Ryan Halvorson reviews five popular fitness myths that just keep coming back as if saying them again and again will make them true.
#1. Unused muscle turns to fat. If you give up your weight training program muscle shrinks. It doesn't turn to fat and if you exercise more, fat doesn't turn to muscle. Lack of exercise and poor food choices makes one fat.
#2. Crunches make the core. We've all got a six pack. Sometimes it's covered up with a layer of belly fat.
#3. Exercise can make up for poor food choices. A 6 or 7 mile run can burn off 750 calories from a McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder. Who's going to do that? If you are running 6 miles, you know the value of eating right.
#4. Stretching before a workout reduces injury. A warm-up reduces the risk of injury. Don't skip the warm-up.
#5. Exercising in the "fat-burning zone" is best to lose fat. Not all studies point to this. There is a lot of new information that indicates that 20 minutes of high intensity sprints with active recovery burned more fat than 40 minutes of moderate exercise.
IDEA Fitness Jouranl February 2013
