Thread: 6 Health & Fitness Myths You Need To Know

I like #6!

Originally posted by nikegurl
I like #6!

Me too

Originally posted by BabsieGirl
Myth #4: Stretching is a great way to warm up before resistance training . . . it reduces the risk of injury.
Reality: The latest studies suggest that stretching is not a good way to warm-up . . . it may actually decrease muscle contraction strength and increase the risk of injury. Light cardiovascular exercise may be the best way to warm-up.

i understand the rest but this 1 confuzes me a bit

how the hell dose stretching decrease your strength and increase the risk of injury?

i do a C.V. warm-up then stretch the muscles i'm working inbetween sets... everyone (P.E. teachers, fitness instructors, basketball coaches... etc) that i've talked to has told me that strecthing before exercise is very important!

i really find this 1 hard to believe

the rest i agree with

If the general public knew/accepted all this stuff everyone would be better off (considering they did something about it).

Originally posted by young d
i understand the rest but this 1 confuzes me a bit

how the hell dose stretching decrease your strength and increase the risk of injury?

i do a C.V. warm-up then stretch the muscles i'm working inbetween sets... everyone (P.E. teachers, fitness instructors, basketball coaches... etc) that i've talked to has told me that strecthing before exercise is very important!

i really find this 1 hard to believe

the rest i agree with

i think it's saying that stretching is not sufficient to warmup.. it'd be better to jog and get the blood flowing or rep real light weight.. i guess that could be true.. i never warmup by jogging or doing light weight.. i stretch real light tho, works for me

I got this thing too, wasn't it from joemuscle.com newsletter or something?

I don't think there is anything ground breaking here, but good advice nonetheless.

I'd think most people would know that stretching a cold muscle is a REALLY bad idea.

Originally posted by BabsieGirl
Myth #2: Moderate aerobic exercise is the best way to burn fat.
Reality: High intensity aerobic exercise combined with resistance training is the proven way to maximize fat loss.

A calculated diet is the best way to burn that adipose tissue away, more important than exercise IMO. I agree with the rest of them tho Babsie, good post

Reduced strength after passive stretch of the human plantarflexors.

Fowles JR, Sale DG, MacDougall JD.

Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4

The purpose of this study was to assess strength performance after an acute bout of maximally tolerable passive stretch (PS(max)) in human subjects. Ten young adults (6 men and 4 women) underwent 30 min of cyclical PS(max) (13 stretches of 135 s each over 33 min) and a similar control period (Con) of no stretch of the ankle plantarflexors. Measures of isometric strength (maximal voluntary contraction), with twitch interpolation and electromyography, and twitch characteristics were assessed before (Pre), immediately after (Post), and at 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min after PS(max) or Con. Compared with Pre, maximal voluntary contraction was decreased at Post (28%) and at 5 (21%), 15 (13%), 30 (12%), 45 (10%), and 60 (9%) min after PS(max) (P < 0.05). Motor unit activation and electromyogram were significantly depressed after PS(max) but had recovered by 15 min. An additional testing trial confirmed that the torque-joint angle relation may have been temporarily altered, but at Post only. These data indicate that prolonged stretching of a single muscle decreases voluntary strength for up to 1 h after the stretch as a result of impaired activation and contractile force in the early phase of deficit and by impaired contractile force throughout the entire period of deficit.

PMID: 10956367 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

While this experiment looks at the extreme of stretching for 33 mins, if you try to extrapolate, a 10 minute stretch could lead to a decrease in strength of 20 mins, this is in theory, though.