8 Fitness Myths That Drive Experts Crazy - The New York Times

When done right, exercise can be a veritable miracle drug. But follow the wrong advice and you can easily set yourself up for injury. Take the sit-up: Once considered the gold standard of core exercises, we now know that it can make low-back pain worse. Fitness culture is rife with such misconceptions, thanks to constantly evolving science and fitness influencers who share tips based on “anecdote and gym lore,” said Brad Schoenfeld, a professor of exercise science at Lehman College in New York. “Once those opinions are disseminated to the public and take hold, they are hard to change.” I asked more than a dozen fitness experts to share the myths they hear most often among their clients and patients, and that they wish they could debunk once and for all. If you’ve taken a high school gym class, you’ve probably been told to spend a few minutes stretching before exercising. But recent research has found that stretching before exercising is ineffective for preventing injury and may actuall

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• Võ Phúc Khang