In addition, crunches only target a small percentage of your abdominal muscles, leading to something closer to a four-pack with those alone. Finally, for some of us, genetics plays a huge issue. You may be able out-perform somebody with chiseled abs all day long and not show nearly as much as they do simply because of how your genetics manage your body fat. The takeaway is that rather than focusing on aesthetics, build strength with the right exercises (such as planks!) with a good cardio program, and be consistent. If you must do crunches, do them on a yoga ball to minimize impact on your lower back, and research better and more effective exercises to build your core. Women have to try harder to bulk up, in-part because they naturally have less testosterone and human growth hormone in their systems than their male counterparts. Not only do they have to dramatically increase their calorie intake, but they are in the gym a minimum of four-six times a week. In short, it’s an intentional, very focused effort. In contrast, a girl can add strength, shape, and tone to her body by lifting one to three times a week. This variable allows women to train for the results they want, and most certainly won’t add bulk unless they choose to take it to the next level. If a girl is consistent with her preferred level of workout, she can lift to shape her body with specific exercises into whatever form makes her feel her best. Valerie Waters and Ashley Borden, both high profile celebrity trainers, agree and say that scheduling rest days is crucial. Recovery days allow your body to rebound and improve, which is where gains come from. In addition, regularly mixing up your workout keeps you from stressing the same parts of your body every week, which will help to avoid injury. The answer, of course, is balance. Yoga has many benefits both physical and psychological; just be sure to balance it out with some good old-fashioned cardio of your choice a couple times a week. At the same time as the brain-shrinking phenomenon, the pituitary gland increases in size, releasing larger amounts of a number of hormones (also not terribly surprising). But here’s the cool part: researchers believe it’s actually working to sharpen the mind for motherhood, priming your brain for empathy, reasoning, and judgment. Scientists also believe this may play a role in the postpartum depression some mothers feel. Though more research is needed, scientists agree that pregnancy and motherhood have no direct negative cognitive impact. Instead, impairment is a result of the major life changes pregnancy and new children can represent: sleep deprivation, major schedule shifts, stress, depressed mood, and simply a greater awareness of everyday cognitive slips due to the widely accepted myth of “baby brain.” Although these days most of us no longer burn people at the stake, some people still believe that a woman who has never experienced intercourse will have a thin wall of flesh near the entrance to their vagina that must be broken through and cause bleeding. Fortunately for everyone involved, that’s just not true. The hymen is a thin membrane that partially blocks the vaginal opening. However, sometimes women simply aren’t born with them. In other cases, they can be ruptured by anything from stretching, to horseback riding, to inserting a tampon. There are also reports of sexual encounters that did not rupture the hymen, meaning it in no-way can be used to indicate sexual status or experience (honestly, it shouldn’t matter anyway). A Stanford University study found that older runners’ knees were no less healthy then the knees of those who didn’t run. However, there is a unique danger to women due to their physiology. For most women, the strength ratio between their quadriceps and hamstrings is imbalanced, which can increase the risk of ACL injuries. To offset this, experts recommend working in a total body strength workout twice a week in addition to your runs. It’s all about surface area. Your head represents roughly 10% of your body’s surface area. To lose so much of your body heat through your head, it would have to lose about 40 times as much head per square inch as the rest of your body. Unless you’re Ghost Rider, that’s just not how your body works. The real reason you lose more body heat through your head is because when the rest of your body is covered, that’s typically the part that has the least coverage. However, the same would be true for your legs if you decided to wear shorts. It’s a matter of the whatever the path of least resistance is for the heat escaping, and it still doesn’t come anywhere near even 50%. Keep reading to see what food and beverage myths we’ve been lead to believe! Worry not! While microwaves do generate a magnetic field, it doesn’t give off nearly enough energy to affect your genetic material. Also, the radiation utilized is “Non-ionizing” radiation, meaning it doesn’t have the energy to change cells chemically. Even the food it cooks is not altered any more than any other cooking method, so while the ingredients in those hot pockets may wreak havoc on your system, the microwave has little to do with it. Mythbusters did an episode on this topic, exploring different types of food and how contaminated they became. It turns out environmental conditions had a lot more to do with the bacteria levels than time spent. Mere milliseconds was all it took for various foods to pick a number of toxic colonies including everyone’s favorite, salmonella! Looking for reasons to be healthier? Here are 25 Junk Food Facts That Might Convince You To Eat Healthier. Cleansing is the latest incarnation of the “look at me” healthy lifestyle. It’s more about psychological status than effect, and any benefit that is experienced above maintaining a normal, healthy diet has been scientifically proven to be placebo effect. Weight loss may occur, but that’s because you’re fasting, and since you’re missing out on a large amount of protein, there’s a good chance some of that is muscle weight. Your body already has a really great system for detoxifying and juicing what you eat (digestive tract, liver, kidneys, etc.) Removing important solids (like the fiber juicing removes from fruits and vegetables) isn’t helping that system, and it very well may be hurting you. With that said, choosing water over other beverages (especially high-sugar drinks like soda) has major benefits, the least of which is a respectable cut in the amount of calories consumed. Long story short: drink when you’re thirsty, and choose water. A double-blind study published back in 1990 showed that those who believed dairy would increase mucus reported more symptoms after consumption. However, actual volume of mucus and phlegm did not change among those who received dairy vs placebo, and the subjects were exacerbating their symptoms by reacting more to their existing symptoms. “We conclude that no statistically significant overall association can be detected between milk and dairy product intake and symptoms of mucus production in healthy adults, either asymptomatic or symptomatic, with rhinovirus infection.” The bright side? Ice cream is totally okay, and may soothe a sore throat and give you needed calories you might not otherwise be able to consume. Fortunately for myself (and our editor), science has since stepped in and debunked the pseudoscience responsible for the evil coffee branding. Science has instead highlighted a number of legitimate health benefits. That said…we’re still not sure it’s a good idea to load small children up with caffeine. Meanwhile, type 2 diabetes is more suspect as it is caused by genetics and various lifestyle factors. People naturally attribute sugar as the direct cause due to the nature of the disease, but the reality is that the sugary drinks the ADA (American Diabetes Association) recommends avoiding are more dangerous because of the combination of blood glucose levels rising and consuming several hundred calories in a single serving. So again, instead of the sugar itself, it’s essential to look at the calories involved. Obesity and the eating habits that contribute to it are much more likely to contribute to type 2 diabetes than simply watching your sugar intake. Regardless, although a number of early studies “showed promise,” more recent research and actual clinical trials have turned up absolutely no evidence that Echinacea has any effect on symptoms or duration of any disease, including the common cold. What’s scarier is when you start dealing with powders and extracts. These concentrated, processed, or synthesized versions are more potent and also have the potential to react poorly with certain people (especially those with pre-existing conditions, or those who take the supplement in high doses for long periods of time). Consumer Reports magazine put Green Tea Powder Extract on its list of “15 Ingredients To Always Avoid” due to the possibility of dizziness, ringing in the ears, elevated blood pressure, liver damage, and possibly even death (among other things). Any claims that the natural potassium levels in coconut water enhance water absorption also come up dry. Neither it, nor a typical potassium-rich sports drink scored any higher on fluid retention than water. However, there’s nothing special about kale. Broccoli, along with several varieties of plain old cabbage, contain as much or more of the glucosinolates as kale does. Even more impressive are Brussels sprouts, which contain over double the amount of glucosinolates per serving than kale. I guess mom was right about those. The overuse of the word was so bad that in 2007, the European Union banned its use on packaging unless convincing research regarding a specific claim from a pre-approved scientific list existed. The US has yet to catch up. Looking for more health facts to debunk? Check out 25 Health Myths That Need To Be Debunked Once And For All.
