From “broscience” to bad science and general misinformation, the realm of fitness has a plethora of myths that can hinder your progress or just simply be a bit confusing. Here’s the truth behind some more popular myths that cause more harm than good.
*Stretching before your workout
Recent studies suggest that acute static stretching before a workout may limit your maximal strength and power for up to 10 minutes. If you are not concerned with strength- or power-based activities then static stretching is perfectly fine before your workout. Also, if you have muscle imbalances then you should follow a fitness program that incorporates static stretching within your workout routine.
If you are concerned about your performance during a workout then great alternatives to static stretches are active or dynamic stretches. These types of stretches further warm up muscles thereby increasing their work capacity and function during your workout.
If you are training for sports, your flexibility training should include functional flexibility modalities within the fitness program. Functional flexibility helps increase the neuromuscular efficiency of muscles involved in certain movements throughout the entire range of motion, improving sports performance.
Lastly, it’s important to remember that you should always begin a workout with a proper warm up. Never stretch a cold muscle or joint.
*Weight lifting makes women bulky
Testosterone has one of the most important roles in building muscle. Women typically have far less total testosterone than men. It’s for this reason that women actually don’t gain as much muscle from resistance training as men. That’s not to say it’s impossible, it’s just not likely to happen without some other form of intervention.
*You should feel sore after every workout
Feeling sore is not your body’s way of telling you that you had an epic workout. It’s merely a sign that you’re still recovering. In fact, if you feel sore after every workout then you might be exceeding your body’s ability to recover.
This is known as overreaching. During this stage of recovery failure you may feel good with decent energy, but your muscles feel constantly sore and you start to feel like your strength has gone down for certain lifts. In this stage, your muscles are actually not operating optimally.
After you have overreached for long enough without rest, you begin the stages of overtraining. At this stage your energy level is much lower, your strength diminishes, your risk of injury greatly increases, and your mental status can become somewhat altered. You may even start to feel ill–like you have a cold. What’s worse, you could lose muscle mass.
This is a serious and dangerous stage of recovery failure. Your increased risk of injury could eventually lead to a devastating injury under heavier loads.
Rather than focusing on the soreness of a workout, try to master proper form and quality repetitions with progressively achieving the goals you set. Following an individualized, periodized fitness program is the safest and most practical way to do this.
*You lose muscle mass if you don’t workout for a few days
Take a rest day or two. You’ll be fine and feel great when you go back. Truth is you are not going to lose your “gains” or somehow lose strength by taking a couples days off from training. In fact, you may actually come back stronger if you’re just beginning to overreach without realizing it.
With that said, it is possible and likely to lose muscle mass and strength if you don’t train for a few weeks. Exactly how long this takes and how much you lose depends on your specific body. Generally speaking, it’s common to lose about 10% of your strength if you spend three or more weeks away from training. There are ways to delay or prevent this that I will expand on in a separate post.
*You don’t have time to workout
This isn’t a myth but rather the most common excuse I hear to avoid making any real effort to progress. When someone says this what they are really saying is, “I have other priorities.”
Don’t get me wrong, there are some days I think I might have to skip the gym to deal with other things too. Of course, life happens. Though at some point, your fitness goals will have to become part of that life. There’s no amount of wishful thinking is going to suddenly allow you more time in a day to devote to training. You have to want it enough to commit to it. Only then will you make the time.