General Discussions > Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Medicine
Fitness myths.
Karyn:
We all know this industry is full of woo. Everyone has their opinion on how to best exercise. What are some of the interesting things you've heard over the years?
One I've heard, but I'm not sure is true: You must eat first thing in the morning to get your metabolism going. If you don't, you'll lower your BMR. If I eat first thing in the morning, I've noticed it generally makes me hungrier for the rest of the day, and I end up eating more food in general. I've never been a breakfast person. Has this really been hurting me all these years?
An other is getting a large dose of protein before and after your workout to promote muscle building. It seems to me that it wouldn't matter when you eat the protien, especially since it can take time to digest food. Is there any evidence to back this one up?
Cognoscento:
I find the opposite true. I usually have a cup of coffee and then do my workout in a fasted state. Once you burn through the glycogen stores, you force your body to start metabolizing fat for energy.
I'm not a body builder, but I always thought you want to take in the right proportion of protein and carbs within 30min of finishing your work out for maximum effect.
One running myth that drives me crazy is the whole "Heel striking is the devil" mentality and that "evil" shoe companies are ruining our naturay evolved running gait with over designed, over cushioned shoes. Bullcrap.
Johnny Slick:
Hmm. I've made it a point to eat something for breakfast for the past year or so after very rarely having eaten breakfast in the past and IME that bowl of cereal and cup of coffee makes me actually eat less total in the day. I used to get really, really hungry around lunchtime and that's pretty much always a bad idea because when you're hungry you make worse decisions. Well, at least I do. I will say that if you're going to miss a meal, it's better to miss one of the later ones than the first one, at least in terms of being able to more easily control what you eat throughout the day.
Everybody's body is different though, so YMMV.
For other myths, stretching's a big one. I know there's that idea that you should stretch out really heavily before and after every workout but in reality overstretching can actually cause damage in and of itself. I'd love for someone with more fitness experience to expound upon that though.
Cognoscento:
The whole stretching thing is a pretty hotly debated topic. In my experience, short, dynamic stretching (like 10-15 seconds) is ok. It loosens everything up and gets blood flowing to the area. Doing long static stretches (like 15-30min) seems counter productive. I've heard that can cause micro-tearing in the muscle fiber which is essentially what happens when you're exercising. So basically instead of being "warmed up" you are starting your workout with muscle fatigue. Sounds like a bad idea to me.
Squarebanks:
There is a ton of psuedoscience surrounding the significance of meal timing, exersise, and body composition. The general scientific consensus is that meal timing is largely irrelevant to athletic performance. There was one study that showed a slight increase in endurance if an athlete had a small carbohydrate-rich snack or drink before competing, but the effect is minimal.
People focus way too much on timing their meals around their exercise. There is no advantage to working out early in the morning before eating because you won't be glycogen depleted in the morning unless you have been fasting on a low-carb diet for days. I would hypothesize that some people might actually end up working out less intensely if they don't have a snack in the morning because they'll be rushing through the workout to get to breakfast faster.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494
http://www.ajcn.org/content/90/5/1244.short
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21410865?dopt=Abstract
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