The fitness industry has never been short of confident claims.
One workout is supposedly the fastest way to burn fat. One food is suddenly responsible for weight gain. A particular exercise will ruin your knees. Another will melt belly fat. Then there’s the programme promising to transform your body completely in four weeks.
The problem isn’t a lack of fitness information anymore. It’s working out which information is actually useful.
Most of the fundamentals of getting fitter, stronger and healthier are nowhere near as exciting as social media would have you believe. Train consistently. Get stronger over time. Move regularly. Eat sensibly. Recover properly. Repeat.
So, let’s clear up ten fitness myths that continue to hang around.
Myth 1:
High Reps Tone and Low Reps Build Muscle
The idea usually goes something like this: heavy weights and low repetitions make you bigger, while lighter weights and lots of repetitions make you lean and toned.
If only it were that simple.
The Truth
Your muscles don’t know that you’ve decided 15 repetitions are for “toning”. They respond to the demands placed on them.
You can build muscle across a range of repetitions when the resistance is sufficiently challenging, and your training provides progressive overload. Lower-repetition work can help develop strength, while moderate and higher-repetition work can also contribute to muscle growth and muscular endurance.
A good training programme will often use several repetition ranges depending on the exercise, your experience and what you’re trying to achieve.
And if by “toned” you mean having visible muscle definition, that comes from having sufficient muscle combined with relatively low levels of body fat. Changing from eight repetitions to twenty isn’t going to strip away the fat covering a muscle magically.
Your overall training and nutrition matter far more than finding a supposedly perfect rep range.
Myth 2:
You Can Target Fat Loss From One Area
Want a flatter stomach? Do more crunches.
Want to lose fat from your thighs? Train your legs.
Want rid of the dreaded bingo wings? Start doing triceps exercises.
It sounds logical, but unfortunately your body doesn’t work like that.
The Truth
Training a muscle and losing the fat sitting above that muscle are two different things.
Abdominal exercises can make your abdominal muscles stronger. Squats can strengthen your legs. Triceps exercises can build your arms. But you cannot reliably choose where your body takes stored fat from simply by exercising the muscles underneath it.
Where you store and lose body fat is influenced by several factors, including genetics, sex and your individual pattern of fat distribution.
Fat loss ultimately requires an appropriate energy balance over time. Strength training then helps you retain or build muscle while that happens.
So by all means train your abs. A strong core has plenty of benefits. Just don’t expect 200 crunches every morning to specifically burn the fat around your stomach.
Myth 3:
Squats Are Bad For Your Knees
We’ve probably all heard someone say they don’t squat because they have “bad knees”.
For some people, knee pain is very real and certain movements may need adapting. But that doesn’t make the squat itself a bad exercise.
The Truth
Squatting is a fundamental human movement. You squat when you sit down, get out of a chair and pick things up from lower positions.
In the gym, the squat can be an excellent way to develop strength through the legs and hips. The important part is choosing a variation, range of movement and load appropriate for the individual.
Not everyone needs to squat with a barbell on their back. Depending on your mobility, training experience, injury history and anatomy, you might use a goblet squat, box squat, split squat or another variation.
Technique matters too. Learning to control the movement before piling on weight is far more sensible than forcing yourself into a position you’re not ready for.
The same principle applies to deadlifts. They’re not inherently “bad for your back”. Used appropriately, they can be an excellent way to build strength.
Pain during exercise shouldn’t simply be ignored, though. If something consistently hurts, get it assessed and adjust your training accordingly.
Myth 4:
Eating Carbohydrates Makes You Fat
Bread. Pasta. Rice. Potatoes.
Depending on which corner of the internet you’ve wandered into, you’d be forgiven for thinking carbohydrates are responsible for virtually every unwanted kilogram of body fat.
They’re not.
The Truth
Carbohydrates contain calories, but so do protein, fat and alcohol. Consistently consuming more energy than your body uses is what leads to weight gain over time, not the mere presence of carbohydrates in your diet.
One reason low-carbohydrate diets can work for some people is straightforward: removing a large category of food can reduce total calorie intake.
If your previous diet contained plenty of pizza, biscuits, cakes, crisps and large portions of highly palatable foods, cutting those out may reduce your calorie intake substantially. That doesn’t mean the carbohydrates themselves were uniquely responsible.
Carbohydrates can also be a useful source of energy, particularly if you’re training regularly.
Rather than automatically eliminating an entire macronutrient, look at your diet as a whole. The best nutritional approach is one that supports your fitness goals and, importantly, is realistic enough to maintain.
Myth 5:
Superfoods Will Transform Your Diet
Every few months, another ingredient seems to be promoted as the answer to better health.
It might be a berry you’ve never heard of, a seed that costs more per kilogram than steak or a powder harvested from somewhere extremely difficult to pronounce.
Apparently, adding a spoonful to breakfast will change everything.
The Truth
There are plenty of extremely nutritious foods, but no individual food can compensate for an otherwise poor diet.
Blueberries are nutritious. So are eggs, broccoli, lentils, salmon, apples, potatoes and countless other fairly ordinary foods that don’t require their own marketing campaign.
Rather than worrying about whether you’re eating enough fashionable “superfoods”, concentrate on the fundamentals: sufficient protein, plenty of fruit and vegetables, appropriate portions and a varied diet built predominantly around minimally processed foods.
Nutrition doesn’t need to be exotic to be effective.
The foundations are actually pretty boring. That’s also why they work.
Myth 6:
You Have To Do Cardio To Lose Fat
If fat loss is the goal, surely you need to get on a treadmill, exercise bike or cross trainer and stay there until you’ve burned hundreds of calories?
Not necessarily.
The Truth
Cardiovascular exercise can absolutely be useful. It can improve cardiovascular fitness, increase energy expenditure and provide numerous health benefits.
But cardio isn’t a compulsory ticket to fat loss.
Nutrition plays a major part because your overall energy balance determines whether body weight moves up, down or remains relatively stable. Strength training is valuable because it helps maintain or develop muscle, while your general daily activity can make a meaningful contribution to how much energy you use.
That might include walking to work, taking the stairs, walking the dog or simply spending less of the day sitting down.
Cardio is another useful tool rather than the entire toolbox.
If you enjoy running, cycling, swimming or rowing, great. Keep doing it. If you hate spending 45 minutes staring at the treadmill display, there are other ways to structure your training and activity.
Myth 7:
If You’re Not Sore, You Didn’t Train Hard Enough
You wake up the morning after training, cautiously approach the stairs and realise your legs still work.
Was yesterday’s workout a waste of time?
No.
The Truth
Delayed onset muscle soreness, usually known as DOMS, commonly occurs after unfamiliar or particularly demanding exercise.
If you start training after a long break, you may feel sore. If you introduce a new exercise, you may feel sore. Suddenly do far more volume than you’re accustomed to, and you’ll probably feel it the following day.
But soreness isn’t a reliable scorecard for the quality of your workout.
As your body adapts to training, you may experience less soreness even though you’re becoming stronger and fitter.
Progress is better assessed over time. Are you lifting more weight? Performing more good-quality repetitions? Moving with better technique? Handling a greater training volume? Recovering appropriately between sessions?
Making yourself so sore that you can’t train properly for the next five days isn’t an achievement.
Anyone can make a workout brutally difficult. Good programming is about making training productive.
Myth 8:
Lifting Heavy Weights Makes You Bulky
This one has been hanging around gyms for decades, particularly when it comes to women and strength training.
Pick up a heavy dumbbell today, and apparently you’ll wake up looking like a competitive bodybuilder tomorrow.
If only building muscle were that easy.
The Truth
Significant muscle growth takes time, consistent resistance training, sufficient nutrition and appropriate recovery.
You don’t accidentally become massively muscular because you’ve started lifting challenging weights.
Strength training can help you build muscle, improve strength, maintain bone health and become more physically capable. Changes in body shape depend on your training, nutrition, genetics and the amount of muscle and body fat you carry.
The weight you use should be appropriate for the exercise and your ability. Sometimes that will be relatively heavy. Sometimes it won’t.
Don’t deliberately avoid challenging resistance because you’re worried that getting stronger will automatically make you “bulky”.
Myth 9:
Women and Men Need Completely Different Workouts
Walk around some gyms, and you’d think men and women were different species.
One side is lifting barbells and dumbbells. The other has been told to use tiny weights for endless repetitions because apparently women need to “tone”.
The Truth
The fundamental principles of effective strength and fitness training apply to everyone.
Squat. Hinge. Push. Pull. Carry. Move. Progress gradually.
There can, of course, be individual considerations. Training history, injuries, goals, age, pregnancy, menopause, hormonal factors and personal preferences can all affect programming.
But those are reasons to individualise someone’s training, not reasons to divide the gym into “men’s exercises” and “women’s exercises”.
A woman wanting to become stronger needs progressive resistance in the same way a man does.
Effective training should be based on the person standing in front of you, which is far more useful than handing everyone a generic programme based on their sex.
Myth 10:
You Need To Train Every Day To Get In Shape
Social media doesn’t help with this one.
When your feed is full of people training at 5 am, hitting 10,000 steps before breakfast and heading back to the gym after work, it’s easy to assume getting fit requires making exercise your entire personality.
It doesn’t.
The Truth
More training isn’t automatically better training.
For many people, two or three well-structured strength sessions each week can make a significant difference, particularly when combined with regular everyday movement.
As you become more experienced, you might train more frequently. But your programme needs to account for your goals, training history, lifestyle and ability to recover.
Remember that training itself is only part of the process. Adaptation happens between sessions, which makes sleep, nutrition and recovery important too.
At Foundry, we’d much rather see someone consistently train three times a week for the next three years than attempt six sessions a week, become exhausted and give up after a month.
You can still be active on days you’re not in the gym. Walk, cycle, play sport, take the stairs, chase the kids around the park or get outside.
Fitness should improve the rest of your life, not consume it.
Ignore The Noise and Focus On The Fundamentals
Fitness doesn’t need another miracle workout, forbidden food or training hack.
Most people will make considerably more progress by concentrating on a handful of things they can consistently control: strength training, regular movement, sensible nutrition, adequate recovery, and gradually doing a little more as their body adapts.
That’s also why good coaching isn’t about finding ways to make every workout harder. It’s about making your training appropriate for you, progressing it at the right pace and keeping you moving towards the things you actually want to achieve.
Our personal training at Foundry is built around exactly that principle. You get structured coaching and training that can be adapted to your ability, rather than being left to work out which piece of fitness advice you should believe this week.
Get the basics right. Do them consistently. Give them enough time to work.
That’s considerably less exciting than most fitness myths, but it’s a much better route to getting stronger, fitter and healthier.
Related Articles
- 10 Body Myths Debunked
- Fitness Truths: 5 Essential Fitness Rules
- The Core Training Myth
- Are You Wasting Your Time Doing Pointless Exercises in the Gym?
- The “Summer Body” Myth That’s Keeping You Stuck
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