5 Old wives tales we need to stop believing!

There are some bits of advice that we seem to have lodged in our brain but there's no way we can remember where we heard it. Often it's a regurgitated bit of information, posing as medical or health advice, probably delivered by a relative or that one guy who always hangs around the footy club. They usually like they should be true but we are here to set the record straight!

Myth 1 - Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis

While we don't know where this one started, it's most likely parental advice delivered to stop an annoying (and kind of gross) habit. The "crack" sound is caused when the joint is taken to it's end range of motion and causes a sudden change in pressure and an expansion in the synovial fluid. This process is called cavitation and produces with audible pop. Even though it can sound extreme, there is no evidence that cavitation causes arthritis. Arthritis, unfortunately is mostly genetic. In a famous individual experiment, one Dr Unger cracked the knuckles of just his left hand every day for 50 years to prove that it made no difference to his joint health.

MYth 2 - Muscle soreness is a sign of muscle growth!

This one is a bit of a logical fallacy. We understand that muscle growth is stimulated to some extent by microtrauma to the fibres during exercise. Therefore it was assumed that more soreness = more damage = more growth. However, we know this is not quite true. Muscle soreness is influenced by a number of factors including heavy loads, range of motion, novel activity and genetics. However we know that soreness is highly variable among individuals (some people NEVER GET SORE thanks to their genetics), but muscle growth is very consistent among people under similar conditions and definitely not proportional to muscle soreness.

Myth 3 - you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day

This guideline originated from the U.S. Food and Nutrition board in 1945 and in it's full, stated that most of this intake is achieved through balanced food sources including our vegetables and fruits. So the amount of water you actually need to drink could be a lot less! What we do know is that hydration needs vary between individuals depending on climate, activity levels, diet, genetics, and many other factors. Learn to listen to your body and know the signs of your hydration.

myth 4 - more sweat means more calories burned

Sweating is your bodies cooling system. Without it, you would be in serious trouble with overheating causing brain and organ damage! While we do heat up when we burn calories, causing us to sweat, the amount of sweat is not proportional to the amount of calories burned. I'm sure we all know someone who sweats profusely just walking around the house and on the flip side, someone who hardly sweats no matter how hard the workout is! An interesting note about sweat and exercise is that as you increase your fitness, your sweat generally increases too! Your body is adapting to the need and capacity for work by improving your cooling system. How good is that!

MYTH 5 - CARBs make you fat

This one seems impossible to kill. The reality is that any excessive calorie intake which exceed what is burned through body function and activity, will lead to storage as fat. Protein, fat, carbohydrate, alcohol, and anything else with a caloric intake can be broken down and stored as fat. All research to date has proven that when calories are equated, weight gain and loss is exactly the same among humans, no matter what the source is.

If you find yourself living by a mantra or advice from decades ago, see if you can remember where it came from. If you're unsure, ask one of our team and we will hopefully be able to put your mind at ease.

Tim Douge AEP

Exercise Physiologist, Director

Studio 99