Get Movin' Monday: Debunking Fitness Myths

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- When people are on their fitness journey, there's a lot of information out there and a lot of myths. For Monday's Get Moving Monday, we are debunking them.

New this morning, Brandon Jonker from Discover Strength is dropping some fitness knowledge on us.

The first myth? If you drop and do 100 crunches, you'll get a flat stomach. Jonker said that's not true.

"Our bodies don't selectively burn fat. It's called spot reduction. That's not how your body works. It burns fat as a whole," he said.

So, how do you get a flat stomach?

"Our whole goal should be to burn calories," he said. "The key is to throw more logs on the fire. You need to pair proper workouts with proper diet."

Another myth? You don't need to spend hours upon hours at the gym in order to see results.

"We should be thinking more intensity. How hard we can workout? If you're in there for two to three hours a day, you're probably not working very hard. You should be in there for 20-30 minutes a day at 100 percent effort and get out," Jonker said.

What about women who don't want to get bulky? Are you going to get bulkly from lifting a lot of weight? The answer is no.

"The reason is that females do not have the testosterone or genetics to build muscle like their male counterparts do," he said.

Jonker also said running or only doing cardio to lose weight is also a myth.

He said you do burn calories, but you'll burn them faster if you also do weight or resistance training.

You'll also keep burning calories as your muscles repair from lifting.