1. You can pick where to eliminate fat from the body

False. Despite marketer and product claims, you can never decide where the fat will come off the body. Everyone is unique in how their body decides to store and spend it's fat (unused energy), so while that Ab Roller and 1000 crunches will strengthen your underlying muscle in your stomach, they have nothing to do with getting rid of that fat sitting on top. Body fat must be burned off by maintaining a caloric deficit, vigorous cardio, and strength training. So don't look to gimmick items to reduce those unsightly love handles! Get to hard work!

2. Women will get too 'Manly' by lifting weights

False. Unless a woman has crazy amounts of testosterone surging through her body, she doesn't have to worry about looking like the Hulk in a tube top after lifting. It takes many years for most to build high quality, dense muscle, so it's not hard to get to your ideal physique and then go into maintenance mode.

3. You need a gym or expensive equipment to get in shape

False. Don't fall into the trap that you will start getting in shape when you get that gym membership or fancy ***Flex machine! There's plenty you can do outside or in your own home. In fact, many of my clients prefer outside to break up the boredom of the gym. Find a nice park where you can jog, sprint hills, do lunges, jump squats, use a picnic bench for dips and push ups. Most parks have Jungle Gyms where you can wow the Kindergartners with your pull ups!

4. Light weights 'tone' muscle, while heavy weights 'bulk' them.

False. Believe it or not, there is no such body response that tells a muscle to 'tone' itself. Muscles either strengthen and grow, stay the same, or shrink. What you are actually seeing when saying a person looks 'toned' is some muscle growth coupled with less body fat and perhaps increased vascularity to the area. You should train with both light and heavy weights relative to your strength and experience.

5. Guys can Bench their way to get big

Yes and no. You could probably walk into any gym in the world on a Monday and you will not find ONE empty Bench. The reason, most people take the weekends off but can't wait to get back to that bench first thing. That's great, as benching is one of the big compound moves utilizing many muscle groups. The problem is that this trend continues for the rest of the workout week which results in overtraining of certain muscle groups which is counterproductive to building size and strength. Remember, it is all of the power moves such as Squats, Deadlifts and Bench Press that really tell a body to grow, so don't get stuck on just one.

6. You need supplements to make any real gains

Totally False. While some supplements have shown strong evidence for slight increases in strength, fat loss, and energy, they generally come with costs to the overall well-being of your body. Continuously imbibing substances that have received very little in terms of long-terms studies is both risky and sets you up for the magic-bullet mentality that you can just swallow something, and Boom, your in tip-top shape. I'm certainly not against all supplementation, but the important things to ask yourself are:

Am I training as hard as I possibly can? Leaving a little piece of myself in the Gym, on the Field, or on the Mat every time I work out?

Am I training smart? Using perfect form? Forced sets with a spotter? Switching up routines every 6 weeks?

Am I Eating properly for my specific goals? Getting enough quality proteins and healthy carbs? Staying true to my prescribed eating regiment?

If you've answered yes to all of these, then I'm damn proud of you and only then should you consider supplementation.

7. That 'Muscle Pump' you feel in the gym or right after the workout means your muscles are growing

False again. The 'Pump' is actually increased body fluid to that muscle area and will subside a day if not less after the workout. There is some evidence that having that increased nutrient-rich blood does indeed help support that muscle group, but your main area of focus should be on increasing strength. When you get stronger, your muscles get bigger and stay that way, so you don't have to worry about shrinking back down in a couple of hours.


Greg Mooney is a Certified Personal Trainer and 2006 World Cup Strength Coach to the US Virgin Islands Skeleton Team.

Greg also runs Jungle Cat Training in Boulder, Colorado.

Email Greg at Gmoonfrog@yahoo.com

As I write this, the lead story on the CNN website is 'Shovels hit the ground': referring to a road resurfacing project in Maryland, the first to directly benefit from the Transportation Department's share of the $787 billion stimulus bill. That's really good news for the 60 people who got jobs and their families. But for the rest of us who aren't likely to earn a living digging ditches, we have to be a little more creative, a little more resourceful. In many cases, we have to change our whole game up. And with major change can come major stress.

Stress comes in all shapes & sizes; no longer just a catch-all phrase, we now know that it can directly and seriously impact our health – even shorten our life expectancies! More and more, current advances in medicine and brain science confirm this truth. Stress, anxiety, fear... when they persist as chronic emotional states cause real, measurable, and lasting damage to our physiologies. So before we can get our financial house in order, we have to make sure we have a solid, healthy foundation. That means relieving and reducing stress whenever and wherever possible. Check out WebMD's Stress Management Center for some great helpful resources.

Ok, let's say you've come to terms with the generalized national stress due to the economy. You've decided to pursue income opportunities on the Internet, you're starting to get psyched-up, but then--

The critics start in. These are the voices without and within that have a thousand reasons why you shouldn't bother, because you're just gonna fail anyway. "Don't take chances, don't risk it", the voices say. Just stay where you are. Change is bad.

There's a term for this kind of negativity that comes from the computer/hacker culture: FUD, an acronym standing for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. [For the geeky, or merely curious, you can learn a lot more about authentic (white hat) hacker history & lingo from Eric Raymond's Jargon File.]

In my experience, of all the obstacles to the entrepreneur, many of the toughest to overcome are staring us in the mirror. What I mean is that often people are their own worst enemies. How many times have you had an inspiration, a great idea for a new product or service, only to second-guess yourself or decide that your vision was "just a dream, just a fantasy?" Then the kicker comes weeks or months later, you're watching late-night TV and --- POW! -- somebody else is marketing your idea! This scenario has happened to me more than once.

More than an amusing anecdote, this kind of self-censorship has serious repercussions over the long haul. Compromise is a fact of life, and necessary within limits, but for too many of us, "settling" for a miserable job becomes an acceptable cop-out. This is especially true for smart, ambitious black folks and other people of color. When we obsess about "just getting by", when we spend all our time worrying about surviving, we cheat ourselves out of the real possibility of THRIVING. We must continually guard against such small-mindedness, whether in ourselves or in the dismissive attitudes of others (aka the "Crabs in a Bucket" syndrome). Otherwise we may suffer the consequences of a "Dream Deferred", as chillingly immortalized by Langston Hughes in his poem.

When the mountain seems too high to climb, take a break. Step away from the computer; turn off the television. Personally, I make it a habit to take a 20-30 minute walk outside every single day. (Unless the weather's so fierce that people are blowing sideways!) While I'm moving, I practice controlled, diaphragmatic, deep breathing techniques to relax. You don't need an expensive gym membership, or a fancy complicated machine. These simple exercises really, really work – for FREE. I come home energized, refreshed, and uplifted. Maintaining and improving my health is an investment that multiplies my more tangible assets. Make sure you invest in yourself.