"What’s The Biggest Fitness Myth That Just Won’t Die?" (30 Responses)

The thread was started a little over a week ago in the AskReddit community by the user u/i-hold-your-purse, who asked netizens: "What’s the biggest fitness myth that just won’t die?" As of today, the thread has nearly 4K upvotes and 1.7K various comments. Moreover, in fact, a heated discussion arose over some of these myths - after all, some of the readers considered them not myths at all.

In fact, this is quite natural; it is precisely the pluralism of opinions that allows people to develop any branch of science. And medicine, nutrition and other related fields are absolutely no exception here. For example, just over a hundred years ago, many doctors around the world 100% seriously claimed that some substances, long banned by law by now, were good for health.

Secondly, of course, there is no absolutely universal recipe for becoming strong, fast and healthy. There are different types of human bodies, each with a different metabolism and pain threshold - and a completely suitable training plan for one person will be real torture for another. And vice versa, of course.

For example, one of my friends, with a height of about 6'2'', has never weighed more than 130 pounds. Moreover, he never complained about lack of appetite - he can eat several burgers, wash it down with a liter of cola and snack on a couple of chocolate bars, but it will not affect his weight in any way. Don't rush to envy him, however - he tried to train in the gym for years, but never became even a little stronger.

Age also plays an important role in this process. The older we get, the more difficult it is to choose the right training regimen and menu. "The reality is that metabolism often plays a minor role. The greatest factors as you age are often poor diet and inactivity," Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing says in this dedicated article.

But, for example, the authors of this recent study, on the contrary, claim that metabolism doesn't decrease with age. The data, based on a study of nearly 6.5K people between the ages of 8 days and 95 years, refutes one of the basic principles of modern medicine. Moreover, the same study claims that men and women actually don't have much difference in metabolism....

Who, one wonders, should we believe? First of all, you need to trust your own body: to know all of its features and limitations, and do what is good for you and only you. And, of course, be critical of any "absolute" rules. After all, as we have already found out, everything in the world is relative. So just feel free to scroll this list to the end, and we do believe it will definitely come in handy for you.