Fitness Myths - Folklore

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that “lifting heavy will make women bulky” as if building muscle happens by accident. Or that eating fruit is basically eating sugar cubes. And don’t get me started on the idea that cardio "kills gains" or that you can “tone” specific parts of your body with a few ab circuits. Let’s make a list of fitness folklore that seriously needs to be retired.

• Anti-cardio sentiments are so pervasive and stupid like your heart is literally your most important muscle.
• Items for sale with three easy payments will make you healthy sitting in your chair.
• That you can target specific areas for fat loss.
• That the more you suffer, the more effective a workout is.
• Muscles equals fitness. It doesn’t matter if you are jacked as shit if you also are heavy smoker who gets totally out of breath after taking the stairs two floors up.
• Women will get massive muscles if they lift heavy weights. Middle aged, overweight women say this to me every time I tell them I lift weights and how beneficial it is, especially as we enter middle age.
• Plants don’t have protein and carbs are bad.
• Fad diets based on cutting out specific macronutrients
• That cardio won’t help with weight loss or that the amount of calories you burn with cardio is too small to make a difference. Meanwhile an hour of cycling can easily burn 600kcal. If you do 2h of cycling every second day or have a 2*30 minute bike commute that’s a serious amount of extra calories you can eat every day.
• If you’re not sore, the workout didn’t work
• If you didn’t sweat the workout doesn’t count
• Splits are the best
• You have to workout an hour or you can’t make gains with only 15-20 minutes
• Cardio is the only way to lose weight
• Walking isn’t enough
• workouts and diets that turn fat into muscle.
• That women can't do pull ups or push ups .
• That women shouldn't lift weights, it'll cause our uterus to fall out, etc.
• That the little bit of lower belly fat that most women have unless very lean is the uterus poking out, and it's impossible to get rid of. Girl if your uterus is that high up and is poking through your abdominal wall, that's a medical emergency.
• Ab work flattens the abs/spot reduction.
• The one hour post workout anabolic window
• Free weights are always superior to machines/cables know matter what
• Smith machine doesn’t count
• Behind the neck presses and pulls are guaranteed to cause injury
• No days off mentally that neglects the importance of rest
• “Actually steroids are healthy and good for you. Not only should everyone use them but it’s stupid not too.”
  -That one split wether it be ppl/full body/bro is factually superior to the other’s

I will not elaborate further cause I’m angry~