So many opinions and so many theories or “fitness myths” are thrown around in the typical gym conversations. You ask for some advice, regarding what’s the best technique for some exercise or you you want to know what’s the best training split.

Some guy will try to help you and answers: “just stick to the basics” or “don’t let your knees go over your toes when you squat”.

Are these tips wrong? I’m not going to answer this question yet, but what I can tell it’s that these advises are vague. A bulked up guy tells you that your knees can’t go over the toes and now you can’t help to wonder: “why can’t my knees go over the toes??”

This is how myths are created, a made up theory is spread, by regular gym dudes, people that are trying to promote themselves and even by researchers.

When you’re just starting to workout you need to know what are the best tips that you can apply at the gym. That’s why I created this list of fitness myths, so that newbies in the gym aren’t hold back.

16 Fitness Myths That Are Holding You Back

  1. You Can’t Build Muscle With Only Bodyweight Exercises
  2. Bodyweight Exercises is Just For Beginners
  3. Calisthenics Only Work The Upper-Body
  4. Machines Are Worthless. All You Need Are Free-Weights
  5. You Can’t Squat And Deadlift During The Same Workout
  6. The Deadlift is a Back Exercise
  7. Don’t Train Your Abs Directly
  8. Not Everyone Can Deadlift
  9. Deep Squats Are Bad For The Knees
  10. The Knees Can’t Go Over The Toes During Squats
  11. You Should Just Do More Cardio To Burn Fat
  12. You Have To Confuse Your Muscles
  13. It’s Only a Good Workout If You Feel Soreness
  14. All You Need is The Compound Lifts To Build Muscle
  15. The Ideal Rep Range For Muscle Growth is 8-12 Reps
  16. Always Stretch Before Your Workout

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1. You Can’t Build Muscle With Only Bodyweight Exercises

There’s a misconception that bodyweight or calisthenics can only take you so far. The truth of the matter is that as long as you increase your workload capacity, you’re progressing, in other words, you’re applying the principle of progressive overload.

You’ve to continually push the level of intensity and volume, so your muscles have to adapt, and they adapt by getting bigger.

Imagine that you could do 5 pull-ups… now imagine that after some months you could do 20 pull-ups. It’s obvious that your fitness levels are better now that you can do 20 reps, rather than when you could do 5 reps. The muscles that can perform more reps, can do it because they are more efficient and are bigger than when you started progressing.

If bodyweight exercises are the only thing that you want to do, by all means, do it, just remember that in order to progress you need to increase the workload overtime.

2. Bodyweight Exercises is Just For Beginners

Now we know that you can build muscle with only bodyweight exercises. It’s time to explain that you can challenge your body to new levels of intensity with only bodyweight exercises.

A bodyweight workout isn’t just for beginners, in fact, you can keep improving until you become advanced. After you are able to perform more than 10 controlled pull-ups, push-ups and dips, you can look to progress by introducing new training stimulus to your workout, like:

  • doing more reps and sets;
  • Load your bodyweight movements with some weight (for example, hold a 10Ib dumbbell with your feet);
  • Try different , harder variations of the main exercises, like the muscle-up, the handstand or the planche hold.

3. Calisthenics Only Work The Upper-Body

Listen, I’m not going to lie to you, a lot of people that are advanced in calisthenics have great upper-body physiques, although sometimes they have chicken legs.

If you say to me that calisthenics doesn’t work legs, I have to answer: that’s not true! You can work your legs doing bodyweight squats in the beginning, but eventually you’ve to try pistol squats and this is a very hard movement.

If you don’t have access to weights and a barbell, you’ve to do pistol squats, squat jumps, and other stuff… The point is, I recommend you to do some back squats and deadlifts, to improve your lower-body potential.

4. Machines Are Worthless. All You Need Are Free-Weights

There are a lot of opinions out there regarding what’s the best way to build muscle and many people believe that all you need is a barbell and some plates. Well, I kinda agree and I also think that this assumption is far from the truth.

I know it’s confusing right, but stick with me.

Don’t get me wrong, with only a barbell and some plates you can improve! A LOT!!! But in reality the machines that you see at the gym can bring you a tone of gains when used right.

With a barbell you can do squats, deadlifts, bent-over rows, one leg squats, and if you have a pull-up bar and a bench, you can do all kinds of pull-up variations and bench-press. So, as you can see you can work all your main muscle groups. Again, you’ll improve! A LOT!!!

However, the value of machines is priceless:

  1. You can put your muscles under constant tension, more effectively;
  2. With machines your don’t have to worry about stability and balance. For example, the leg press. You can lift more weight in the leg press, because your body doesn’t have to think about balance, like it would if you were doing squats. The advantage of the leg press machine, it’s that you can focus more on stimulating growth, because you don’t have to worry about stability and balance;
  3. Thirdly, machines are less fatiguing for your nervous system. Putting the barbell in your back taxes your nervous system a lot. In a training session imagine that you do some squats, after this if you want to do specific quad work, it’s better for you to go to the leg extension machine or to the leg press, because it’s less demanding on your low back, for example;
  4. Finally, machines can isolate muscle groups very well, and if you have for example one leg or one arm that’s stronger than the other, you should some direct work in the weaker link, thereby you can be more balanced.

5. You Can’t Squat And Deadlift During The Same Workout

In fact you can squat and deadlift in the same session, but because this are two very taxing exercises you’re better off separating this movements into two different training sessions.

I remember when I didn’t know anything about training, I was just experimenting and I started my workout with heavy deadlifts and then I went to the rack and did some squats. After my heavy deadlifts I was gazed up and I felt really fatigued in my lower back.

If you want to combine these two compound exercises make sure that in your first exercise you do the heavier sets and in the second exercise you do your sets in a higher rep range, like 8-12 reps.

6. The Deadlift is a Back Exercise

Yes, when you perform the deadlift you stimulate the back muscles. However, when you move the weight off the ground, you don’t pull the bar, but instead you drive your feet against the floor. You need a lot of leg drive, you need your quads, hamstrings and glutes to work together.

As you can see this is a full-body exercise and the lower-body has the biggest part in the performance of this movement.

7. Don’t Train Your Abs Directly

A current thought in the strength field it’s that you don’t need to do direct ab work, because the compound movements give you enough core strength and you only need to do some planks.

Some people might say I’m wrong, some people might say I’m right, however, for me, developing abs and core it’s essential, not only to improve aesthetically but also to improve your strength levels.

If you train your abs and core, I promise you that it will translate to the main movements of your training program and you’ll be stronger and a better athlete.

8. Not Everyone Can Deadlift

I won’t waste much time on this myth, because there’s no reason for someone not being able to deadlift. Do you pick boxes or your groceries from the floor? Yes? So, you also can deadlift (unless you broke your back).

Deadlifts, squats and bench press are demanding exercises and everyone is different, that’s why you’ve to adapt the exercises in a way that they become joint friendly for you. In the case of deadlifts, you may want to have a wider stance, or instead of the conventional deadlift you can perform sumo deadlifts or trap bar deadlifts.

9. Deep Squats Are Bad For The Knees

I agree completely!

Wait…!

No I don’t.

Deep squats are bad for the knees if you have poor technique, poor mobility and stability.

The squat is a very complex movement, but if you take care of you mobility and stability you’ll be able to almost sit your ass on the floor and then get up.

Deep squats are dangerous for most people, because most people don’t know how to improve their mobility. And other issue that can cause knee pain is going heavy all the time. As you learn how to plan your training program you can manage the loads that you work with, from low, to medium and to heavier loads. If you do this your knees won’t feel so banged up.

10. The Knees Can’t Go Over The Toes During Squats

This myth can have a similar answer to the previous myth.

Technique, mobility and stability are the three keys.

If you take care of these key factors you can deal with the knees going over the toes. I’ve to share a very important tip with you that can change the way you squat. When you start the descent part of the squat you need to have a “hip first” approach, instead of a “knees first” approach. Doing this the hip becomes the primary mover of the squat. This helps tremendously, because the hip is way stronger than the knees.

As long as excessive loading is limited and good technique is used, the knees CAN and MUST move past the toes in the bottom of a squat in order to allow the hips to drop fully.

Dr. Aaron Horschig, Squat University

11. You Should Just Do More Cardio To Burn Fat

In fact, you do burn more calories when you do cardio. Nonetheless weight training is essential, because it keeps your metabolism running for longer periods of time.

Cardio is great, but more cardio won’t bring you much benefits. My advice is for you to lift weights 3-5 times per week, make sure to implement compound movements to your current training plan, walk everyday or do 1-2 sprint sessions per week and improve your eating habits.

12. You Have To Confuse Your Muscles

Here we can see one of the most annoying fitness myths. Muscle confusion principle, put in simple terms, means that in order to keep progressing you need to constantly change rep ranges, number of sets and the type of exercises, on a week to week basis.

Basically, if your body never adapts, you’ll never stagnate and you’ll always improve. That’s just complete bullshit.

After you’ve read this post, please delete the expression muscle confusion from your mind. In order to reach mastery of a lift you need to repeat it over and over again. That’s it! Eventually you need to switch things up, but your goal should be to perform the same main lifts over and over again.

13. It’s Only a Good Workout If You Feel Soreness

When I started working out it was when I felt the most sore. That’s a common sensation that beginners go through and also it’s one of the most discussed fitness myths.

The reason you feel soreness, it’s because your body it’s not used to training. I can give you an example: I train 5 times per week and I usually do some lifting work. So my training sessions are planned around lifting weights, but some days i go for a football match with friends. Guess what happens the next day… I feel sore! Why am I sore? Well, because my body is used to the training stimulus of lifting weights, but it isn’t used to lots of sprinting.

So that’s soreness, it’s neither a good or a bad thing, nonetheless regarding strength or hypertrophy training feeling sore it’s not a clear indication of what’s a good or a bad workout.

14. All You Need is The Compound Lifts To Build Muscle

In my opinion the compound lifts make or break a training program.

There’s no way around it, you need to focus on continuously progress the execution of your compound movements. You’re progressing if your technique is getting better. If you increase the lifting load or if you perform more reps using the same weight, but with impeccable technique.

Now, although compound lifts are very important, you can’t discard accessory work. After the main exercises of your workout, you need to implement other exercises. For example, you can do in a upper-body day:

  • Compound lift – Weighted pull-ups 3 sets of 5 reps;
  • Accessory work – Cable row 3 sets of 8-12 reps;
  • More accessory work – One arm dumbbell row 3 sets of 12-15 reps;
  • And more accessory work – Barbell curl 3 sets of 12-15 reps.

This is a sample workout that shows that the compound lift is the most important exercise of the workout. The accessory work has the goal of stimulating hypertrophy and overall physical balance, which is crucial because by building muscle through accessory exercises you can improve your compound lifts, and finally you reach new strength levels.

15. The Ideal Rep Range For Muscle Growth is 8-12 Reps

8-12 reps can stimulate muscle growth, however you can also build muscle using lower rep ranges and higher rep ranges. There isn’t an ideal rep range, because the combination of different rep ranges, like 3-7, 8-12 and 15-20, is the perfect rep range.

If you’re working near failure you can add gains in muscle size, with low, medium and high rep ranges.

16. Always Stretch Before Your Workout

If stretching is an important part of your routine before a workout, by all means, do it. It isn’t like you’re going to break something.

Nevertheless, there’s some research which suggests that static stretching before your working sets can reduce strength and power. Nevertheless, I suggest that you shouldn’t spend more than 10 minutes stretching, that can lead to a loss of strength and power before your working sets.

Key Takeaways From These Fitness Myths

Is this an extensive list of fitness myths? Far from it. I don’t know if these are the most common fitness myths, but these are the ones that I think you need to be aware of.

The main key takeaway is: never be pleased with short explanations, always ask “why”, and if people don’t explain it, you need to figure out by yourself or you can always reach out to Smart Gym Decisions.

Nevertheless, you need to focus on making the right decisions for you, because if you’re applying those fitness myths in your training sessions, that’s why you’re being hold back from reaching your goals.

It’s time for you to take your training knowledge by the bawls and actually make the best decisions for yourself in the gym. You can also check my guide of the most important fitness terms that you need to know in order to be fully prepare to deal with all the myths and bad advice.


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