7 common exercise and fitness myths busted by a pro
From the dangers of swimming after eating to the real benefits of sweat, we ask an expert to prove – or debunk – seven beliefs people have about working out
With so much information on the internet, it can be difficult to know whether you can trust all the fitness advice you read. We made a list of some of the most common myths about health and fitness, and asked sports scientist and physical education expert Lobo Louie Hung-tak, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, to sort the fact from the fiction.
1. “Exercise turns fat into muscle - and vice versa”
Fat and muscles are two different types of body tissue. “No matter what you do, you cannot turn one into another,” says Louie.
Some people may think their six-pack will become a spare tyre when they stop exercising. But what really happens when you stop working out is that the layer of abdominal fat, which is closer to the skin, thickens, while the layer of muscle becomes thinner.
2. “You should not swim after you eat”
This statement is applied to other types of vigorous exercise, too, but people tend to stress it when it comes to swimming because the possibility of drowning makes the risk much higher.
In general, it isn’t a good idea to do high-intensity exercises straight after a meal, because a lot of blood is needed to digest food, and moving vigorously, as you do in a workout, will draw the blood flow away to your muscles instead, causing cramps.
“Running around after a meal will give you appendicitis”
No doubt many children have been given this warning by their parents, but it is simply a myth. Food needs to travel a long way before reaching the large intestine, so jumping and running around after eating cannot possibly cause an inflammation of the appendix.