Column: Edge on Health

2/10/10 - It's that time of year again. With warmer weather approaching, it's that time when everyone starts feeling guilty about that extra slice of pizza they had at dinner last night. Summer's around the corner and soon gyms will be filling up with people striving for that beach body. There will be a constant hum in the area from vibrating treadmills and extra loud grunts as people try to tone up those muscles. But before you start your beach body training, there are a few workout "techniques" to avoid.

Whether it is through the TV infomercial advertising the Shake Weight that will leave your biceps feeling strong, the Ab Lounger where you can work out and watch TV simultaneously, or the fitness magazine promoting insensible training programs from across the grocery isle, we can all be deceived by popular gimmicks. Before you grab your credit card to invest in the new tool promising six-second abs, here are a few myths to keep you on track with your workout. After all, spring break is only a little more than a month away.

Myth No. 1: Eat less, exercise more

Cutting calories and working out longer seems to be the appropriate way to lose a jean size, but this method can actually prevent you from gaining the spring break body you want. Eating less slows down metabolism. The body is trying to hold onto the limited energy reserves it has, including its fat, making it harder to burn off fat. Eating less causes you to have to eat even lesser because your metabolism is slowing down. On the other hand, although exercising more does increase your metabolism, the effects are counteracted by the fewer nutrients and energy the body is getting.

"The need to fuel your body is important," Leticia DaSilva Orozco said, the coordinator of fitness and wellness at the University of Rhode Island. "If you eat too little, your body will go into a starvation state. You want to eat enough to exercise. You burn more calories after exercising than if limiting food intake.,"

Orozco, a certified personal trainer for 10 years, is working at URI while finishing her graduate degree in human performance from Southern Connecticut State University. She received her undergraduate degree in exercise science from the University of Connecticut.

When exercising, you may actually have to eat more. Working out increases the resting metabolic rate, the speed at which your body burns calories no matter what it is doing. When working out, the body needs to work harder to repair muscles and tissues, thus resulting in more calories burned. This seems to be the golden ticket people desire, but without replenishing your muscles, they'll hold onto the fat for energy, resulting in little fat loss.

Myth No 2: Doing crunches or using the ab machine will get rid of belly fat and give you a six pack.

Sorry, a six-pack gut won't be replaced by a six pack of muscles by doing hundreds of crunches. Although ab exercises will help strengthen the abdominals, actually being able to see the muscles has to do with the percentage of body fat. It's not possible to target the exact locations fat will be lost, so doing crunches will not guarantee a loss of body fat on the stomach. To burn fat, one must do both cardiovascular exercises and strength training.

"[Belly fat] is more to do with diet and excess calories," Orozco said. "Once you burn those extra calories, ab exercises will help the gut get into that sleek look."

She emphasized the importance of ab exercises that strengthen the core muscles, which stabilize the spine and help transfer force between the upper and lower body. The muscles include those in the abdomen, pelvic floor, sides of the trunk, back, hip and pelvis. Orozco said it is important to work the lower back, get the full range of motion, and focus on bending, twisting, and forward motion exercises.

Myth No. 3: The Bulky woman

One of the worst myths pervading gym cultures is the one warning women to stay clear of weights or else they'll look like a she-man. This belief is very limiting. Men get to browse all areas of the gym, while women are confined to the cardio machines, which can get tedious. After doing a half hour to an hour of cardio several days per week, don't you get the feeling that you're a mouse on a turning wheel? Yet, many women do not stray from the treadmill because they don't want to get too bulky. Girls, you won't get bulky! Erase this concept from everything you ever thought about working out. Women don't have enough testosterone to build the predicted bulky, masculine appearance everyone fears. Lifting weights won't get you bulky, but it will get you more defined muscles, leaving you looking fitter and more toned. The only way to look fit is to build muscle. Women won't get too big. Men, with all their testosterone, even have difficulty building muscle. The bodybuilding women who do look like men with their veins popping and their teeth gritting, take drugs to enhance their testosterone level in order to build that much muscle.

"Unless [women] are lifting about 90 percent of their total capacity and do heavy weight training, they won't get big," Orozco said.

Orozco added that it is important for women to increase their upper body strength, which can help with stamina and endurance even in group training classes.

"One of the biggest myths is that [women] are not able to do as much with the upper body," Orozco said. "Weight training and lifting the body weight will be a huge benefit to increase upper body strength."

So, girls, don't be afraid of strength training, unless you don't want to look smaller with a toned body.

Myth No. 4: Aerobic exercise burns more fat than anaerobic exercise.

It seems to be common sense that aerobic endurance exercise would burn more fat. Aerobic exercise burns more calories during a workout and the longer you jog, swim, or bike, the more calories you'll burn. During endurance exercise, the body uses oxygen to burn fat and glycogen, the form of carbohydrate energy used by the body. On the other hand, during anaerobic exercise, which includes strength training and short bursts of high intensity endurance exercise, the body uses glycogen for energy rather than fat. Since aerobic exercise uses more fat and anaerobic uses carbohydrates directly for energy, it would seem logical to stick to the treadmill. Anaerobic exercise however, offers a few more benefits that give it an edge over aerobic exercise.