Busting Fitness Myth Busting

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Okay, True Believers. I just read something in the storied NEW YORK TIMES called “8 Fitness Myths that Drive Trainers Crazy.” These ’myths’ included things like “You should stretch before you work out,” and “Lifting light weights doesn’t make you fit.” “Runners and cyclists don’t need to strength-train their lower body.” “Ice baths speed recovery.” Plus a few others.

Again, these are things that they claim are untrue or harmful, and that trainers—and I’m one of those myself—are driven crazy by them.

I don’t know, man. I don’t know. I mean, sure—this article makes a few decent, if quibbly, points. But I sometimes wonder if these mythbusting articles do more harm than good.

Here’s the deal: I’m a fitness writer too. I mean, I’m doing it right now, on my own snuggly little üsetabeablog. But I’ve also written for many corporate-style fitness publications as well, and when you’re doing that, certain rules apply, primarily, that old saw, ya gotta toe the line. You can’t just sidle up to the keyboard and rant on about your latest personal insight or grievance, ya gotta be politic. Know who you’re potentially offending and tiptoe like mad around them. I once wrote a cover story about Adam Levine for a fitness magazine that included about two sentences that weren’t a thousand percent flattering towards the Maroon-5 frontman, and, based on the backlash that I received from Levine’s camp and the magazine itself, you would have thought that I had accused him of being a child molester.

When it comes to fitness advice, primarily, these magazines are equally gunshy: they’re looking exclusively for stuff that sells: the newest, latest, whizz-bangiest device, exercise, supplement, advice that’s sure to catapult you to Olympian levels of fitness in record time.

Or, conversely, dangerous practices, beliefs, or misconceptions, that are surely sabotaging your efforts at same.

”8 Fitness Myths that Drive Trainers Crazy” fits this second category.

This is why I’m not sold on this idea: Most people don’t exercise at all. And among those that do, many don’t exercise what the CDC considers “enough” . And those that pull that minor miracle off usually are holding on by a pretty thin thread.

What keeps such folks hanging on? Speculating wildly, I’d say that it’s often sheer enjoyment. They like commuting to work on their bikes, like their yoga instructor, like the treadmill jog just fine—and the sauna afterwards even more.

Trainers love their tribalism. Heck, I’m a trainer, and if you get me hopped up on pre-workout powder I’m as likely as anyone to go off on the demerits some training approach or system that doesn’t line up 100% with whatever I’m prescribing and practicing at this exact moment (“The Fitness Snob” made the top five as a possible name for this substack). So we love to dispense advice, almost always the unsolicited kind, on what to do and what not to do in the gym.

But sometimes I just want us to STFU. Me, my trainer pals, the last few brave magazines that are still hanging on, and, for the love of God, the influencers. I mean, consider Phil in finance, who just took up bike commuting, and brought his numbers down and his energy up in the process. What’s he going to think when he reads that all that cycling ain’t enough for his legs, because it doesn’t build quad and hamstring strength like weight-training would? Consider Sadie, who likes a few yoga stretches before her morning run?

It’s the old “perfect is the enemy of good” adage. Fact is that most of the benefits of exercise accrue from just doing something. Anything. As long as what you’re doing involves physical movement and doesn’t actively injure you, it’s great. It’s way, way better than what most people are getting.

The rest is details. Seriously. I mean, sure—there are studies showing that if you do a long-duration static stretch prior to a heavy lift that involves the muscles you just stretched—you won’t be able to lift as much as if you hadn’t done the lift. And maybe you’re even a smidgen more susceptible to injury during that lift. However, you have to hold that stretch for a long time, and it has to be right before you do the lift. Ten minutes later, it doesn’t matter. So if you do a warmup that involves short-duration stretches—the kind that most people do—you’re 100% fine. And even if you do long-duration stretches, you’re likely not going to get around to working most of your muscles for ten minutes or more—at which point, any detrimental effects will have dissipated.

It’s also true that cycling and running don’t build as much lower-body muscle or strength as weight-training—but who cares? Why make Phil feel inadequate about his cycling routine? Are all those hours in the gym—which he might not enjoy—going to offset the natural decline of muscle mass, in comparison to “just” cycling, by all that much? Phil’s just trying to enjoy his freakin’ life here. Let’s throw him a freakin’ bone.

I realize I’m speaking very much against my own interests here, because I’m allegedly a fitness expert (someone said that about me in print once), so I should be all about encouraging people to do things exactly the right way, and exactly my way, for five low monthly payments of 9.99 apiece. And I’m fascinated by all that. If you ask me, I’ll tell you. And if you geek out over the details, like I do, I’ll happily geek out right along with you. But humans are humans, they like what they like, and there’s no reason on God’s green earth that everyone needs to be as neurotic about exercise as I am. I’m neurotic so you don’t have to be® (that made the top five as a possible tagline for this substack).

Far better to just let folks do things 75% right and enjoy the hell out of it than make them do things 100% right and hate every second of it. That’s a great way to turn people off of exercise entirely.

(If you are interested in getting in exceptional shape with zero neurosis, perfectionism, or obsessiveness—head on over to AndrewHeffernan.com and check out the 12-Week Fitness Challenge. I’ve run this thing twice before, and people have gotten great results—and it’s kind of awesome.)