Im sure you have all heard some of these if you have been in the gym a while or have a resident fitness ‘guru’ at work tell you how to turn fat in to muscle.

We have picked our favourite gym myths that even today still seem to be widely believed.

MYTH 1:

All that muscle will turn in to fat when you stop going to the gym.

TRUTH: Scientifically that statement is impossible, muscle and fat cannot turn in to each other, no matter what you do, they are not even remotely the same. What may happen is that when you stop going to the gym you will continue to eat a lot of calories as that’s what you’re used to, this will lead to an increased level of fat, couple this with shrinking muscles as they’re no longer being used with the same intensity as when you were training and you have a perceived image of muscle turning in to fat, but don’t be fooled!

MYTH 2:

You can spot reduce fat.

TRUTH: Unfortunately not! All those sit ups you’ve been doing will have no effect on how visible your dream six pack gets, they will however be building a strong set of abs, but the layer of fat that you’re trying to spot reduce is going to hide them forever more until you start burning fat properly. This of course applies to all areas of the body, if you want to see muscle definition you need to drop fat through your diet, not target it with specific exercises, just remember that physiques are created in the kitchen and not the gym.

MYTH 3:

Protein shakes are steroids!

TRUTH: Well, if they are, we want our money back because our chocolate brownie shake hasn’t got us looking like Arnold! This myth is often spouted by parents when their teenage son or daughter gets a tub when they start training, it comes from a lack of knowledge on the parents part and has been floating around the rumour mill for decades. Protein shake is made, of course, with protein! There are a few different types of protein shake available, however none of them are made with anything that even comes close to steroids. Adding a protein shake to your diet to boost your protein intake is perfectly healthy. But please do not drink them instead of healthy balanced meal, real food wins every time!

MYTH 4:

Cardio is the best way to lose fat.

TRUTH: Cardio has long been seen as the method to losing fat and while it certainly does work its also a quick way to strip your muscle mass as well, muscle burns fat so you want to hang on to as much of that as possible! You can do this by lifting heavy weights, this not only minimises muscle loss but it also burns more calories once you have left the gym whereas a cardio session does not have the same calorie burning effect once you have hit the showers and left the gym. If you couple this with a proper diet aimed at cutting fat and maintaining muscle mass you’ll be lean and defined in no time.

MYTH 5:

Sit Ups will give you washboard abs.

TRUTH: If only it was that simple, crack out 200 sit ups a week and you’ll have a raging set of abs in no time! Unfortunately that is not the case and is a common mistake when someone tries to achieve a 6 pack. The reason for this relates to myth number 2 above. When you do a sit up you are working your abs, you are also burning calories, however the problem is that your body dose not know to burn the fat stored around your midsection. If you want abs read this article to find out how to do it.