There are a lot of misunderstandings about fitness, health, weight loss, dieting, and fat burning. Fitness myths crop up all the time, and they can lead us down the wrong path. If you want to maximize your efforts to get in shape, it's time to bust a few of the biggest fitness myths.

Myth #1: Muscle Definition Is Only Possible Through Lots of Reps / Sets / Weight

Truth: No matter how much weight you lift or how many sets / reps you do, you're not going to see real muscle definition if you have a lot of excess body fat on your arms, chest, abs, legs, etc. Lifting weights will help you grow strong and enlarge your muscles, but the only way to have real "definition" is to reduce your overall body fat.

Myth #2: The Older You Are, the Harder It Is to Build Muscle

Truth: This is true, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Men over 40 tend to have lower testosterone levels, and their levels of growth hormone and IGF-1 (both muscle-building hormones) are also reduced. But you can build muscle well into your 60s, 70s, and 80s. It'll take more work, but it can be done.

Myth #3: Sweat = Fat Burning

Truth: The amount you sweat has nothing to do with the amount of fat you burn. You can sweat buckets and not burn a single calorie of fat, and you can burn a lot of fat and hardly sweat. Sweat is your body's cooling mechanism, as the release of water and heat helps to prevent overheating. Fat is burned inside your body, and will not cause you to sweat.

Myth #4: Yoga Will Give You a Ripped Body

Truth: This is sadly one of the most pervasive myths among Yoga practitioners today. Many people get into Yoga thinking it will help them get ripped and burn fat, but boy are they wrong! Yoga is intended to improve cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, and mobility and flexibility. It will do very little to burn fat, and won't give you big, strong muscles. Of anything, it will build long, lean muscles. Adding Yoga to your resistance training practice can yield better overall results, but Yoga alone won't do much to build muscle.

Myth #5: Get in Your Cardio Before Resistance Training

Truth: Oh, so wrong! Not only will this increase your fatigue when it comes time to lift weights, but it will speed up muscle failure (and not in a good way). If you do resistance training before cardio, the weight lifting will burn through most of the available energy (glucose), forcing your body to activate fat when doing your cardio.

Myth #6: Jogging is the Best way to Lose Weight

Truth: There is something wonderful about low intensity, steady state exercise. It does activate a lot of stored fats, and it will promote fat-burning. However, it will also increase the wear on your joints and can occupy a lot of your time. The really effective way to lose weight is to pair resistance training with high-intensity cardio — such as sprint training, hill sprints, or HIIT cardio workouts.

Myth #7: Big muscles = Strong Muscles

Truth: This is 100% wrong! Muscle size has little to do with strength. Yes, larger muscles have the capacity for greater energy storage, but that doesn't mean you'll automatically be stronger. Muscles that are very strong aren't always huge, and huge muscles aren't always strong. Strength is only achieved through heavy lifting; large muscles can be developed through a wide range of resistance training.

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