You might confuse Roscoe Village’s Jessica Larson with the Bionic Woman, at least when it comes to working out.
Larson, 27, said she works out at least once a day, switching between yoga, strength-training, stationary bikes and elliptical equipment to keep her “body engaged.”
Add to the mix a devotion to volleyball so strong that Larson has kept up her hobby, even though it caused her two significant injuries this year — including a painful chip in her knee cartilage that occurred in January during a weeklong tournament in Mexico.
“I was on the beach and it was just one of those things. … I turned my body the wrong way,” Larson said.
Larson decided to play on, she said, despite the searing pain that later required medical attention and a two-month hiatus from her hobby.
“I felt like, I was in Mexico for volleyball, and I might as well play volleyball, though I have to say I didn’t do a great job because I was in real pain,” Larson said.
That’s not unusual for Larson, who acknowledged that she exercises regularly even when she’s ill.
“I always push myself as far as I can,” said Larson, a former high school and college basketball player. “What can I say? I’m an athlete.”
Larson could be falling into the “no-pain, no-gain” myth of fitness, according to Michael Sena, a former personal trainer and bodybuilder.
“If there’s a day you’re feeling really bad, stay away from the gym and stay away from working out,” said Sena, who now oversees the personal training program for Chicago-based XSport Fitness. “I subscribe to a school of thought where you want to give fitness your all. When you’re not feeling up to that challenge, you’re probably not going to get anywhere.”
Sena said that the idea that you should work out no matter what is just one of a number of fitness myths he wishes would fade away.
“I tell you, it’s amazing,” Sena said. “There are myths about exercise that have been around as long as Arnold Schwarzenegger has had muscles. There are even some so-called fitness experts who are ignorant of basic facts.”
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There are basic fitness facts that can disprove common exercise myths, according to three local personal training experts. Here are five common fitness falsehoods identified by these fitness pros — and the truth about training.
MYTH No.
1
Eating after exercise is counterproductive to calorie-burning efforts.
False. You should eat within an hour of working out, and eating immediately after is even better, the trainers said. Though many of his clients balk at the idea of “undoing their hard work,” a snack-sized combination of protein and carbs could help you get fit faster, said local trainer Ron Potocnik.
“Think of your body as a racecar,” said Potocnik, owner of Train with Ron, a personal training facility in the West Loop. “When you work out, you’re asking that racecar to perform to a high standard, and then logically, you need to refuel it if you expect to reach that standard in the future.”
But don’t pig out on just anything, Potocnik added.
“Think clean and whole foods, such as a handful of nuts, egg whites, chicken and fish,” he said. “You could even eat a bowl of oatmeal topped with bananas, blueberries or organic peanut butter.”
That combination of good fats, carbs and protein helps replenish your energy and rebuild muscle, Potocnik said.
MYTH No. 2
Strength training with weights can turn a regular woman into an overmuscled warrior princess.
False. “If doing strength training makes you get big and bulky, why do women think they see so many men struggling to get bigger by lifting weights day after day?” asked Jim Karas, a Lincoln Park-based personal trainer and author.
“It is virtually impossible for a woman to get big bulging muscles, no matter what they do — unless they are on steroids or training at insane levels — because they lack testosterone, the catalyst for muscle-building.”
In fact, Karas, author of “The Cardio-Free Diet,” said weight lifting and resistance training instead make women “shrink,” giving them a leaner and longer appearance.
MYTH No. 3
Muscle turns into fat if you don’t keep working out.
False. Muscle and fat are two different kinds of tissues, according to Karas, so muscle can’t turn into fat. However, it is possible for your muscles to shrink if you slack off on strength training, he said. Additionally, when that muscle — which helps your body burn calories faster even when you’re at rest — shrinks due to inactivity, you may gain weight if you continue to eat as much as you did while strength training.
MYTH No. 4
You can get visible six-pack abs or “buns of steel” by target-toning.
False. You may not want to hear it, and there are a glut of fitness products advertising otherwise, but there is no quick fix to slimming trouble areas such as the stomach, butt and thighs. Though you can target train certain muscles, only continued fitness efforts and diet changes that reduce overall body fat will allow toned muscles to “show,” Potocnik said.
“Just as you have no choice about where fat goes when you gain weight, you’ve got no choice about where you will lose it,” Potocnik said. Though you may indeed be working your abdominal muscles with products designed to target them, they may get stronger, but will never show without the proper mix of proper diet, cardio and strength training.”
MYTH No. 5
There is no such thing as too much exercise.
False. With an increasingly sedentary society, trainers said they don’t want to discourage anyone from being active, but there can be too much of a good thing.
“Your body doesn’t make a change while you are exercising,” said Michael Sena, a former bodybuilder and personal trainer. “You don’t get bigger and stronger while working out. In fact, you are breaking down your muscles and weakening them. It’s when we are resting and recuperating that we gain muscle.”
That’s why Sena recommends working out no more than five to six times a week maximum, with half of that being strength training with at least a day’s gap in between strength training workouts.
“Never do I recommend working out every day of the week,” Sena said. “That’s when problems can happen.”
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kkyles@tribune.com
