Great myths of training that refuse to die.
Just a few from the top of my head:
1 - Max pulse = 220 minus age
Busted: it's based on bad science, was never intended for the purpose of being printed on millions of fitness posters, and anyway, max hr is not a useful tool for anything involving endurance training.
Better: understand how to find your "threshold" heart rate and/or power; that is a useful concept in training.
2 - "fat burning zone"
Busted: the body always prefers to burn fat before glycogen. At rest / slow workloads, most of the calories you burn will naturally be from fat. As you exercise harder, you'll need more glycogen to maintain the effort. So the ratio of fat to glycogen decreases, but you're still "burning fat". Not that it matters, since "losing fat" is mainly a matter of calories in minus calories used.
Better: if you are trying to lose body fat (who isn't!) then eat right, count calories, and do intervals.
3 - Protein for post-workout recovery
Busted: Hey I love chocolate milk as much as anyone. The problem is, this idea is based on a single flawed study where the scientists failed to control for the fact that protein is more calorie-dense than carbs. So if you feed 100g protein to one group and 100g carbs to the other, the protein group gets more calories and therefore recovers faster. It's the calories that help you recover, not the protein.
Better: the "glycogen window" is real.
4 - "base miles" build capillaries, or otherwise do some magical thing that makes you faster
Busted: "The exercise science principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. What this means is that in order to improve our fitness, strength or endurance, we need to increase the workload accordingly." Meaning, if you just ride along at a moderate steady pace for hours on end, you'll never get faster because you are not overloading the body.
Better: If you want to get faster, you have to GO faster. Intervals, my friend.
Who has some to add?
Last edited by Creakyknees; 12-27-12 at 08:52 AM.