5 fitness myths debunked

With new exercises invented every week, new gurus trending by the day and a fresh study that contradicts all the other ones released every time you think you are getting the hang of things, it is easy to think that fitness is confusing - but it is not.

The fundamentals stay the same, and the science is pretty well agreed. So, by simply arming yourself with a few basic facts, you can step into any gym forewarned against whatever fresh nonsense the #fitstagrammers are preaching.

These are some of the biggest myths in fitness - exercise your synapses for a couple of minutes by memorising them, and do your curls with confidence.

Yes, there is something masochistically satisfying about limping your way down a flight of stairs the morning after a big legs workout, but delayed onset muscle soreness - Doms to its Insta-buddies - isn't actually a convincing indicator of progress.

It is thought to be caused by micro-tears in muscle, and tends to crop up when you do movements you are not used to, when you deliberately slow down the "eccentric" (or muscle-lengthening) part of whatever move you're doing (such as the downward bit of a squat) or just a ridiculous number of reps.

Conversely, then, you can eliminate soreness almost entirely by keeping the reps low, or doing moves that don't have an eccentric, such as throws and sled pushes. There is such a thing as pain-free progress.

There are two key ways to get stronger: increasing the size of your individual muscle fibres, and recruiting more of them to fire together when you need to use them.

The first is what bodybuilders aim to do, but the second is what your body would do - automatically - if you had to lift a car off a loved one.

In sports where excess size is a negative, it is what competitors teach themselves to do. This is how female Olympic weightlifters in the lighter weight categories can outlift larger men.

Getting big requires specific, targeted training, including lots of volume and extra calories and protein - and it almost never happens by accident.

Actually, it's more like the opposite: properly done squats will strengthen the stabiliser muscles around your knee joints, safeguarding you against injury as well as making you a bit more capable of bounding up escalators.

As for running, a 20-year study conducted by Stanford University found that consistent runners (many of whom were well into their 70s by the time the research period ended) showed a lower incidence of arthritis than non-runners as they aged.

It also showed that runners have a lower risk of osteoarthritis and hip replacements, suggesting that pounding pavements is not actually as bad for you as advertised.

Machines are not pointless, but good technique is important.

As sparse-and-spartan gym spaces emphasising basic barbell movements have proliferated, so, too, has the idea that using machines to train is at best inefficient, at worst dangerous.

Machines force your body into awkward, over-linear movement patterns, goes the theory - reducing the input from important stabiliser muscles and stopping you from moving naturally.

But, while there is some truth to this, not every machine is enemy.

"Whether you're a time-poor, technique-free novice or a more advanced lifter, machines can involve less set-up, allow more work and provide extra stimulus to isolated muscle groups," says the trainer Dan Osman.

That said, the leg press is no substitute for learning to squat properly.

Let's be honest: you've never seen Britain's greatest living Olympian, Steve Redgrave, dry-heaving over the side of a cross-trainer.

"It may be intuitive and burn some calories, but that's all this outdated relic offers," says Dr Cameron Nichol, the founder of RowingWOD. "When done correctly, the rowing machine uses 86 per cent of your muscles spanning nine major muscle groups."

The rower also works with the time you have. If you need a short, horrible finisher, a 500m sprint will leave you sucking air and burning fat, while a more ponderous 10km feels almost meditative and the Olympic-length 2km is a test of will as much as power.

THE GUARDIAN