Stop Believing This Crap: Debunking 5 Fitness Myths I Still Hear Every Day.

San Pedro personal trainer Andrew Mejia breaks down the 5 most annoying fitness myths he still hears at the gym. Stop wasting your time and start getting real results.

Let’s get one thing straight. The fitness world is drowning in bad information.

I hear it in the gym. I see it online. And honestly? I’m tired of it. People are working their asses off but spinning their wheels because they’re following advice that is straight-up wrong.

You’re hustling, but you’re not getting the results you deserve. And it’s probably not your fault. You’ve been fed a line of crap.

It’s time to cut through the noise. Here are 5 fitness myths I still hear every single day that we need to bury for good.

Myth #1: “Spot Reduction is a Thing.”

The Myth: You can lose belly fat by doing endless crunches or melt arm fat with tricep kickbacks.

The Truth: This is the king of all myths, and it refuses to die. You cannot target fat loss from a specific area of your body. Your body loses fat based on genetics and hormones, not which muscle you’re working. Doing a thousand sit-ups will build strong abs… that are still hidden under a layer of fat.

The Andrew Take: Stop wasting your time. You want to see your abs? Focus on your nutrition and overall fat loss. Build muscle everywhere with compound lifts and get your diet dialed in. The fat will come off where it comes off. Be patient and trust the process.

Myth #2: “Lifting Heavy Makes Women Bulky.”

The Myth: If women lift weights, especially heavy ones, they’ll instantly look like a bodybuilder.

The Truth: This is biologically incredibly difficult for most women. Women simply don’t have the same levels of testosterone as men to build massive amounts of muscle. What lifting heavy weights actually does is create a lean, toned, and metabolic powerhouse of a physique. It builds curves, not bulk. It strengthens your bones and boosts your confidence like nothing else.

The Andrew Take: Ladies, pick up the heavy weights. Stop with the 5lb pink dumbbells for 100 reps. Get strong. It won’t make you huge; it will make you a badass.

Myth #3: “You Need to Do Tons of Cardio to Lose Weight.”

The Myth: The key to weight loss is spending hours on the treadmill.

The Truth: While cardio is great for your heart health, it’s a terribly inefficient standalone strategy for fat loss. Your goal is to change your body composition, and nothing builds metabolism-revving muscle like strength training. Muscle is active tissue that burns calories just sitting there. Cardio doesn’t do that.

The Andrew Take: Stop grinding away on the elliptical for an hour. Your workout should be built on a foundation of strength training. Use cardio as a tool, not the entire toolbox. Focus on your diet first, lift weights second, and use cardio as the finishing touch.

Myth #4: “I Can Out-Train a Bad Diet.”

The Myth: You can eat whatever you want as long as you work out hard enough.

The Truth: This is the fastest way to frustration. You cannot outrun your fork. Period. Think about it: it takes 30 minutes of intense effort to burn off 300 calories. You can swallow 300 calories of junk food in 30 seconds. The math never, ever works in your favor.

The Andrew Take: Fitness is built in the gym, but fat loss happens in the kitchen. If your results aren’t matching your effort, your diet is the problem. End of story.

Myth #5: “No Pain, No Gain.”

The Myth: If you’re not sore the next day, your workout didn’t count.

The Truth: Soreness (DOMS) is not a indicator of a good workout. It’s just an indicator that you did something your body isn’t used to. You can have an incredibly effective session and not be sore. Chasing soreness often leads to overtraining and injury because people feel they need to annihilate themselves every time.

The Andrew Take: The real metric of a good workout is progressive overload—gradually lifting more weight, doing more reps, or getting better over time. Not how much you hobble the next day. Train smart, not just hard.The bottom line? Stop making things harder for yourself. Ditch the myths, focus on the fundamentals, and put your effort into what actually works.

This is how workouts should be done. We work with intelligence and intensity.

You’ve got this. Now let’s get to work.

- Andrew Mejia

Tired of guessing and ready for a plan that cuts through the BS? Apply for 1-on-1 Coaching with me. We’ll build a simple, powerful strategy based on what’s real, not on myths.