Debunking exercise myths

Not a lightweight, Dr. Alex Hutchinson’s doctoral degree in physics is from the University of Cambridge.

Now, he corrects what we thought we knew about exercise.

Stretching before exercise

• Stretching before running makes you about 5% less efficient, meaning you have to burn more energy to run at the same pace.
• Toe-touching stretches alter the brain signals to muscle, reducing exercise efficiency by about 4%.
• There’s insufficient evidence that it prevents injury.

2% of body weight loss decreases exercise performance

• Among marathon runners, fastest finishers were the most dehydrated (-3.1% of their body weight).
• Slowest finishers lost 1.8% of their body weight.

The bottom line?

More myths about exercise are discussed here.

8/31/11 19:52 JR