Fitness Myths - How Many Legs Does a Dog Have If You Call the Tail a Leg?

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?

Four.

Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

- Abraham Lincoln

Myths! Hype. Fitness has many.

People argue over who is right about health topics, sometimes with unhealthful mental state. They argue things they have never actually seen, such as muscle fibers or blood flow or metabolism. Things they read or heard from someone else, who read or heard them from someone else, who had also not actually seen them.

Even medical books are often written by people who have not researched it themselves (in a laboratory themselves), but compiled popular consensus. Doing "medical research" does not mean "read it in a book." On April Fool's day, time to set myths straight-

Reader Favorite Fitness Myth Posts:

• Three Common Swimming and SCUBA Myths in the News Again
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• Aren't You Supposed To Stick Your Behind Out to Sit Down or Do Squats?
• Fixing Fitness Myths
• Fixing More Fitness Myths
• When Did Health Become Thinking Out Of The Box?
  
• Beware of Hype in Training Methods
• Back Pain in Pregnancy - and Why Men Can Get It
• Time of Death From Body Temperature?
• Forensic Science
• Exercise and Aging - Don't Limit the Patient to Limit the Pain
• Fixing Posture - No Exercise Needed
  
• Does an Exercise Ball Make You Sit Straight?

Read success stories of these methods and send your own.

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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
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Image by Amelia Jean via Flickr

Labels: holiday, myths, practice of medicine

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