Squats & Séances

Flexing the Truth: 5 Things No One Told You About Fitness

• Venessa Krentz • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Tired of fitness advice that sounds good but doesn't deliver results? In this myth-busting episode, we dismantle five of the most persistent fitness misconceptions holding you back from your goals. 

First, we tackle the widespread belief that cardio is the golden ticket to body recomposition. Diving deep into exercise physiology, we explain the three energy pathways your body uses during different training modalities and why endless cardio sessions might actually sabotage your muscle-building efforts. The science reveals why a balanced approach incorporating resistance training is essential for that coveted lean physique.

The fear of "getting bulky" from lifting weights has kept countless people (especially women) from strength training. We systematically dismantle this myth by exploring muscle protein synthesis, the Fat-Free Mass Index, and the biological limitations on natural muscle growth. You'll understand why those powerlifters look the way they do (hint: it's not just the lifting) and why strength training becomes increasingly crucial as we age to combat natural muscle loss.

Think a thousand crunches will carve out a six-pack? We expose the truth about abdominal definition, explaining how genetics determine your ab structure and why body fat percentage—not exercise selection—determines visibility. For those chasing visible abs, we provide realistic body fat targets and effective strategies beyond endless core work.

We also challenge the effectiveness of partial-range exercises and isometric movements that dominate many fitness classes. Learn why full-range compound movements deliver superior results for joint health, functional strength, and efficient training outcomes. Finally, we make a compelling case for why stretching should never be optional, explaining how proper flexibility work prevents injuries and enhances performance.

Transform your approach to fitness with evidence-based strategies that actually work. Subscribe to Squats and Seances on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on social media @SquatsandSeances to join our community of informed fitness enthusiasts who train smarter, not just harder.

Interaction among Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Energy Systems during Intense Exercise - PMC

Effect of testosterone on muscle mass and muscle protein synthesis - PubMed

Effects of range of motion on muscle development during resistance training interventions: A systematic review

Stretching and injury prevention: an obscure relationship - PubMed

Fat-Free Mass Index in Users and Nonusers of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids

A complete list of works cited is a

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Speaker 1:

Welcome. Welcome to Episode 3 of Squats and Seances. It's time for a deep dive into exercise physiology to debunk several widely held and persistent myths about exercise and training. Myth about exercise and training. You can listen to episode one for a review of my professional fitness physiology and nutrition training. I've worked with thousands of athletes over the course of my lifetime in a wide range of training modalities, including CrossFit, yoga, high intensity interval training, endurance, sports, bodybuilding and physique. Everything I will present in the episode is backed by science and clinical research In full transparency. All articles will be made available for your own reading and discernment. I hope you'll find this information articulate and actionable. Let's get started. This episode is called Flexing the Truths Five Things no One Told you About Fitness.

Speaker 1:

Myth number one cardio is the best way to achieve body recomposition. What is body recompositioning? Body recomposition is defined as the simultaneous loss of fat while gaining lean muscle mass. It is not one or the other, but both. You can have a low body weight on an average body frame while still carrying unhealthy percentages of visceral and subcutaneous fat. You can also have large muscles trained to move heavy loads over distance, also known as power output while having a high body fat percentage. The D-curve, as it is called in diagnostic body scans, is what any good health and fitness professional will be striving for. The D-curve indicates a moderate body weight, a high skeletal muscle mass and a moderate to low body fat mass. It is the gold standard for fitness enthusiasts and professionals alike. So why, then, if cardio burns a substantial amount of calories, does it not produce these desired results?

Speaker 1:

First, it's important to explain the three pathways available for the body to use stored energy during a workout. In the first five to six seconds of exercise, the phosygen system dominates the rate and regeneration of a TP or adenosine triphosphate, both because of its proximity within the cytosol of the cell and due to the fact that it doesn't require oxygen. Tp is the molecular fuel our cells run on. Tp is the molecular fuel our cells run on. While the exact timing of the handoff is up for debate, within the first 10 to 15 seconds of exercise, the glycolytic pathway takes over. This pathway breaks down glucose or sugar for fuel. It burns through any energy or TP that is quickly available for use. It's a fast pathway, but less efficient than mitochondrial respiration, which is the third and final pathway. Typically, the second pathway, the glycolytic pathway, is activated in moderate intensity exercise lasting 15 seconds to a few minutes Think sprinting, hiit training and plyometrics. And finally, the oxidative pathway kicks in. This pathway is all about mitochondrial respiration. This pathway breaks down carbs, fats and, if needed, proteins, and that's key for later. It relies on oxygen molecules in the body from muscles, blood and glucose to produce ATP. This pathway is the one that is utilized in distance training and sustained metabolic conditioning. I want you to think endurance sports when you hear that Sustained cardio training relies primarily on the oxidative pathway.

Speaker 1:

So now that we understand how our body sustains itself during a workout, we need to understand how the exchange of fat for muscle happens. In order to burn fat deposits and replace them with muscle, we need to stimulate muscle growth or hypotrophy. To do this, we need to create tiny tears in the muscle fibers. The muscle fibers then rebuild with more tensile strength. Each time that happens, muscle growth requires resistance or strength training for those micro tears to occur. So cardio alone does not provide additional resistance outside of what is naturally present due to our body weight working against gravity present due to our body weight working against gravity. In fact, in a catabolic state of extended cardio or cardio performed at an energy deficit, the body will begin the breakdown of muscle cells those are called myocytes for energy use. This process occurs once the body has exhausted all of its stores of glucose and fatty acids first, and then when the breakdown of glycogen is also depleted this is the secondary form of glucose the body shifts to that oxidative pathway and it will start to burn muscle cells for fuel. The body is resourceful in its efforts to find fuel during a time of need, so if carbohydrates are not present to replenish the readily available stores of ATP from glucose, then the body begins muscle protein breakdown to provide amino acids for energy. This is why cardio alone is not only highly ineffective at body recomposition, because it lacks the necessary resistance to tear muscle fibers and rebuild them efficiently, but it actually works against our metabolic pathways for maintaining and increasing skeletal muscle mass. This is primarily true when cardio is used as the sole training modality, especially as we age. So the next time your gym bestie wants to hit the elliptical again, you can drop some knowledge on them.

Speaker 1:

Myth number two Lifting heavy will make me bulky. This is truly the biggest lie. Those big framed power lifters are huge because they consume extra energy to fuel more muscle growth and they don't train for cardiovascular endurance. All that extra fuel becomes fat cells, which then creates bulk. This caveat is to remember that some cardio is necessary for cardiovascular and respiratory health. All-strength training and no cardio is the opposite problem of all-cardio and no-strength. Balance is key. Strength Balance is key.

Speaker 1:

Hormones can be significant factors in the size and rate of growth for muscle. Testosterone is the key player here, as the more of it you have, the more muscle protein synthesis occurs. That's why anabolic steroids make muscles huge and why biological males build more muscle more quickly than biological females. Testosterone in the form of anabolic steroids artificially ramps up the muscle protein synthesis process. There are many reasons why unregulated testosterone use is a dangerous and ill-advised practice, including things like sclerosis. So as acceptance and understanding of illicit use of this hormone is fairly commonplace now, I won't spend time divulging it further. Time to divulge it further.

Speaker 1:

Furthermore, muscle growth or hypotrophy does have a finite limit. It is known as the fat-to-free mass index, or FFMI. The base formula for calculating the potential amount of growth in muscle mass an individual can have is as follows Ready you have your fat-free body mass in kilograms times your height in meters minus two, and then adjust by 6.3 times 1.8 meters minus your height, and this calculation will help you figure out the potential ratio of fat to free mass that you alone have. I don't think anyone listening is likely to need to calculate their potential for muscle growth, but just know that, if you did want to figure it out, a formula does exist, which I think is super cool. The Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine reported in an article that the normalized FFMI values of athletes who had not used steroids extended up to a well-defined limit of 25.0. Any value over 25 indicated supplement with exogenous steroids. It's important to point out here that the FFMI is a ratio of muscle mass relative to height and divided by fat fruit body mass. A score of 25 does not equate to 25 pounds of muscle, but I digress. The point is, if you are someone who has never trained for strength, when beginning this new modality, you will have body recomposition take place and, yes, this means muscle growth. And muscle growth does mean that those muscles will increase in size and strength, but only exponentially and to a set point determined by a number of factors, including nutrition, genetics and the training modality used. Remember that what you shouldn't be aiming for is an exchange of fat cells, for muscle cells, without adding external muscle protein synthesis drivers like testosterone. Eventually your muscle fibers will hit a stop point and a guarantee that will be surprisingly less bulky than you imagine.

Speaker 1:

There are many other factors that affect what some mistakenly think is muscle bulk. The biggest of these is excess nutrient availability, ie overconsumption of calories. When energy expenditure does not match our energy intake or our ins and outs are not balanced, our body does what it was biologically programmed to do. It stores extra energy for when it may need it later. For our ancestors, this used to create necessary storage banks for famine, food running from a plague of man-eating tigers, etc. For us, well, we just get bigger. Everywhere, any extra fuel is laid down as subcutaneous fat and not muscle. Often what we perceive as muscle bulk has a substantial layer of insulation over it. Perceive as muscle bulk has a substantial layer of insulation over it. In addition to fat stores.

Speaker 1:

Inflammation also causes the perception of bulk, and let's recall that strength training is targeted tears in the muscle fibers from exertion and load. A freshly trained muscle is, by definition, an inflamed one. Other factors, such as intra and extracellular fluid, can contribute to a feeling of bulk. This is primarily dependent on your state of natremia or the concentration of sodium in your blood. Have you ever had sushi for dinner and woke up the next morning with pitting edema and tight socks? No, your calf muscles did not grow overnight. That's sodium. There is also an effect called muscle protein synthesis dampening, which is a biologically adaptive response to consistent training, aka hitting a plateau. Constantly varied training across a wide range of strength and cardiovascular modalities can help slow the body's adaptation pathways. Muscle protein synthesis dampening also explains why it's so hard to hit a new PR in the gym after you've been training for a long time.

Speaker 1:

In addition, as we age, our ability to maintain our skeletal muscle declines. This is also known as sarcopenia. This cascade happens naturally due to several factors, including chronic inflammation, loss of motor units and oxidative stress of motor units and oxidative stress. Its rate of occurrence is correlated to how inactive the body is, how much chronic disease is present and how stressed the cells are. All of these factors tend to ramp up as we age due to a slower turnover of cell growth. As we age, our testosterone production tapers down. For both men and women. This also contributes to a decline in skeletal muscle mass. Harvard reports that by the age of 30,. The rate of decline of skeletal muscle mass for men is 3 to 5 percent per decade, with a total loss of 30 percent of muscle mass over a lifetime. For postmenopausal women, those numbers are even higher.

Speaker 1:

So, in summary, does lifting weights make you bulky? Big no. I have presented a substantial amount of information to dispel an outdated and incorrect training myth Lifting weights makes you stronger, not bulky. Not only is strength training not the enemy, but it is imperative to maintaining body function and health as we age. Myth number three Abdominal exercises. Number three abdominal exercises will give me a six-pack. Fitness enthusiasts and professional fitness instructors alike are guilty of perpetuating this incorrect belief.

Speaker 1:

Let's break down the layers of lies here. First and foremost, we should look at the physiology involved. First and foremost, we should look at the physiology involved. The primary muscles of the abdomen are the rectus abdominis, the pyramidalis, external and internal obliques and the transverse abdominis. These muscles all lay or sit between your ribs and pelvis and are generally in the frontal plane of the body and pelvis and are generally in the frontal plane of the body. They work in conjunction with the posterior chain muscles in your back to make up your core and they stabilize the trunk of your body. Literally everything we do, from breathing to standing up straight, involves our core. With the exception of the pyramid alice, all of these muscles are present in every individual that's born the same, as we all have hamstrings, glutes and biceps. There is a small subset about 20%, of individuals who are born without the pyramidalis, which is a small vertical-shaped triangular muscle at the base of the pubic bone and it attaches to the linea alba. Its primary function is to tense the linea and it's generally considered a vestigial muscle.

Speaker 1:

And, for the sake of keeping this explanation short, while all the core muscles should be trained in equality for a safe and balanced body, when people refer to a six-pack, they are speaking of the rectus abdominis. It runs down the front and center and it's divided in two sides by the linea alba. It's primarily responsible for stabilizing the organs tucked behind it, allowing the ribs to expand for respiration and creating flexion of the trunk when you bend forward. While everyone has this muscle, the number of bands of connective tissue, called fascia, that cross it horizontally varies depending on your genes. Some people have up to 10 bands, while others have two or three. For example, a person with an eight-pack has four bands. Someone with a six-pack has three bands and a four-pack has two bands. So no, the guy with the six-pack does not have stronger arms. He was born with more bands of fascia in his rectus abdominis. If everyone has a rectus abdominis with at least two bands, then why can't we see it?

Speaker 1:

Remember how we discussed subcutaneous fat as a protective layer over muscle. That's why the fat stored subcutaneously or under the skin, but above the muscle, creates a cushion under which the muscles are nicely protected. If you also have large amounts of visceral fat or fat in the abdominal cavity itself, surrounding your organs and under the muscle, the muscles will be distorted by the space the excess fat takes up. Examples such as being apple-shaped or having a pot belly can describe this. The muscles are there, but the padding is too thick to see it. So what do you do? A million crunches? No. Remember that muscles have finite capacity during training sessions and that they need time to recover from the inflammation that exercise induces. Also, that many factors can limit the size and strength of muscle protein synthesis.

Speaker 1:

Doing extended ab work will not magic you a six-pack. Reducing fat deposits is the only way to bring muscles out of hiding in this area. For men, this means that at 15 to 17% body fat, abs will start to peak through, with 10 to 12 percent body fat being the range for distinct ab definition. Women, who need naturally higher body fat percentages for optimal hormone function and bone density retention, start at 22 to 24 percent for slight definition, with below 16 percent body fat offering maximum visibility of the abdominal muscles. It is worth noting as well that for women with less than 15 percent body fat for extended periods of time risks substantial long-term effects for reproductive and bone health. While there can be other components that contribute to levels of abdominal muscle visualization, such as biological sex, vascularity, skin sickness and hormones, these are minor contributors. Overall, the main determinants are body fat and the genes that determine how many bands of fascia you're born with in your rectus abdominis.

Speaker 1:

If you want defined abs, you need more energy expenditure, preferably in the form of high-intensity interval training, cardio and strength training using compound functional movements that involve the entire body and activate the core, not laying on your back and doing a million crunches. You need adequate protein intake to support muscle protein synthesis and, most importantly, you need a reduction in whatever habit is supporting your subcutaneous and visceral fat excess, be that sugar, processed food, poor sleep, chronically elevated cortisol levels, alcohol or, in very rare cases, excess dietary fat. Myth number four Partial squats, bicep curls and other isometric movements are great. Lunge pulses, squat pulses, half push-ups these all seem like they would be helpful training movements, but unfortunately they are not. Optimal movement of the body requires all the muscles and skeletal components to support our mini joints. Without the support network, our bodies literally could not move.

Speaker 1:

Movement is everything for maintaining a lifetime of health. Movement determines whether or not you can lift your kids, dogs, groceries or grandbabies. Movement is the difference between being able to get up off the floor when you fall down or ending up on a fall watch in a nursing home. Not to be dramatic, but movement is quite literally life. When we stop moving, whether by choice, injury or disease, a profound cascade begins in the body that ultimately leads to metabolic dysfunction and eventually mortality. So any movement is better than no movement, but some types of movements are superior to others.

Speaker 1:

In general exercise physiology theory, the best type of movement is a compound movement or a movement that engages more than one joint, often in more than one plane. In contrast, a movement like a bicep curl is considered isometric. It works a single muscle group, the biceps, brachii. Doing an isometric movement is definitively still better than doing nothing, but it is highly inefficient, especially if you have a finite amount of time to train. Every muscle contraction requires an agonist, or the primary muscle that is contracting, to flex or extend the joint. But every muscle contraction also requires the opposing muscle group that must yield or stretch to allow the contract In this example, my tricep that has to yield in order for my bicep to flex. Every muscle contraction requires an agonist and an antagonist, for both fitness and function.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever seen a beefcake at the global gym with rounded shoulders and horrible posture but gigantic pecs? This is because they likely over-trained bench press and didn't balance it out with weighted rows. Perhaps you've seen somebody with a gigantic upper body and little, tiny chicken legs? Their imbalanced training sessions landed them there. The next example I want to use to illustrate my point is the squat. A properly performed bodyweight squat is, in my opinion, a thing of beauty. I adhere to the belief that no one should really move forward to weighted squat training until they have an established squat at bodyweight Squat form and technique is something that we can and probably should cover in detail in another episode.

Speaker 1:

Should cover in detail in another episode, but it's good to know. A functional squat is a concentric and eccentric movement that covers the full range of motion of the hips and knees. Keeping this explanation incredibly simple, the individuals should begin standing, descend down into the squat with body weight distributed over the heels. Descend down into the squat with body weight distributed over the heels, then stop the range of motion while still under tension with the hips just below the level of the knees. Then they stand back up so that the hips open at the top and they are back where they began. The ability to squat deeply or below parallel has been linked to numerous health benefits that are not just limited to the hips. I want you to think knees, ligaments, back and spine, ankles and core.

Speaker 1:

In order to perform a full range of motion squat, numerous muscle groups must fire, and in order. In the descending or eccentric phase, this includes quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, adductors, calves, anterior tibialis, hip flexors and core muscles. Then the ascending or concentric phase of the movement involves glutes, again, quads, hamstrings, calves and core. In order to reap the benefit of the engagement of all of these muscles, it is important that each muscle is given the opportunity to contract and then expand in its full range of motion. A partial range of motion, squat or squats, held in the partial range of motion and pulsed, lends the muscles ability to fully contract and fully expand. Naturally, over time and with repetition, these muscles will shorten artificially. In this pulse squat example, this is usually the anterior or frontal plane, because the tendency is to shift the weight to the toes when you're held in that partial squat. Thus the benefit to the posterior chain and the joints involved in the original full range of motion movement are now making.

Speaker 1:

One caveat to this is when injury or disablement is involved. Then it can be appropriate to program partial range of motion squats, such as squats above parallel and squats to an elevated object. It's a case where some squat is better than no squat. But if you've got squat then you should squat and squat to depth to get the rewards of happy joints, balanced muscles and a perfectly sculpted ass. You can apply the principles of these two examples to any movement.

Speaker 1:

Doing half push-ups will never build the strength to do one full push-up as the first one to two inches of contraction coming off the ground, as the pectoralis muscles fire, are the hardest If you don't practice push-ups all the way to the ground and all the way back up, you'll never achieve a full range of motion push-up. Find a way to assist your body weight while you build strength and practice the full range of motion from the beginning. The same goes for pull-ups. The first one to two inches of lift at full extension are the hardest when you first get started. Cutting the range of motion for the sake of more reps in a partial range of motion setting only cheats yourself of the benefit of the movement Training on those machines at the global gym, of the movement Training on those machines at the global gym. Remember the antagonist-agonist connection and the dude bro who only benched. You have to train both the muscle group of target for that machine and the muscle group opposing the movement. If you want to be the most effective you can be while spending the least amount of time training, drop the machines and opt for functional fitness classes or full-body compound movements like deadlifts, kettlebell swings, walking lunges and several of the movements I've already covered, such as squats, push-ups and pull-ups. If you truly must train bicep curls, do so with a walking lunge or another dynamic movement at the same time. If you must pulse your squat, add a one ratio of pulse to full range of motion through the joints. The goal here is for compound movements, those that are replicated from real life. A good compound movement should include several muscle groups that have to work synergistically and should involve many joints Alright.

Speaker 1:

Fifth and final myth stretching is optional. We have all been guilty of this one, myself included. But here's the deal Stretching is never optional. Healthy joints require healthy muscles to support them. Healthy muscles must be strong and flexible to facilitate the wide range of motion required to be a balanced bipedal species required to be a balanced bipedal species. A body is in balance when the antagonists and the agonists for each muscle group are equally developed and equally flexible.

Speaker 1:

Let's paint a picture here of the classic gym rat that shows up, skips cardio, lifts heavy and leaves the gym sans cool down. Let's also pretend that this individual did a good job working all the muscle groups evenly. During their training, each muscle group was contracted properly and strength gains via muscle protein synthesis are incoming. This person follows the same routine every day without fail. They start to see welcome signs of body fat recomposition and muscle growth. Over time, though, they notice that it becomes increasingly harder to reach their shoes, to get up off the floor, to grasp their hands behind their back or straighten their arms overhead, their knees start to ache. Most days. They can no longer touch their chin to their chest. For all of their visible strength, they are decidedly miserable in their new physique and their range of motion is drastically decreased. This is what happens to muscles that are continually strengthened, which is contraction or flexion, and never stretched or extended. This rigidity leads to a reduced range of motion, which we've already established is not good and has a high correlation to injury.

Speaker 1:

One of the areas in a tight muscle that will break down in response to a sudden stretch shortening cycle or an SSC during a high-intensity training session is the tendon. The tendon is the origin or the insertion point. It's where the muscle attaches to bone on either end. Another area of injury is to the muscle fibers themselves. There are various grades of strains, numbered one through three, with a grade three being a complete tear of the muscle belly and often requires surgery to repair it. Whichever way you paint it, it's painful and unnecessary.

Speaker 1:

Spending five to 10 minutes stretching after a workout can help mitigate these risks and is very easy to do. Remember to stretch muscle groups evenly and hold the stretch for 10 to 30 seconds at full extension. The goal is not to be stretching so hard that you start to shake and are in pain. Doing that will cause the Golgi tendon reflex to activate as a self-protected mechanism. The Golgi tendon organs are located within the tendon of the muscle and they send an SOS to your central nervous system when a muscle is under extreme tension. Post-workout stretching should not invoke this reflex response. When done properly, stretch to the end of your range of motion wherever it may be, hold for a slow breath in and out a few times and then change the stretch. Doing this all over the body as often as possible after your workout will also increase your training capacity for the next day. It will help flush out lactic acid and possible adhesions in the muscle fibers and will undoubtedly help prevent future injury.

Speaker 1:

Stretching is imperative to optimal health and fitness and I see it as a protective hedge against injury. It really should not be considered optional. All right, well, we've covered a lot. I hope this episode has helped shed light and clarity on several prevalent myths surrounding exercise physiology in a way that was easy to understand and applicable. Incorporating these science-backed truths into your training should help novice and pro alike. In closing, I want to offer a reminder that your voice matters and I would love to connect with you. If you feel called to contribute to this community, please reach out. You can email topic ideas, suggestions for interviews and feedback. You can find new episodes of Squats and Seances on all major podcast platforms and the adjacent blogcast on my YouTube channel. Find and follow me on social media at Squats and Seances, I'm on Instagram, facebook and TikTok. I'm on Instagram, facebook and TikTok. And until next time, may you continue to live well, embrace authenticity, question everything and, of course, stay gritty.