Written by Martin Ebner
Last updated October 2026.
Fitness myths are remarkably easy to start. A friend tells a friend, somebody repeats it beside the dumbbell rack, the Daily Mail gives it a headline and suddenly half the gym is afraid to squat below parallel.
The annoying part is that most myths contain a tiny bit of truth. More training can help. Stretching can be useful. Crunches do train your abs. The trouble begins when a useful idea becomes a rule that everybody is expected to follow.
I’ve been training for more than 25 years and coaching for 15. These are twelve of the fitness myths I still hear regularly, along with what’s genuinely worth knowing.
MYTH 1: MORE IS ALWAYS BETTER
More training can produce more progress. That doesn’t mean every additional set, exercise and session is equally useful.
A recent dose-response analysis of resistance training found that additional weekly volume can improve strength and muscle growth, but the returns gradually diminish. The first useful sets give you far more than the fifteenth variation of the same movement you added because the workout didn’t feel long enough.
Training provides the stimulus. Your body still needs enough food, sleep and time to adapt to it. If every workout leaves you too tired to perform properly in the next one, the extra work probably isn’t earning its place.
I’d rather see somebody complete three focused sessions consistently than drag themselves through six because an influencer told them that rest days are for the weak. Quality over quantity, always.
My guide to making the most of your rest days explains what recovery should look like without turning it into another full-time job.
MYTH 2: YOU CAN TARGET FAT LOSS
You can choose which muscles you train. You can’t reliably tell your body where it must remove fat first.
A six-week trial had participants perform seven different ab exercises five days a week. Their ab endurance improved, but their abdominal fat didn’t significantly change. They became better at doing ab exercises. Their bodies didn’t interpret the crunches as instructions to empty the nearest fat cells.
Where you store and lose fat is influenced by genetics, sex, hormones and your individual body. For many men, the stomach and lower back are among the last places to lean out. For many women, it can be the hips and thighs. Unfortunately, neither group gets to negotiate.
You can still improve the appearance of a particular area by developing the muscle underneath it. Training your glutes can change their shape. Training your shoulders can alter your proportions. Direct ab work can make your abs thicker and more visible once your body fat is low enough.
That’s muscle development, not targeted fat loss. My guide to fat loss versus weight loss explains the difference properly.
MYTH 3: NO PAIN, NO GAIN
Training should sometimes be hard. Your muscles may burn, your breathing may become uncomfortable and the final repetitions of a demanding set can require proper effort.
That isn’t the same as pain.
A hard-working muscle, ordinary fatigue and delayed soreness are very different from a sharp, sudden or worsening pain in a joint, tendon or muscle. One tells you that the exercise is demanding. The other may be telling you that something needs changing.
Soreness the following day isn’t a certificate confirming that the workout worked. You can make excellent progress without struggling to sit on the toilet after every leg session. You can also become extremely sore from a badly judged workout that provided far more fatigue than useful training.
I still occasionally use “no pain, no gain” with a client who is about to stop because an exercise has become difficult. We both understand what I mean. Keep working through normal effort, but don’t ignore what your body is telling you.
MYTH 4: YOU NEED TO GIVE 100% IN EVERY WORKOUT
I like hard training. I don’t think every set needs to finish with you trapped beneath a bar while the rest of the gym prepares a rescue operation.
A systematic review comparing failure and non-failure training found no significant overall advantage to reaching muscular failure for strength or muscle growth. When training volume was comparable, stopping before failure could produce similar results.
Failure still has a place. I use it more readily on stable exercises where the consequences of getting stuck are small. Taking a leg extension or cable curl to failure is very different from attempting another heavy squat after your technique has disappeared.
Most working sets should feel purposeful. Some should be extremely challenging. Others can leave one or two good repetitions in reserve so you can maintain your form, recover and perform properly again.
Going flat out is a tool, not a personality.
A pre-workout may make a good session feel sharper, but it can’t turn poor sleep, too much training or a weak program into a good one. My Pre Lab Pro review covers the moderate-caffeine option I’ve tested and where its limitations sit.
MYTH 5: MACHINES ARE SAFER THAN FREE WEIGHTS
A machine controls more of the movement for you. That can make an exercise easier to learn and reduce the amount of balance or stabilisation required. It doesn’t make you indestructible.
A badly adjusted machine can force somebody into a position that doesn’t suit their height, proportions or mobility. People also tend to become rather optimistic about how much weight they can move when the machine makes everything feel secure.
Free weights demand more control, but they aren’t inherently dangerous. A systematic review comparing machines and free weights found similar muscle growth and no universal winner for strength. Unsurprisingly, people became better at the type of training they practised.
I use both. Free weights are brilliant for building transferable strength, coordination and confidence. Machines are excellent when I want somebody to target a muscle without balance becoming the limiting factor, or when we want to continue training safely after a demanding compound exercise.
The safest option is the one that suits your body, goal and experience, set up properly and performed with control.
MYTH 6: YOU MUST STRETCH BEFORE EVERY WORKOUT
The old article went too far here. Static stretching before training isn’t automatically dangerous, and it doesn’t make cold muscles tighten up.
What matters is how you stretch, how long you hold it and what you’re about to do.
A review of static stretching before strength and power activities found that brief stretches of up to 60 seconds per muscle had only a trivial effect on performance, particularly when included within a complete warm-up. Longer static stretches immediately before explosive or heavy work were more likely to reduce strength and power temporarily.
For most gym sessions, I prefer to begin with a few minutes of movement, some dynamic mobility and gradually heavier versions of the exercises I’m about to perform. Before a heavy squat, I want your ankles, hips, knees and nervous system ready to squat. Holding an unrelated stretch for five minutes won’t achieve that.
If a short static stretch helps you reach a comfortable position, use it. If flexibility is a specific goal, train it properly rather than squeezing two impatient stretches between the changing room and the squat rack.
Your warm-up should prepare you for the session. It doesn’t need its own documentary.
MYTH 7: SIT-UPS AND CRUNCHES WILL GIVE YOU A SIX-PACK
Crunches train your abs. That part isn’t a myth.
What they can’t do is remove the layer of fat covering them. You could build the most impressive abs in Barcelona and still not see them if your body fat is too high.
For me, a visible six-pack involves three things. Your diet controls whether you become lean enough to reveal your abs. Compound exercises such as squats, pull-ups, lunges and loaded carries teach your core to brace and transfer force. Direct ab work then gives the muscles enough thickness to pop once they’re visible.
That direct work can include cable crunches, hanging leg raises, ab-wheel rollouts and loaded carries. Train your abs like other muscles. Use control, add resistance over time and stop expecting five hundred rushed sit-ups to uncover them.
My complete guide to getting visible six-pack abs brings all three parts together.
MYTH 8: MUSCLE TURNS INTO FAT WHEN YOU STOP TRAINING
Muscle and fat are different tissues. One can’t transform into the other any more than your hamstring can turn into a croissant.
When you stop resistance training, your muscles receive less reason to remain as strong and developed as they were. Over time, you may lose some muscle and strength. If your daily movement also falls while you continue eating more energy than you use, you may gain fat at the same time.
Those two changes can happen together, which is probably how the myth began. The muscle didn’t become fat. You lost some of one tissue and gained some of another.
A short break won’t erase years of training. Strength often returns quickly once you start again, particularly if you’ve trained consistently before. Keep moving when you can, eat enough protein and return sensibly rather than trying to repay every missed session in one afternoon.
Time away from the gym is sometimes life. It isn’t a biological betrayal.
MYTH 9: SQUATS ARE BAD FOR YOUR KNEES
I spent much of my twenties dealing with tendinitis in both knees. Squats didn’t destroy them. Learning to squat properly, becoming stronger and progressing gradually formed part of the reason my knees became far more capable.
A 2024 review examining deep squats and knee-joint health found no evidence of harm across most of the included research when squats were performed with appropriate technique.
That doesn’t mean every person needs to squat ass to grass with a barbell on their back. Your anatomy, injury history, mobility, experience and goals all influence the version and depth that suit you.
Your knees are also allowed to travel forwards. Forcing them backwards at all costs can turn a natural squat into something that looks like you’re trying to sit on a chair that somebody has quietly removed. Keep your whole foot connected to the floor, let your knees track in the same general direction as your toes and use a depth you can control.
A small heel wedge can make an enormous difference if your ankle mobility or proportions make an upright squat difficult. Goblet squats, safety-bar squats, split squats and machine variations are all available too.
For every squat that isn’t right for you, there are several versions that might be.
MYTH 10: LIFTING WEIGHTS MAKES WOMEN BULKY
Nobody wakes up after six weeks of strength training to discover they’ve accidentally become a competitive bodybuilder.
Building a large amount of muscle takes time, deliberate training, enough food and a considerable amount of consistency. Women can absolutely build muscle, and they often respond extremely well to strength training. A recent analysis found that women and men achieved similar relative increases in muscle size when they completed the same resistance-training programs.
That still doesn’t mean every woman will become enormous. Genetics, training history, nutrition and the way the program is designed all influence the result.
I love training women, and I’ve watched the goals change enormously over the years. More women now come to me wanting pull-ups, a stronger bench press and serious lower-body strength. Those goals used to be treated as exclusively male territory. They never should have been.
Strength doesn’t remove femininity. It gives you more options.
I’ve covered the wider benefits in 10 reasons why women should lift weights.
MYTH 11: THE MORE YOU SWEAT, THE MORE FAT YOU LOSE
Some people can walk into a gym and start sweating while they’re still choosing a locker. Others can finish a hard strength session looking suspiciously presentable.
Sweat is primarily your cooling system. How much you produce depends on the temperature, humidity, clothing, genetics, body size, acclimatisation and the type of exercise you’re doing. It isn’t a live display of fat leaving your body.
A boxer or fighter may use a sauna or heavy clothing to lose water before a weigh-in. The number on the scale falls, but that weight returns when they rehydrate. They haven’t melted several kilos of body fat into the towel.
Exercise can increase energy expenditure and contribute to fat loss. A sweaty workout may also be a very demanding one. The sweat itself simply isn’t the reason fat was lost.
Judge a training session by what you accomplished, not by whether your T-shirt requires its own journey home.
MYTH 12: YOU CAN OUT-TRAIN A BAD DIET
I still stand by the principle, but it needs a little more nuance than “eat clean or your workout was pointless”.
Some people can expend an enormous amount of energy through training, sport and an active lifestyle. Technically, they may be able to eat a great deal without gaining weight. That doesn’t mean nutrition no longer affects their recovery, health, digestion or performance.
Food provides energy, protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and all the raw material your body uses between workouts. If most of your diet leaves you underfuelled, undernourished or constantly eating beyond what you need, another twenty minutes on the treadmill won’t solve the underlying problem.
That doesn’t mean every meal needs to be perfect. I eat for pleasure as well as performance, and one indulgent weekend isn’t going to dismantle years of work. What matters is the pattern you return to.
I generally find that small, deliberate improvements work far better than trying to replace your entire diet on Monday morning. Eat enough protein, include fruit and vegetables, use carbohydrates to support your training and leave room for food you genuinely enjoy.
You can’t punish a poor diet into becoming a good one. Build something you can live with instead. My 11 steps for sticking to a diet will help you do that without pretending dieting is easy.
KEEP THE USEFUL PART, LOSE THE NONSENSE
Most fitness myths survive because certainty sells. “Never do this” travels much faster than “it depends on the person, the goal and the situation”.
Training isn’t completely lawless. Progressive overload matters. Recovery matters. Nutrition matters. What changes is how those principles should be applied to the human being standing in front of you.
Work hard enough to make progress, recover well enough to do it again and stop letting confident nonsense make the process more complicated than it needs to be.
If you’ve ever stood in a gym wondering whether the bloke doing curls in the squat rack might secretly know something you don’t, Check It Oot is where I sort useful fitness advice from nonsense delivered with confidence. One email once or twice a month, written by me and sent straight to your inbox.
