2009 February | The Intelligent Workout

Cardiovascular Activity Hoax – Cardio as a Panacea

Posted on February 24th, 2009 in Fat Loss, Health Hoaxes

“I believe it’s jogging or yogging. It might be a soft j. I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.” Ron Burgundy hit the nail on the head for this hoax with that quote. A book titled Aerobics was written in the late sixties by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper. This book advocated cardiovascular activity as the sole requirement for healthy living. Combine this bestseller with bodybuilders like

Tags: Cardio Over-reliance

Read post Add your comment

Flexibility Hoax – Stretch and Holdddd…

Posted on February 21st, 2009 in Core Exercise, Health Hoaxes

The old school stretching methodology to simply extend your muscles and hold can be relaxing but it is not going to help your performance. Several studies show that doing static stretching before activity causes your muscles to perform at a lower level and may even increase the incidence of injury. These kinds of stretches should be reserved for after a workout or just before bed since they help relax your muscles – not prepare them for a vigorous workout.

Tags: Dynamic Stretching, Flexibility

Read post Add your comment

Resistance Training Hoax – Weight Machines are for Winners

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Health Hoaxes, Muscle Buidling

Weight Machines are for Wieners. Have you ever found yourself sitting in a chair and you needed to raise your legs parallel to the ground. Neither have I but they have a weight machine for it. The fact is that the leg extension and several other machines were created for the small percentage of weight lifters who want to look unnaturally muscular. Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus, created these machines so bodybuilders could utilize high intensity training techniques which

Tags: Avoiding Weight Machines

Read post Add your comment

Diet Hoax – Low Fat Everything

Posted on February 15th, 2009 in Health Hoaxes, Nutrition

Low fat dairy is great but just about every other low/non-fat food item replaces the fat with more sugar or the substantially worse trans fat. Just three grams of trans fat a day raises your risk for cardiovascular problems by a third. When people switch butter for margarine or chow down on non-fat food, Big Mistake.

Tags: Healthy Eating

Read post Add your comment

The Four Health Hoaxes That Are Destroying Society and How to Stop Them Series

Posted on February 12th, 2009 in Health Hoaxes

It may seem a bit outrageous that a few fitness fallacies could crumble our society but a little bit of ignorance on a long enough timeline can go along way. If you’re like me, you enjoyed watching the film WALL-E and the light hearted message it sent about the dangers of over-consumption and underactivity. Good thing for us it is only a children’s film that is set seven hundred years in the future… or could this be a future reality closer than we think? The fact is that Sixty-Three percent of Americans are overweight. In the 1980’s this percentage