one of the most common myths that I hear
is that if unused muscle tissue converts
into fat it's really important to say
that the muscle tissue has muscle cells
and fat tissue has fat cells they are
not interchangeable by no means is it
chemically or physically possible for
muscle tissue to convert over to fat and
vice versa fat into muscle that's Jean
Meister I'm a clinical athletic
trainer at the New York sport science
lab in Staten Island New York and he's
one of three athletic trainers we
brought in to our studios my name is
Janelle Mason my name is an easter to
debunk 17 of the most common exercise
myths it really depends on your goals
training fasted in the morning is more
conducive to losing fat because when you
wake up you're in a fasted state and
that means your body is basically
consuming itself so it's looking at fat
storage it's looking at muscle storage
that's the time where if your goal is to
lose weight and just slim down lean down
that's the best time to optimize that
window for training but in terms of
effectiveness of training in general I
don't think it really matters you just
need to make sure that if you are
training at night you are not fatiguing
yourself throughout the day so when most
people think stretching their thinking
static stretching you achieve a certain
position you hold that position and your
goal is to increase your range of motion
a problem with that is you can end up
really loose and if you follow that type
of stretching with something explosive
or something ballistic or something
strength based you now have a loose
tissue or you have a lacks joint and
you're not going to be able to produce
as much force and you could also
potentially lead yourself to being
injured because you're not as stable
so what my favorite is when it's the
holidays right and you have you know
that aunt or uncle that's just like yeah
I'm just trying to lose it like right
here and they start pinching the lower
abdomen oh my god Greek you can't spot
reduce the part that you want and in
good news it doesn't go the other way
either it's not like when I eat a
cheeseburger it's gonna go right to my
right yeah and if you are trying to
lower your body fat cardio isn't the
best way to do it cardio doesn't burn
fat cardio burns calories so if your
goal is to lose weight you want to be in
a caloric deficit so as a part of
getting into that caloric deficit doing
cardiovascular exercises is helpful but
if you're not eating a diet or if you're
not monitoring your caloric intake on
top of that and making sure that you are
in that deficit no amount of cardio that
you do you can't outrun a bad diet and
in fact doing too much cardio can
actually be a bad thing if all you're
doing is cardio with the goal of losing
weight you can start to burn into that
muscle tissue so if you're burning into
your lean muscle tissue now you could
actually be slowing down your metabolism
you could be decreasing your bone
density and you could be making yourself
weaker and that's why I think this myth
is potentially the most dangerous and
damaging one for the general population
but it may not be as common as the
belief that I love this one one myth I
hear all the time is that muscle weighs
more than fat a pound of bricks weighs
the same as a pound of feathers so it's
not that muscle weighs more than fat
it's that muscle is more dense than fat
so in terms of you building muscle you
can add weight on the scale the scale
isn't necessarily the best indicator of
progress when we're trying to develop
our physique and oftentimes at first you
can add muscle and the scale will
reflect that you're heavier but over
time understanding that for all the lean
muscle you have you're increasing your
resting calories burn per day that's a
long-term sustainable change in your
body as opposed to just doing cardio
sessions and going into caloric deficit
and starving yourself of course building
muscle isn't just for men women think
that they'll bulk up if they start
working out and if that's
the look you're going for I think that's
great because you're doing something
that you want to do but if you are
working out for general wellness and
health I don't want you to be afraid to
lift heavy weights you're not going to
get bulky by nature and in fact weight
lifting is especially important for
women as we age we become more prone to
getting osteoporosis so we definitely
need to be doing resistance training
where our muscles are feeling that
stimulation so that the bones nearby can
remain strong and whether you're a man
or a woman you don't actually need
weights at all to build strengths I mean
the myth being that you have to go to
the gym to be doing strength training
it's crazy all right your body is a
weight so bodyweight exercises have been
around forever and they are so important
be able to push up your body or crunch
or squat or pull up and if it's a six
pack year after the muscles themselves
aren't even that important getting a six
pack is not about doing tons of
cartridges a lot of it has to do with
your nutrition and Stearn agrees abs are
made in the kitchen the abs are a muscle
if you're gonna target the muscle by
doing crunches leg lifts bicycle
crunches oblique twists you're
essentially building the muscle so think
of it as you're building the engine of
the car and then the outside is your
body fat and how do you show off the
inside of the car you've got to reduce
that body fat so sweating a lot means
you got a really great workout it's
something I hear all the time
unfortunately that's not true either
some people are just naturally more
prone to sweating some people just have
underactive sweat glands so it means
that you're healthy and your filtration
system but it doesn't necessarily
reflect the effectiveness of your
workout but if you do sweat a lot how
should you replenish I would not say
that most commercial sports drinks are
the most efficient way of rehydrating
following a workout but plain water
isn't going to cut it either if you're
just consuming water too that's also not
the most effective way of hydrating
because hydration is not just water
there's also trace minerals that
as electrolytes which help with nerve
conduction they help with brain function
they have but muscular contraction so if
you're looking for the best way to
rehydrate post-workout it could be very
beneficial to add just a dab of pink
Himalayan sea salt to water a pink
Himalayan sea salt has over 60 trace
minerals all of which are found
naturally in human sweat so when you
consider something like a Gatorade or
Powerade they may have four or five
different electrolytes in their blends
so Derrick falling drastically short in
terms of overall hydration when it comes
to all the minerals of your body and
after a workout you should also eat
protein immediately right if you already
have a protein rich diet you don't need
to worry so much about downing a protein
shake right after your workout now what
you are going to be depleted of though
especially if you're doing an aerobic
exercise you're going to be depleted of
glycogen glycogen is the immediate form
of energy for muscle contraction and
that comes in way of simple
carbohydrates and sugars so
post-training
it's important to replenish that
glycogen but even if you're fueling
muscles with a proper diet they still
need time off hashtag no days off the
old myth that we should not take a day
off is an extreme there's a huge value
in letting the muscle repair itself
right so every time you do let's go back
to the bicep curl if I'm doing a bicep
curl a small tear is gonna happen in my
bicep so the body is going to repair
itself because again it's a machine who
knows how to to survive and if I
continue to do it I don't have a window
of opportunity for the body the soldiers
to jump in alright let's fix this tear
because it's just constantly me more so
it needs some of that downtime to again
to heal itself especially if you're sore
that's a myth for sure soreness is the
breakdown of muscle tissue it's the
chemicals released during that breakdown
it's not an indicator of oh I'm getting
stronger oh I'm getting weaker but if
you're soreness persists for longer than
72 hours that could be a sign that
you're under recovering or overtraining
one month is not enough to undo a
lifetime of bad habits so it's important
to start slow find the things that you
enjoy find the physical activities that
make you feel good make that a daily
habit and there's no one-size-fits-all
approach
there's not one type of movement that
you should be doing that is better than
the other so if you enjoy dancing go out
and dance go out dancing three times a
week or do a dance cardio class or
something that gets you moving if you
like to jump on trampolines do that I
think the best movement for anyone to do
is something that they enjoy because the
only way that you're gonna stick to your
work out being a lifestyle for you is
for you to be doing something you enjoy