Unlike most Yahoo articles out there, I actually agree to a certain extent with what the author states, however, I've decided to go into more detail, and give a fuller picture than what the author of this article did herself.
Here's the article -
Myth #1: Walking is a great way to lose weight. "Going for a walk is fantastic, but if you're in the market for serious weight loss, you're going to have to start changing gears," Michelle says. "Gradually build yourself up." Jogging for 10 minutes burns 100 calories, while walking for the same amount of time burns just 20.Myth #2: Never work out on an empty stomach. "Training on an empty stomach means that you're going to go straight into your glycemic levels," Michelle explains. "You're going to be burning fat immediately."Myth # 3: Pilates and yoga are great for weight loss. Michelle says that while these classes improve flexibility, "if you want to lose weight quickly and get fit fast, you need to get into something with a little more intensity."Myth #4: You shouldn't train with weights every day. Michelle recommends varying what muscles you work and the intensity. "Work on your upper body one day and your lower body the other day," she suggests.Myth #5: Weight training builds bulk. Michelle says that weight training will provide a great "engine" for burning more fat. "You're going to get a beautiful toned look, but with lean muscle mass, you're going to be burning more calories," she says. (5 Biggest Workout Myths)
Tackling Myth #1
The author, here, is partially right, but mostly wrong (See my post on cardio). To keep things short and sweet, suffice it to say that walking is in fact a wonderful way to stay active. Moreover, it most assuredly can lead to fat loss, counter to what the author of the Yahoo article espouses.The author, additionally, sets the reader up with a false dichotomy by using a comparison between 10 minutes of walking vs 10 minutes of jogging. Firstly, depending on how fast you go, you can actually burn quite a few calories by walking. Secondly, I have no idea where the author got her calorie numbers. Though she's right to say that jogging can burn more calories than walking (depending on the circumstance), I disagree that this calorie comparison is enough to uphold the entire argument. Interestingly, grand chest masters can purportedly burn up to 6,000-7,000 calories in a day while playing a chess tournament (all the while doing very little physical activity).
I also dislike the fact that the author recommends using walking as a means to work your way up to jogging. Instead, you ought to stick with walking on a regular basis, and also work on sprinting, or doing some form of high intensity interval training, 1-2x per week. Sprinting is a more time efficient and metabolically advantageous way to burn calories than jogging ever will be.
Tackling Myth #2
Also, I think the author of this study should have referred to "fasted training", not training on an empty stomach. The two are not inherently one in the same. If you workout about 4 hours after having eaten a meal, you'll be working out on an empty stomach, but you likely won't be in a fasted state (and thus will not likely achieve the "burning fat immediately" scenario the author mentions). The reason is, depending on the size of your last meal, your body will likely be deriving energy from said meal for several hours post consumption. You won't start sliding into the fasted state until 6-7 hours after you've eaten (once again, depending on how much you ate).
Moreover, I've also started to shy away from training fasted. The reason being is that liver glycogen levels will be quite low after even 16 hours of not eating. If you start doing some sort of high intensity exercise like lifting weights or sprinting with low levels of liver glycogen, you may experience a quick drop in blood sugar, and consequently, your performance.
Since the liver is tasked with maintaining blood sugar, and since your liver glycogen levels will be rather low, your body will have to start converting its muscle tissue into glycogen in order to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This is why, if I do train after a fast, I usually have a piece of whole fruit or a protein shake prior to beginning my workout. By doing this, I give my body an external, rather than an internal source of glucose or protein that it can use to maintain my blood sugar.
Going back to training on an empty stomach, there's really no one size fits all scenario here. Some people find it easier to workout with food in their stomach, while others find just the opposite easier. Genetics, lifestyle, age, and health status all play a role in what will and will not work for you. Go by your own experience with your body, and not off of my recommendations, or anyone else's. You should know your body better than anyone.
Tackling Myth #3
While I agree that doing something such as sprinting (or any other high intensity exercise) will offer greater weight loss benefits than yoga or Pilates, don't rule them out just because they don't allow you to burn a lot of calories.
One study shows that yoga can reduce the symptoms of breast cancer in women. Yoga can also serve as a type of psycho-therapy, for people with mental illness.
We shouldn't rule out any activity on the basis of calorie burn. Rather, we should look at the whole host of health benefits achievable.
Tackling Myth #4
While I agree that weight training is a great exercise (well duh!), I don't think it's an activity one should be doing every day.
There are a lot of contradicting voices out there about how to properly weight train. One of the voices I listen to says this:
You should be weight training on a regular basis, just don't do it every day.•Work each major bodypart once every 2-7 days. The exact frequency will be determined by factors such as rep range, intensity and exercise selection. These factors, in turn, are influenced by bone-structure and nervous system recovery ability.•Do 3 'hard' sets per free-weight compound exercise.•Do 2-3 'hard' sets per isolation exercise.•The vast majority of your workout should be devoted to free-weight compound exercises. Do relatively few isolation exercises - unless you are genetically gifted, or on drugs, they will not accelerate your progress, they will hinder it.•Weight train no more than 3 times per week. Large-boned and genetically gifted individuals may progress well on 4 days-per-week split routines, though such high frequency is not necessary to produce optimal strength and size gains..•Be cautious about, and respectful of, training to failure. Unless you are large-boned/jointed with excellent nervous system recovery abilities, you will likely find that excessive training to failure imposes extended rest periods between body part training sessions, and does not result in faster muscle growth. For small-boned trainees, training to failure must be avoided or done so only on the last set of an exercise. The majority of your sets should end with maybe another one or two reps left in you. (Making A Strength/Size Routine Part IV).
Tackling Myth #5
Since the author was writing for a female audience (a demographic which mistakenly thinks that weight training will cause them to build unseemly amounts of muscle), this myth is quite pertinent.Suffice it to say that muscle is built incredibly, incredibly, incredibly slowly. There is simply no way you could "accidentally" build too much muscle!
Moreover, there is no such difference between lean muscle and bulked muscle. There are muscles, period! They can vary in size, but there's only one kind.
Read this article for a more comprehensive take on this subject: Workout Routines For Women - Why Your Weight Training Workouts Suck
And read this: Top Three Reasons Women Don't Lift
Conclusion
Whether you're a man or a woman, young or old, there are many myths floating around in cyber space. If there's a myth you'd like to see me address, let me know in the comments section.
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