Following is a transcript of the video.
Sean Kuechenmeister: 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 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.
Narrator: That’s —
Kuechenmeister: Sean Kuechenmeister. I’m a clinical athletic trainer at the New York Sports Science Lab in Staten Island, New York.
Narrator: And he’s one of three athletic trainers we brought into our studios.
Janeil Mason: My name’s Janeil Mason.
Andy Stern: My name is Andy Stern.
Narrator: To debunk 17 of the most common exercise myths.
Kuechenmeister: 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.
Narrator: And that means …
Kuechenmeister: 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.
Narrator: But …
Kuechenmeister: 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, they’re thinking static stretching. You achieve a certain position, you hold that position, and your goal is to increase your range of motion. The 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 lax joint, and you’re not gonna be able to produce as much force and you could also potentially lead yourself to being injured because you’re not as stable.
Stern: So, one of my favorite is when it’s the holidays, right, and you have 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. I’m like, “Oh, great, 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 going to go right to my right hip.
Narrator: And if you are trying to lower your body fat, cardio isn’t the best way to do it.
Kuechenmeister: 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.
Narrator: And, in fact, doing to much cardio can actually be a bad thing.
Kuechenmeister: 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. Well, that’s why I think this myth is potentially the most dangerous and damaging one for the general population.
Narrator: But it may not be as common as the belief that …
Kuechenmeister: 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 burned per day. That’s long-term sustainable change in your body as opposed to just doing cardio sessions and going into caloric deficit and starving yourself.
Narrator: Of course, building muscle isn’t just for men.
Mason: 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. ‘Cause 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.
Narrator: And, in fact, weight lifting is especially important for women.
Mason: 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.
Narrator: And whether you’re a man or a women, you don’t actually need weights at all to build strength.
Stern: I mean, the myth being that you have to go to the gym to be doing strength training is crazy. All right? Your body is a weight. So, body-weight exercises have been around forever, and they’re so important. To be able to push up your body, or crunch, or squat, or pull up.
Narrator: And if it’s a six pack you’re after, the muscles themselves aren’t even that important.
Mason: Getting a six pack is not about doing tons of crunches. A lot of it has to do with your nutrition.
Narrator: And Stern agrees.
Stern: 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.
Kuechenmeister: “Sweating a lot means you got a really great workout” is 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 in your filtration system, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect the effectiveness of your workout.
Narrator: But if you do sweat a lot, how should you replenish?.….read more……