Working out some myths

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2022 (1294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re reading this column, you’ve probably spent a lifetime figuring out fitness “dos and don’ts.” So, when science suggests something you believed to be true might actually be ineffective, it can send your head spinning. Believe me, I know. I read fitness science all the time, and that steady churn of the latest “study says” has stirred up plenty of questions over the years.

The nice thing is the basics still work. But sometimes it’s hard not to get sucked in by something new. Google is filled with conflicting advice. One site tells you to eat carbs. Another says to avoid them entirely and just eat fats. Eat gluten. Don’t eat gluten. Only buy organic vegetables harvested in the far northern plains of New Zealand. Buy soy. Oh, wait, no, avoid soy; it’ll give you high estrogen levels.

But don’t worry — I’m here to set you straight. We’ve cleared up nine of the top myths circulating on the internet, so you never get sucked into one of these again.

Myth 1: You need to buy a detox tea from that random Facebook friend

There’s little evidence that dietary cleanses do any of the things they promise. Your liver, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract do a good job of detoxing your body the natural way every day. If you’re looking to rejuvenate your body, focus on eating more whole foods, drinking more water than alcohol and removing highly processed foods from your diet.

Myth 2: You must stretch before exercising

While it’s often repeated that static stretching is a must before workouts or a race, recent studies have proven it’s a myth. In fact, static stretching done pre-workout can reduce performance and power, something you want plenty of, I’d imagine. So, what’s the solution? While static stretching should still be a part of your post-workout routine, dynamic stretching should be your focus at the start of a workout. That can simply mean “grooving” the movements you plan to do in your workout, but starting slow and controlled and with minimal to no resistance to start. It may be as simple as warming up for dumbbell presses with the lightest weights possible and working up each set. I’m still a fan of some joint mobility work ahead of time depending on what you’re working on that day (i.e. shoulders, hips).

Myth 3: Don’t squat past your toes

I have long legs and bought into this advice in the early ’00s and it ruined my squat form. It’s literally impossible for me to perform a squat to full depth without going a little over my toes. Squatting with knees over toes is a healthy, bio-mechanically safe move to do for many. We’re all built different which makes “one size fits all” advice like this flawed.

Myth 4: You should lose weight with cardio, not weights

As we’ll discuss in a later myth, using exercise as a tool to burn calories is ineffective. The goal of your workout plan should be to get stronger and tone and tighten the physique, while relying on nutrition and overall movement to strip the layer of fat on top. One study put participants on a lower-calorie diet, but one group paired their nutrition with strength training while the other group focused solely on cardio. The weight-training group gained two pounds of muscle while losing similar amounts of fat, while the cardio group lost nine pounds of muscle along the way! Sure, the scale would look like the cardio group won out, but the before/after photos from the strength group would look better.

Myth 5: You can crunch your way to great abs

Crunches have been instilled in us since the days of forced gym class, but are they all that effective? You could do 1,000 sit ups a day and not lose a lick of belly fat if you’re over-consuming calories and not moving the rest of the day (you’d have a strong core though!).

Myth 6: You can lose fat from specific areas with exercise

Piggybacking off the last myth, some research suggests how you train can marginally help “spot reduce” from your belly fat. But studies often don’t translate perfectly to the real world and we end up majoring in the minors. Fat comes off where it wants, dictated mainly by how much we have to lose and our genetic blueprint to a large degree. Where we have the most fat in specific areas, it appears to the naked eye to move the slowest. A bunch of triceps work won’t thin an arm but will maybe tone what’s underneath for an eventual reveal if your overall plan has you losing weight consistently. Overall calorie consumption/input matters most, so figure out how to keep yourself in check there. Calorie output (from exercise) matters to a lesser degree from a fat loss perspective, but your workouts influence what each muscle looks like after fat is lost so it’s still important. Your body ultimately chooses where fat is lost and the spots with the most to lose will take the longest.

Myth 7: Lemon coffee helps you burn fat

A magic potion that melts away pounds? There’s a touted miracle concoction making the rounds at the moment thanks to the armchair wellness experts on TikTok. Adding lemon juice to a cup of coffee is apparently the latest miracle fat-loss morning drink! Sorry, no individual foods or drinks make you lose weight more quickly or increase your metabolism enough to have a measurable effect on weight loss in the absence of calorie control and an overall plan. A squeeze of lemon juice won’t help you squeeze into a smaller pair of jeans. Do it if you like the taste of lemon in coffee (really!?), not in ill-fated hopes it’ll slim your waist.

Myth 8: You burn a lot of calories exercising

Your smartwatch said you burned 700 calories during that Peloton ride. Awesome, right? Wait just a minute. A recent study by Hajj-Boutros and colleagues investigated the accuracy of three recently released wrist-worn devices — the Apple Watch 6, Polar Vantage V and Fitbit Sense — for heart rate and energy expenditure during sitting, walking, running, resistance training and cycling.

All the devices were fairly accurate for measuring heart rate. Unfortunately, all three devices did a poor job of estimating how many calories we burn through exercise, often greatly exaggerating the total. If you find yourself rationalizing more food intake because your watch told you you earned it, expect to stall your progress. Exercise does support an overall wellness plan, but I always tell members to prioritize calorie input (food), not output (exercise). It’s still an unfortunate reality that we can’t out-run our forks if weight loss is the focus.

Myth 9: Fat-burning supplements work

As recently as a year ago, I would’ve said “heck no” to any and all fat-loss supplements/medications that claim to help you burn fat without effort.

I still stand by that for the most part, but there is promising medication purported to suppress hunger that has some research backing its effectiveness. That medication goes by the trade name Ozempic. Study participants followed a structured diet and exercise regimen on their way to losing 15 per cent of total bodyweight (over a year) with the help of this injection. That’s a pretty significant loss. You still need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat. You still need to move your body. But the drug helped reduce appetite and support those good habits, so it made adhering to a nutrition plan far easier. What happens after you discontinue use? I haven’t seen the research on that, to be honest. But hopefully the good habits developed during the diet can be maintained. Your standard disclaimer about nausea and crapping your pants does apply here. Worth having a convo with your doctor if you think you’re eligible. Otherwise, focus on the fundamentals!

Mitch Calvert is a Winnipeg-based fitness coach who has helped more than 1,400 people transform their bodies and lives over the past decade. Visit mitchcalvert.com to grab a free copy of his metabolism jumpstart or to get direct coaching to drop pounds before Canada Day.