gym myths

thedrowner

i have a few gym myths that im just too embarassed to ask of the gym instructors in my gym, im wondering if any of you could help explaining/confiminrg etc them for me:


firstly, my sister in law says in her gym, the iveagh, there's a sign up telling users to eat as much as they like before doing a session, but not to eat for an hour after as this is the time when your body is most craving food, and anything you eat will just go straight back on. is this right?

she also told me this, when i rang her for advice on first joining, that when you work different muscles, say using a chest press, those kind of machines, that you should push them to extreme, until you cant do it anymore, and then take a day off before working them again. she says she'll work her muscles, until her body is shaking-this seemed a tad obsessive and i didnt know whether it was good advice or not (this coming from the girl who will skip dinner just to have a toblerone) but nevertheless she is in excellent shape.

also, i dont understand why, if im using one of the bike's, if i cycle not too fast, say at 70 RPM i will burn off nearly twice the amount of calories that i burn off at 100RPM-and i know i definately feel it more in my legs...why is this?

my last myth is that i was told by someone in my class that when using the treadmill, the most beneficial speed is one thats just a bit too fast to walk, and just too slow to run. is this true?

any explanations would be greatly appreciated, thanks a lot!

Jak

I'm a tad pressed for time right now, so I'll leave one or two of the points. But I'll knock down two for you.


The eat as much before but not for an hour after is not something you should go by. I know it is starting to sound repetitive and simple, but really the key is a balanced healthy diet and ensuring you get the right intake for energy, muscle repair and so on.

Eating junk before and nothing for an hour after will do you no favours. I always caution people if trying to lose weight or get in shape to just 'clean up' their diet. It is not rocket science, I think we all know healthy foods from battered mars bars. Clean up your diet, maybe break it into 5-6 smaller meals over the day, and try to get a good protein source into you both before and after training. The logic is simple, the proteins will be the bricks used in muscle repair, after a hard training session you have broken down some muscle tissue, and the way we grow/improve is that in the rebuilding phase your body over compensates so that it can deal with the new stresses (training) that are apparently a way of life for it now.

The basic thing to remember is don't worry about when you are eating. Just worry about what you are eating.


As for her training tips ...

They aren't wrong, and in fact most of my sessions, well actually all, end in a specific exercise worked to burnout. But burnout on every machine for every excercise with a day break seems like a pretty extreme/risky training style. If also not just impossible, as burnouts are meant to be just that.

Training programs and styles can be pretty complex and variation is huge depending on goals and all the other little factors like old injuries, total training schedule and so on. For people starting out, I would think 3 sessions a week at the most would be fine, sometimes people rush into these things with heavy schedules and as such just find it really tough and don't stick at it. Above everything else you want a program you will stick with.

1 Cardio, 2 weights. With weights (assuming a lower intensity), you could probably break it into Chest/Back and Arms/Legs.

Actually kinda running out of time here. Something I am planning is maybe a sticky with excercise lists, which could be then used as something of a pick 'n mix menu for people to take stuff from for making up their training programs.

JAK.

Kali

Originally posted by thedrowner
firstly, my sister in law says in her gym, the iveagh, there's a sign up telling users to eat as much as they like before doing a session, but not to eat for an hour after as this is the time when your body is most craving food, and anything you eat will just go straight back on. is this right?

The general guidline to eating is (if its a large meal) 1&1/2 - 2 hours prior to training and again no major meal for 1 hour afterwards.

Originally posted by thedrowner
she also told me this, when i rang her for advice on first joining, that when you work different muscles, say using a chest press, those kind of machines, that you should push them to extreme, until you cant do it anymore

Sounds like dangerous advice to me. Especially with the more vigorous machines, whatever about cardio-based machines. Again (as far as im aware) the general guidline is to do reps on a machine till you can begin to feel the strain, rest for a minute, then do another set of the same reps.

yellum

Originally posted by thedrowner
that when you work different muscles, say using a chest press, those kind of machines, that you should push them to extreme, until you cant do it anymore, and then take a day off before working them again.

Thats called going to failure. I try to go right to failure on the last set of a muscle group. You should be used to weights before that though as you could be stiff and sore for up to two weeks otherwise. A days rest afters weights will allow you to grow more than no rest.

All repetitions when doing the weights should be strict and not jerking fast motions. You will need to have a training partner if doing free weights as the muscles will literally just fail and weights could come crashing down on you. Going to failure fatigues the muscle seriously which will cause most growth.

But do you want to tone up or bulk up ?

The food thing before a workout is misinformation. The fitness world has all these "experts" that dish useless advice, even a lot of the instructors are clueless.

Jak

Aye true Yellum - many instructors are useless/clueless. My own personal view is if I am looking for advice I'll look for someone who 'looks' like they know what their doing. I just cannot trust fitness/diet/strength training advice from someone who is in poor physical condition.

There is a lot of crap out there. And the eating before and not after thing is pretty much just one of the standard pieces of junk thrown about. Every now and again people like to read something and say ... 'oh that must be what i was doing wrong and why I was gettin nowhere'.

I'm interested tho Kali in why or what you heard to make you think that not eating for an hour after would make a damn bit of difference. After training is the period when your body is most primed for the uptake of proteins and glycogen etc that you need. I have always generally eaten shortly enough after training, and tbh I have noticed no problems.

The important thing to remember drowner is that there are lots of these little myths about, and people may dispute the minute differences they can have on your training, and research may crop up showing they can have minor effects - but trust me when I say if you are doing the few simple major things right you have nothing to worry about.

Get the right diet, use good form and train hard ... the rest will fall into place. That much I can guarantee.

JAK.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

yellum

Originally posted by Jak
My own personal view is if I am looking for advice I'll look for someone who 'looks' like they know what their doing.

But some idiots can be just genetically gifted, have a great body and have the most dangerous and retarded workouts ever. Get a book, get the views of many people, not one. Look for routines that have scientific backing.

Jak

By all means get more than one opinion, and temper everything with what you feel is working for you.

However as a general rule, I would be very cautious about taking advice from someone who was badly out of shape.

Personally I don't look for advice from random people, between a few core people and reading I'm confident I have sussed out the ways to get the most out of my training and get to the targets I want.

JAK.