There are still guys who talk about “turning fat into muscle” even though this is a biological impossibility. It’s just one of the lingering misconceptions and mistakes that can spell the difference between a success workout and a waste of time.

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Concentrating all your activity on the gym
Your best bet for living long and staying lean is to have a generally active lifestyle. So find ways to increase the rate at which you burn energy: walking the dog, chasing your kids around, eschewing the lift for the stairs. It all adds up.

Killer workouts, axing kilojoules
You want a torso like Brad Pitt’s in time for your holiday in the Seychelles, so you pound away on the weights machines and hit the circuits while trying to subsist on protein bars and energy drinks that glow in the dark. That’s crazy: if your body detects a shortage of nutrition, its metabolism slows down. Feed it regularly, starting early. Work out moderately and get plenty of fluids. Watch the results.

Aiming high, burning out
Scenerio: you had flu, dropped out of gym and into the pub. You piled on some pounds, then rebounded into the weights room like a rather wobbly cannon ball. You were dismayed at how your biceps had shrunk and your bench-pressing power had decreased. Mortified, you overtrained, got hurt and after three weeks you dropped out again. Sound familiar? Again, the trick here is to stay realistic. Find a long-term goal, like running the Comrades marathon. Find a moderate monthly goal that sets you on that path and start tomorrow morning. Trying to run a 20km race after not running for six weeks is just asking for trouble.

Not balancing your workout
If you spend all your time doing super-circuits or spinning, to the exclusion of all else, your body – and mind - will miss out on the benefits of combining your workouts. Similarly, if you just do yoga and no cardiovascular training, you’ll be supple and at one with everything, but you won’t be training your heart to pump like an F1 engine. (William Smook)

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