More quick myths!!!

1) Squats are bad for your knees

NO. IMPROPER squats potentially yes.

2) Ab exercises will get rid of my belly/love handles

NO. Ab exercises should be emplored when the abs and lower back are impeding the effectiveness of other exercises aka squat and deadlift, or if visible definition or growth is desired.

3) Machines vs. Free weight?

Both. I believe in an "ideal" system. In other words, do what is safe, effective and comfortable. Once you have achieved this, then attempt more intricate exercises/machines properly.

4) You need to workout all the time

NO. Most of my clients train with weights for a minimum of 1.5 hours/week, up to a max of 4 hours/week. I feel any more time spent is catabolic and wasting your time/overtraining.

5) Direct rotator work/ shoulder warm ups?

You'll see a lot of people doing interestingly abnormal exercises with plates, dumbells, cables and the like. Most saying its "warming up their shoulders" or "working their rotators" most of these are being done at wrong weights, tempo, technique, or worse, all. There are a couple great things to do for shoulder stretches/warm ups.
If something looks flat out strange, DO NOT ATTEMPT IT. Post it here, and ill tell you what's going on.

6) High reps for cutting up

NO. What built the muscle? Strength training. Do you want to ditch that muscle? Then don't change your workout. Change your NUTRITION. This is especially true for women. You WANT the muscle. Keep stimulating it attempting to force it to hang around and ditch the fat. Providing less stress at the supposed benefit of "sweating more" or "getting more cardio in" is silly. Do the treadmill/stepper for cardio. Keep doing weights for weights.

7) The eliptical is safer on the knees

NO. Almost exactly the opposite. Its puytting you out of your natural stride. Treadmill will always win.

8) Incline burns more calories.

YES. ONLY IF YOU DO NOT HANG ON. I have no idea how many people I see doing this a day. Jacking up the incline on the treadmill to 15 only to see them hanging on, completely negating the incline. Hilarious.

9) Anything more than an hour of cardio at a time is not good.

Yes and no.

For fat loss/ altering physique, yes. Anything more will really start to dip into muscle storage

For athletes/marathoners and the like, no. Keeping their VO2 up and being able to withstand more volumes is their goal. This seguays into...

10) Carbs around cardio?

Yes and no.

Once again, for fat loss, proposterous. Would you eat a big mac on the tread mill?? Then why the heck are you consuming something before/during? Maybe if you...

Athlete/marathoner. Then yes, provide yourself nutrients to preform better. Lyle mcdonald has a fantastic book on this, check it out more if you are interested



Here is a side note, and I can't believe I haven't said this yet in my blog. When a client asks me what they should bring/wear to workout, I ususally say "clothes that aren't too baggy or too tight, water bottle, and flat shoes". "Why flat shoes?" "I'll explain later"

Ask yourself right now, what do I wear to the gym when doing weights?

If you said runners, cross trainers or anything to that variety, I ask you this.

Are you running?

Nope.

So why the HECK are you wearing runners?

95% or more wear them. When do I care about this/when is it an issue? Leg training. YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO BE ON YOUR TOES CONSTANTLY.
Flat feet/flat shoes. Vibram five fingers are EXCELLENT. Pumas make a great one. So do otomix. Or simply slip into your socks when squatting/leg pressing.
That is another place where squats/leg presses ruin your knees came from. Would you apply pressure/attempt to move something with just your fingertips? Nope. So why try to do it with your toes???