7 Stubborn Fitness Myths
Don’t let one of these muscle misconceptions come between you and a calorie-burning, body-sculpting workout
After diet, there’s nothing more rampant with myths, half-truths, and downright falsehoods than exercise—especially its effect on weight loss. Follow any of this inaccurate advice, and you may wind up wasting time, energy, and money, or even injuring yourself.
No need to bust out a lie detector, though. Jason Greenspan, an ACE (American Council on Exercise)-certified personal trainer and founder of Practical Fitness & Wellness, identified the seven most common, persistent misunderstood notions about fitness—and offered the honest truth to help you build a strong, lean body.
Reality: This is physically impossible, Greenspan says. “Fat and muscle tissue are two completely different substances. Exercise such as strength training will help to build muscle, which encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism so you can burn more calories throughout the day.” To get a lean look, you need to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat—but one doesn’t magically become the other.
