This post comes from a good friend of mine, Marlene Harris. I have posted things of hers in the past and welcome her informative inputs on things fitness and health.
1). Exercising Turns Fat Into Muscle
The real deal: “Fat cells can never be turned into muscle cells and vice versa,” says Wayne Westcott, PhD, head of the Exercise Science Program at Quincy College in Quincy, MA. “They’re two different tissues.” You can, however, reduce the amount of fat in your fat cells and increase the size of your muscles.
2). Ab Exercises Will Flatten Your Belly
The real deal: If you do hundreds of crunches, or better yet become a regular at pilates class, your abs will be in great shape. If only you could see them. While it’s entirely possible to “spot strengthen” muscles with targeted strength training, you can’t “spot reduce” the fat around them, says Laura Dosdall, certified trainer. You have to burn more calories than you eat, and unfortunately, you have little say in what goes first. A better bet? Crank up your intensity. Studies have found that vigorous exercise, like sprint exercises for 20 minutes, burns up to 5 times more fat than trekking more leisurely for twice as long.
3). A Six-Pack Is a Sure Sign of a Strong Core
The real deal: “A six-pack is a sign of leanness, not a strong core,” says Dan Trink, director of personal training operations. “A strong core really involves hips, glutes, lower back, and abdominals working together to produce force or transfer force to your extremities. Conversely, you can have a really strong core with absolutely no sign of a six pack.” Case in point: powerlifters.
4). Slow Workouts Burn More Fat
The real deal: Like most myths, there’s a grain of truth somewhere. “Our cells need oxygen to convert fat to energy,” explains Mary Jayne Johnson, PhD, an exercise physiologist and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. “So we thought for years that low-intensity aerobics was better for burning fat.” What matters more, however, is burning more calories than you take in, and it takes longer to burn calories at a slower pace--more than 4 times as long. In one study exercisers who alternated 30 seconds of sprinting with 4 minutes of rest to catch their breath for a total of 2.5 hours a week got the same benefits as those who did long, slow exercise for 10.5 hours a week. Studies have also shown that this kind of interval training can also boost your body’s fat-burning capacity in just 2 weeks, so you’ll burn more flab even when you’re lapping the grocery store.
5). You Only Need to Exercise If You Have Weight to Lose
The real deal: Ever heard the term “skinny-fat”? According to Mayo Clinic researchers, over half of so-called normal weight adults fall into this category, defined as having more than 30 percent body fat for women or 20 percent for men. And the risks go beyond an unfortunate muffin top. Too much body fat puts you at the same disease risk as an obese person—you’re just more likely to fly under the radar as conditions like diabetes progress. But don’t try to diet your way out of this one—it can actually make the problem worse, since dieters who cut calories alone tend to lose more pounds of lean muscle (in effect increasing your percentage of body fat). It’s time to get moving.
6). Pilates creates long, lean muscles
The real deal: Pilates is a great way to exercise, but it’s not going to reshape your muscles. “All muscles are lean—have you ever heard of a 'fat muscle'?” says Trink. “Muscle length is determined completely by genetics, so if you don't have the 'long, lean muscles' you’re looking for, blame your parents, not your training.” Tumminello adds, “If your goal is to look leaner, you have to drop body fat and the best way to do that is to strictly control what goes into your mouth.”
7). Lifting Heavy Weights Will Make You Look Like a Bodybuilder
The real deal: Looking like a bodybuilder takes a precise combination of weight training, diet, and hormones. Women do not have enough testosterone to “get big,” even if they did pack themselves full of protein shakes, explains Jessica Cummings, a certified trainer. Want proof? In a study at Central Michigan University, researchers had women train one arm doing a just a few reps of a heavy weight and the other doing more reps with a lighter weight (both lifting an equivalent number of pounds). Surprise: The heavy lifters got stronger, but gained no more size than the arm lifting the wimpy weights.
8). You Have to Lift Heavy Weights to Get Stronger
The real deal: OK, so we’ve established that heavy weights won’t make you huge. But they’re not the only way. A new study from McMaster University in Canada explored different types of training and found that as long as you keep lifting that light weight until you can’t lift it anymore, you can get the same or more muscle-building stimulation in your cells as you would lifting a bigger weight fewer times, but it will take longer.
9). Stretching Prevents Injuries
The real deal: You’ve been trained to stretch before and after exercise since the first time you played dodge ball in elementary school gym class, and you’ve probably heard plenty of sporty friends—and even so-called fitness experts—swear by it. Yet despite decades of research on thousands of subjects the fact remains: There’s simply very little evidence that faithful stretchers are any less likely to get injured than the rest of us. Will reaching for your toes hurt you? No, not likely—unless you’re trying to jump or hoist a heavy weight immediately afterward, in which case some research suggests you might be momentarily weaker. It might even feel good. And stretching will make you more flexible. Just try not to stretch your expectations.
10). Cooling Down Will Keep You from Getting Sore
The real deal: There’s actually very little science to support the idea that a slow walk on your treadmill automatically triggers healing at the end of your workout. When Australian researchers had exercisers either warm-up, cool-down, do neither, or do both in conjunction with a soreness-inducing workout session, only the warm-up slightly reduced their next-day aches. The only proven benefit of cooling down: It helps your body to gradually redistribute the blood your heart has been quickly pumping to your legs to fuel the big muscles there for exercise, preventing possible light-headedness (like standing up too fast). But the walk to the locker room will do the trick.
11). Working Out on an Empty Stomach Burns More Fat
The real deal: While some studies do insist that running on empty forces your body to burn more fat, other researchers are quick to point out that the fat you burn from the muscles doesn’t have any impact on your waistline. But let the scientists split hairs all they want. If you’re aiming to lose weight, having adequate energy to fuel your workout will have a much greater impact on overall burn than torching a couple extra calories from fat will, says Jessica Smith, a certified fitness and wellness expert who lost more than 50 pounds before becoming a personal trainer 10 years ago. The more vigorously you exercise, the fitter you’ll get, and the more efficient of a fat burner your body will become. Filling your tank with a nutritious meal or snack within a few hours of exercise may also help to prevent post-workout binges that can occur when you finish your session feeling famished.
12). Staying Off Your Feet Soothes Sore Muscles
The real deal: Getting the body into motion through stretching and light cardio activity is what reduces muscle soreness the fastest. “Blood contains healing properties,” says author, celebrity trainer, and life coach Michael George. Moving around will increase the circulation of that nutrient-rich blood, which loosens tense muscle tissue and helps the body to release lactic acid buildup, free radicals, and toxins. “Use your non-training days to perform active recovery such as a non-intense incline walk on the treadmill or a leisurely bike ride,” suggests Trink.
13). Popping Ibuprofen Prevents Sore Muscles
The real deal: Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can fight the pain and inflammation associated with injuries, but when it comes to exercise-induced soreness, they’re not the right choice. Appalachian State University researchers found that participants who took ibuprofen before and during the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile trail race, didn’t finish any faster than those who didn’t take anything, nor did they experience less muscle damage or soreness the following week. What their blood tests did show, however, was higher levels of endotoxemia—the presence of toxins in the bloodstream. The muscle damage that occurs during new or intense exercise is essential to muscle growth. Taking NSAIDs, however, may impair the body’s natural recovery process, essentially canceling out strength gains.
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