it will make them slow and tight.

Why in the world should a person who plays golf weight train? Sports involving swinging, sprinting, jumping, swimming, throwing, kicking, or punching is affected by the ratio of the strength of the muscles involved in the movement to the mass of those body parts. To put it simply, a soccer player who trains properly and increases his strength over time while keeping his mass relatively the same will increase his ability to accelerate and his speed. The stronger a boxer becomes while maintaining a constant body mass, the faster and harder he’ll be able to punch.

Now, as far as athletes becoming tight, research has shown that full range progressive resistance training is a great way to develop functional flexibility. Individuals who weight train correctly, but don’t stretch, are more flexible than people who don’t train or stretch.

In short, as with people not involved in sports, weight training will not make athletes tight or slow; it will make them better.