The Truth About Common Fitness Myths

I've been a trainer for almost 15 years, and I've heard a lot of things in the industry that are completely false. People often get confused by these fitness myths, so I want to debunk a couple of them today.

The first myth is that you can get better abs if you do more crunches or abdominal exercises. The truth is that you can do ab exercises all you want, but your abdominal muscles are just like any other muscle. Your body is going to pick and choose where it wants to lose its body fat from first. It all depends on how you're built, your hormones, and your genetic makeup.

Doing a bunch of crunches and ab exercises won't necessarily get you a toned, flat stomach. In fact, building your ab muscles may push any fat that you carry in that area out more, making you appear larger.

The best way to get toned is to get your diet and nutrition in order. Once you get leaner, you can then throw in some more abdominal exercises. That's when you'll start to see some abs.

The second major myth is that you shouldn't eat carbs at night. This is completely false. The truth is when you eat carbs at night, you actually increase serotonin levels in your brain. Serotonin helps you relax and fall asleep. Instead of skipping carbs at night, have a dinner of chicken, rice, broccoli, and avocado.

If you are weight training later in the day, it's actually a really good idea to add carbohydrates to your meal post-training. Doing so will bring down your cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone that gets released when you train. Adding carbs causes your body to release insulin, which counterbalances cortisol and helps you wind down at night.

Those are just a couple of the fitness myths out there that need to be completely squashed. If you have any questions about other fitness myths or anything else about fitness, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!