Experts say disentangling folklore from fact is not easy in fitness, where misconceptions are as pervasive as push-ups and as stubborn as love handles.
Jennifer Burke, a fitness manager at a Crunch gym in West Hollywood, California, said many women still worry that weight training will create big and bulky muscles.
鈥淲omen say 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to get bulky,鈥� but unless you take in extra calories or testosterone supplements, that鈥檚 just not going to happen,鈥� said Burke, who eases reluctant clients into resistance training gently, with body-weight exercises.
鈥淲hen they see their bodies getting long lean muscles, getting toned, they trust you a little more and you can start adding in dumbbells and machines,鈥� Burke said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults engage in muscle-strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups 鈥� legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms 鈥� two or more days a week.
鈥淎 lot of people think if they want to lose a lot of weight they should do cardio, but the best thing is to add in resistance training as well,鈥� Burke said.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l get bigger, faster results because you鈥檙e working on lean muscle tissue, which burns more calories in the long run.鈥�
While it鈥檚 true that muscle weighs more than fat, it鈥檚 also more compact.
鈥淔ive pounds (2.3 kilograms) of muscle is the size of your fist. Five pounds of fat is the size of your forearm鈥� she said.
Burke added that another misconception is that lower-intensity exercise such as the fat-burning setting on most cardio machines is better for burning calories.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 absolutely not true,鈥� said Burke. 鈥淚f you increase the intensity, you鈥檒l burn more calories.鈥�
The CDC鈥檚 rule of thumb is that one minute of vigorous-intensity activity is about the same as two minutes of moderate-intensity activity.
Stephanie Huckabee, a South Carolina-based fitness instructor, said people who believe it鈥檚 necessary to exercise every day are setting themselves up for failure.
鈥淚 tell my clients to expect days when they don鈥檛 exercise,鈥� said Huckabee. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just being realistic.鈥�
Another myth, Huckabee said, is that you can move fat away from a problem area.
鈥淲hen I wanted to reduce my stomach, I had to do an all-over conditioning program to get that fat tissue to shrink,鈥� she said. 鈥淐ardio will burn the fat over all. After that, you can work on sculpting an area with resistance training.鈥�
Burke said one of the biggest fitness myths is that crunches can banish belly fat.
鈥淵ou build your six-pack in the kitchen,鈥� she said, while noting that no one will see even the most developed abdominals if they鈥檙e hiding under a layer of fat.
Moira Merrithew, co-founder of Merrithew Health and Fitness, said one of the most common misconceptions is that it鈥檚 always good to stretch before a game of football or a run.
鈥淔or some athletes probably the worst thing they can do is stretch before they run,鈥� said Merrithew, who is based in Toronto.
鈥淭here鈥檚 simply no hard and fast rule,鈥� said Merrithew, a former dancer. 鈥淧ilates is good for dancers before they go out, because it mobilizes the joints. There are so many effects that stretching can and cannot have. There are limits to really pushing that stretch.鈥�
And even the most dedicated couch potato cannot turn muscle to fat, according to Carol Torgan, a consultant exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine.
鈥淢uscles and fat are two different types of cells. It would be like turning apples into oranges,鈥� she said.
More troubling is the fallacy that one can never drink too much water.
鈥淚t can result in a condition known as hyponatremia, in which there is an imbalance of water to salt,鈥� Torgan said.
鈥淭his is also known as water intoxication or over-hydration, and can be extremely serious.鈥�
