Exercise-associated muscle cramps are common, involuntary spasms and contractions of muscles that usually occur during or following exercise. For over a century, the leading theory on the cause of cramps is the “electrolyte-depletion and dehydration theory”—where electrolytes, such as sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+), and water are lost through sweating. A traditional remedy is pickle juice, which in small amounts, is claimed to reduce cramps within 30 seconds.  A Big Dill? The secret supposedly lies in the...

I was honored to connect with my friend Dr. Bill Campbell, an expert on metabolism myths, as a part of the new, FitnessPudding.com Expert Series Podcast.  View on YoutubeFollow Dr. Campbell on Instagram: @billcampbellphd If you enjoy, please like, subscribe and consider donating to help deliver more myth-busting content, faster.  

Some say that the 10,000 step per day guideline is a myth, because it was built on bad science. But, as far as we know, it was built on no science — likely originating with a Japanese marketing slogan for a pedometer in the 1960s, literally translated as ’10,000 steps meter’. More slogan than science — at first. Following a cohort of over 2,000 free-living adults in Australia between 2000 and 2005, researchers discovered that increasing...

Easily, the leading barrier to physical activity I have heard over my career is ‘lack of time’. But, is time really a barrier to physical activity? In one of my favorite studies on his issue, 24-hour activity diaries found adult women spent 28 hours per week in sedentary leisure-time activity.1 In other words, their reports that lack of time is a barrier do not reflect actual time available for physical activity, and might not be a...

There are two types of ‘belly fat’. The type under our skin (subcutaneous), although maligned, likely holds little to no disease risk. The other type (visceral) hidden deep inside the belly holds high disease risk. It creeps into and around our organs, including our heart. Yikes. Studies have found that both exercise and dieting (typically restricting calories by 500 per day) help decrease both types of belly fat to about the same degree in adults classified...

After bursting bubbles that chewing gum is not our next great weight loss answer, I was sent internet articles, such as these. This one even claims that walking and chewing gum, a feat in and of itself, could help men lose weight, apparently just before the next hurricane. They all refer back to this recent research study where 46 adults completed two walking tasks.1 In the ‘experimental’ task, they walked at a natural pace for 15...

Headlines tease an exercise can improve sexual functioning, because this study survey found that high-intensity cyclists who cycle an average of 25 miles, more than 3 times per week, had a slightly higher mean on each of these sexual function domains than non-cyclists (swimmers and runners).  Before you run out to buy a bike and tights – being a one time survey, we cannot conclude that cycling will improve sexual functioning. Perhaps women with higher sexual...

Can facial exercise or yoga reduce the appearance of aging? There is thought that exercising the muscles of the face can increase their size, thus reducing the appearance of aging. Claims can be fairly dramatic. But, here’s the study1 behind recent media attention, looking at the effect of 32 different facial exercises, 30-minutes per day, 3-4 times per week, for 20 weeks. The main outcome was the appearance of aging, as rated by two physicians using...

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I went back and forth on whether or not to cover this one, but it kept bouncing back up.  In short, ping pong (or table tennis) is being promoted as a weight loss tactic. What We Already Know The Compendium of Physical Activities has table tennis listed as a 4.0 MET activity. "MET" stands for the metabolic equivalent of a task, and represents the amount of energy required for a particular test. 1 MET is the...