5 common workout myths and what to do instead, according to the personal trainer who only eats 2 meals a day

Now, the stockbroker-turned-personal trainer and founder of The 2 Meal Day wants to iron out some more common fitness misconceptions — that could be making your workout less effective.

1. Stretching before a workout.

Possibly a controversial one, but Lowery insists that doing static stretching before a workout can actually do more harm than good, and make your muscles less efficient for your workout.

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Static stretches should, in fact, be done at the end of your workout, when your muscles are already warm, while your warm up should ideally consist of dynamic movements, activation and mobility.

Below, is an example of one of Lowery's favourite dynamic warm ups, which he said is ideal for kicking off your workout. He always warms up for a full 25 minutes before a hardcore session.

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2. The more exercise you do, the better.

"This mentality can lead to all sorts of problems," he said. "People don’t realise that in order for your body to adapt to any exercise stimulus you need to have adequate recovery."

Your rest days are just important as your training days, according to Lowery, especially if you are doing something like HIIT (high intensity interval training) which really challenges the nervous system.

This can end up stressing your body out even more than it already is, which can lead to weight gain, insomnia and damage to the immune system, he said.

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Lowery recommends three to four good sessions in the gym a week. "This is more than enough," he said, "all the while you should be walking/moving/stretching as much as possible."

3. Cardio for weight loss.

Eat real food, it's that si... @ max.lowery

"The number one factor in losing weight is your diet," said Lowery. This is something a number of high-profile personal trainers have echoed, including Victoria's Secret model trainer Justin Gelband, who told Business Insider: "85% percent of what you do is what you eat."

Lowery went on: "That being said, exercise should be used to complement a good diet. Cardio (aerobic exercise) is great for health reasons and you will burn calories while doing it. But your biggest concern when you're trying to lose weight is muscle loss."

He explained that if you lose fat and muscle along with it, you'll make it harder to keep the weight off in the long run simply because the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism is.

Instead, he said that anaerobic activities, such as weight training and sprinting, are the most effective for building lean muscle mass, which will increase your metabolism and decrease fat.

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4. Crunches for a 6-pack.

Yes, you heard right, doing countless stomach crunches won't necessarily get you ripped, according to Lowery.

"The biggest factor in getting a 6-pack is having a low enough body fat percentage so that you can actually see your abs. Everyone has abdominal muscles but if you have a layer of fat above them you will never see them," he said.

And Lowery's theory was recently backed up by science. A study concluded that it's not actually possible to target specific areas of the body for fat loss.

In an experiment carried out with two groups of mixed adults, one of which did targeted ab exercises five days a week for six weeks, the other focused on keeping a balanced "isocaloric diet." It found that doing the crunches alone did not have a significant impact on abdominal subcutaneous fat or any other measures of body composition.

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"The only way to decrease body fat is to make changes to your diet," Lowery said. "Once your body fat percentage is low enough, whilst crunches and sit ups may serve a purpose for activating your abdominal region, they are not very good for hypertrophy."

In order to build your abdominal muscles, you must train them the same way you would any other muscle, start to add some weight into the mix and use compound movements like squats, deadlifts and pull ups that take a lot of abdominal activation.

Here's one of Lowery's "ab activation" sequences.

Daily Ab Activation - 2 Meal Day - Max Lowery

5. You have to "destroy" yourself.

With the huge rise in popularity of HIIT classes, particularly in London, many have adopted the mindset that a workout is useless unless you feel "destroyed" at the end of it.

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But Lowery is among a number of PTs who have growing concerns over the short- and long-term effects on people who are not used to such high-intensity training — particularly those who sit at a desk all day — killing themselves at the gym.

Potential side effects from "overtraining" can include weight gain, insomnia and illness.

"There's a time and a place for pushing yourself really hard in a workout, but issues can arise when this happens in every session," Lowery said. "Sometimes your body will react badly to extra stress — if you haven’t slept enough the night before, if you haven’t eaten the right food all day, or if you are generally feeling stressed out at work.

"For the days where you don’t feel 100% you should do something much less strenuous — a brisk walk, a slow jog, swimming, or a stretching session would be much more beneficial, and it would mean you're less likely to overtrain."

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