Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: Why Kids Fail to Launch & Surprising Exercise Myths

Episode Date: December 14, 2019

Next time you do something really embarrassing in front of other people – you will remember what I am going to tell you in this episode – and it will make you feel a lot better about whatever embarrassing thing you did. http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/family/embarrassment Then, we are going to look at the problems created by parents today who give too much and do too much for their kids. Richard Watts, author of Entitlemania: How Not to Spoil Your Kids & What to Do If You Have (http://amzn.to/2mRbVCP) reveals the consequences of parents over indulging their kids in the name of love. Also, everyone knows that you should stretch before you exercise to become flexible and prevent injury. Yet, according to science it is actually a bad idea. It’s one of the many exercise myths I explore with New York Times writer Gretchen Reynolds, author of The First 20 Minutes (http://amzn.to/2n1Y7pK). You’ll hear the science that explains how many things people believe about exercise, health and weight loss are just plain wrong. There is this thing called the paradox of choice. It basically means that the more choices you give someone the more likely they are to pick none. It’s important to understand and I’ll explain why. http://conversionxl.com/17-lesser-known-ways-to-persuade-people/# Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Something You Should Know, when you do something embarrassing, it feels horrible. We'll be your friend. I choose to be your parent. And as a parent, I'm going to have to do things you're not going to like. And I don't care. But I'm going to do it because I love you and I want to equip you for the days ahead.

Plus, if you want someone to do something, don't give them too many choices or they will likely choose nothing. And the myths of exercise. There are a million of them. Like you should stretch before you exercise. And in fact, exercise. There are a million of them. Like you should stretch before you exercise. And in fact, that's completely counterproductive. It will not make you more flexible and your athletic performance tends to decline if you stretch before you work out. All this today on Something You Should Know. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world,

looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly

about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hello. Welcome to this week's weekend edition of Something You Should Know. You know, a friend of mine said to me the other day, you have such an interesting mix of advertisers on your podcast. And we do, we have great advertisers who offer these very cool, unique products and services.

And we also have some of the big brand advertisers who advertise on this podcast. And most of them get great results with our audience because we have such a responsive audience and all the advertisers are vetted. So we know that you're being offered the real deal on everything. And if you have a business and you've ever thought about podcast advertising, I'm happy to talk to you. We are sold out some of the time, but not always. And if we can help you, be happy to work with you. Just send me an email to mike at somethingyoushouldknow.net. First up today, we're going to talk about the universal experience of doing something very, very embarrassing.

You're set to walk across the room to say hi, and on the way over you trip, your drink goes flying, you land on the floor, that kind of thing. That's embarrassing. And as bad as it is, it turns out it's not as bad as you think. When you show embarrassment, it acts like a physical apology to those watching, which immediately begins to smooth over the event and promotes group harmony. Across cultures around the world, people express embarrassment with exactly the same body language.

Averted gaze, head tip down, tight smile, hands touching face, and it says to others, don't worry, I mean no harm. Because embarrassment is a sign that you care about the way other people see you, it's experiencing it openly like that actually makes you more likable. And that is something you should know. Parenting today is so different than it was when I was a kid. A lot of kids today would have been considered spoiled rotten a generation or two ago because they have everything they want. They never have to fend for themselves. Mommy and daddy are always there to bail them out. And this has created a huge problem. Here to talk about this is Richard Watts. He is author of the book, How Not to Spoil Your Kids and What to Do If You Have.

Welcome, Richard. And so what is different today, and why is it different today? At some time, there was a paradigm shift, and spoiled kids usually, if you recall, were kids typically of money or privilege. Those are the ones that seem to be spoiled. They kind of got things. At some point, the baby boom generation, which is our generation, decided that our parents were not really spending enough time with us. They were not going to our football games. They were kind of letting us live our own lives. And somewhere they made the decision that it was not going to happen to their kids. And they were going to be these incredibly loving parents. And love translated to attention and attention to

dominating. And all of a sudden you've got kids that are basically friends and best friends with their parents. And what's wrong with that? Well, what happens is parents have got superior knowledge and having a best friend, they're not equal, and so the parent is usually in the process of clearing the road for the child. The child, you know, is certainly looking to live their life on their own and gain from their failures and experiences, and parents oftentimes steal those experiences away because they don't want to have those kids suffer, and they don't want to have those kids fail. And so they clear the road, being with them all the time to make sure that there's no downside. Yeah, well, and I think every parent can relate to

that. And who doesn't want the best for their child? But the consequences are what? Well, the consequences are that they really never gain their own personal life experience. A lot of, if you look back on typical life, much of what you gain in terms of knowledge and appreciation and success stems from failure. And if somebody's taking away or stealing or robbing you of your opportunity to really hit barriers, you really never get to identify what it is you like and what you don't like. Failure really tells you oftentimes exactly what it is you don't like in life, and you change direction. Do you think that parents who indulge their kids in the way you're

talking about know what they're doing is a problem, or is it just parenting to them? No, that's a great question. I think that's probably the greatest issue with regard to entitlement. And as I describe in Entitlemania, the real fault of this isn't just majority of the parents, it's 100% the parents. dominate, and they really don't understand what they're doing. They're loving their kids, and it feels good. And it feels good to have your kids call your best friend, and it feels good for dad to be involved in everything that the son or daughter is doing and mom the same. But there really is a lack of exposure of the kids being able to go out and really, really find their own way. So the parents really need to look at themselves and recognize that the problem is their own desire to avoid the bumps for their kids. And it's tough.

Being a parent is really a tough thing, and I think most people want to make it fun. Baby boomers' parents were much more detached, especially dads. They just, they were. And what is it about baby boomers who are now parents that, I understand you said that, you know, we wanted to do better by our kids, but isn't there something else going on here? I mean, why did the parents of baby boomers have such a fairly easy time

not getting so involved? I don't think we, they came from a lineage of a lot more struggle. I don't think we struggle right now as much as they used to. The typical pathway of a parent back, our parents right before the great generation, the great generation of World War II, they came out of a lot of struggle. It was incumbent on them to hurry up and get a job. There was a lot of people in the workforce. It was a laborious type of work for most people to get ahead, and they really did everything they could to pretty much just survive.

And their family, if you really think of the typical American vacation, used to be jumping into the station wagon and visiting the monuments around the United States with a whole load of kids screaming. But generally speaking, parents recognized that life was for them and that kids were supposed to be guests in their home, kind of old-fashioned, seen but not heard. And so they lived their lives independent. And I believe that the change was is that a lot of those kids that grew up began to look at their lives and were discontent for whatever reason.

They were on their own. They struggled. But they really did want to make it better, as most of us do. And that's the part that's so insidious, is they wanted to make it better for their own families and their own kids. And they turned that into assisting them on life's road and managing their lives, rather than just being there as a coach to be ready to weigh in on circumstances and issues as they come up. And so where is the line? The line probably is about parents making this statement to their kids and to themselves.

They need to be able to make the statement to their kids that I do not want to be your friend, that I choose to be your parent. And as a parent, I'm going to have to do things you're not going to like. And in that process, you may not like me and I don't care, but I'm going to do it because I love you, and I want to equip you for the days ahead. And when I leave the planet, I want to make sure that you're as equipped as I can get you, and that's going to mean you're going to have to learn to do things a great deal on your own and become resourceful. That's the line. And if you ask modern-day parents to go do that, say, I don't want to be your friend, I choose to be your parent, they lose their breath over the thought. Yeah, well, I can understand that. If that's the way

you've done it, how do you undo that? Yeah, meaning if you've done it with friendship and all of that... Yeah, yeah. How do you now unravel that? Well, you really do have to begin to check yourself in a little bit and begin to realize that at whatever level you're at, I'm not going to buy my daughter or son a new car at 16. That's, again, taking away their experience of driving the old beat-up car, fixing it, having to park it because it gets broken, and finally be very proud of it themselves because they accomplished this on their own rather than have no pride in what parents give them. If it's later on in life at 22 and 23, and they're back from school, if they're lucky enough to go to college, it's telling them no matter what you do, when you come back from college, you're living at

home in the summer, and then you're out, and you need to go get a job. And you'll find that most parents don't have the temerity to do that. And it sounds harsh, but if you really love your child, you really have to begin to do it at that stage, at every stage. And I can even take you all the way to 50 years old, children that are 50 years old. When you talk about parents that have some amount of wealth, and I'm talking even half a million dollars in a home or a million dollars in a home, those kids oftentimes are enabled by looking forward to and or being supported by the parents. There's a lot of parents that have money that are foregoing their own retirement to supplement some 50-year-old son or daughter that just can't make it for some reason. And again, when you find, and I've watched this many, many times, when the parents say,

you know, I've decided I'm going to give my money to charity, and I'm not going to have you inherit. It's time for you to move out and do what you need to do, it's amazing how resourceful those people get. Someone's got to put an ultimatum to it. I can imagine, though, I'm sure you can imagine, people, parents listening to you and going, you know, he's right, but my kid, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sure. And you can rationalize it, as I say in Entitlement in

the book, this is really almost a codependency like alcoholism. You know, you've got the person who's the alcoholic who is doing whatever it is they're doing, and they're hiding bottles and doing all this, and then you have the enabler that's running around and throwing the bottles out thinking that does good and basically living their entire life around that alcoholic. If you go to the Betty Ford Clinic, which is one of the more famous ones, they actually have a program that talks about this. And as a parent, the application is almost direct, and that is that the parent is very similarly an enabler, and the kids are no different. And you always, if you listen to

the parents of alcoholics or the spouses of alcoholics, you know, they'll say, you know, I know he drinks a little bit too much, but he's a really nice guy, you know, those sorts of things. Well, that doesn't change the dynamic that he's an alcoholic or she's an alcoholic. And similarly with kids, you know, these kids are yearning to find that self-pride of accomplishing on their own something that mom and dad don't kind of sit back and say, wow, we did a great job, didn't we? You know, they're looking for that self-pride. And one of the misnomers here is parents believe that pride is transferable. That if I was proud for having accomplished going to college, if I pay for my kid to go to college and or help him get into a career or babysit him

through the age of 30, he's going to be just as proud that I helped him get where he was as I was struggling to get there. It's just not the case. But this is not just a parenting issue. We live in a society where when it comes to kids, everyone's a winner, everybody gets a trophy, everybody gets to play, we don't keep score. You know, there is that lack of competition that everybody just needs to get along. Yes, the participation trophy concept. Right. And when I speak, that's one of the discussions that just comes up over and over again. And frankly, the majority of parents think that that participation trophy thing is not a good idea. Most of them really don't like that. And the interesting thing is that

when you drill down to some of that, it's because their particular kids are winners, and they don't want anybody sharing with their kid in the winner's circle. So for all the kids to get a trophy and no recognition for the one who actually won is very, very difficult for them to watch and to be part of. So it's a really convoluted situation. I think, too, that parents think, well, you know, when my kid gets to be a teenager, he's going to rebel and want to be out on his own and experiment with drugs. And, you know, I'd rather he, if he's going to smoke pot, I'd rather do it at home than out with his friends and get arrested. You know the thought process there.

Sure. And that still doesn't equip them for what's coming ahead. You know, parents feel that doing it close to them and around them and being around everything, if they're going to party and drink, let it be at my house. You know, there's a lot of parents that I know that just absolutely will not allow alcohol and whatnot to be anywhere near their home, and there's consequences for their kids. And the kids still go out and get it, but they go out and get it knowing that they're adverse to their parents' position. And that's very important. As you recall growing up and I recall, I got away with a lot

of stuff. I'm not saying I was the perfect kid. I did a lot of stuff. But I knew there were going to be consequences when I got caught. And so maybe part of it was not getting caught. But when I did, I fully understood what was coming. Kids nowadays, a lot of times, don't understand the consequences. And one thing leads to another. And here you're in Southern California, as am I. There are high schools around here with wonderful wealthy families where kids have gone from drinking to various kinds of drugs and now on heroin. And I know some of the greatest families you could ever imagine

with kids that were straight-A students in high school that now from that sense of really no consequences, they've just gone on and they want life to feel good all the time. They don't know and don't want to have any strife in their life because it's been eradicated through their entire youth. Wow. Well, that's well said and food for thought. I think every parent needs to hear that, especially today when we hear about kids just living at home and not being able to fill out a job application and mom taking them to create a life for them, knowing that we are not going to be here as a parent forever. That's probably the hardest part is to recognize what is it you want it to look like for them when you're gone. And I'm nowhere near that yet, but I've thought of that and verbalized that for years. And I actually say it to my kids. It's one of the tools that I use, and they hate me talking about that. But I say, look, you need to be equipped. And part of this journey is for you

to learn all of these things, because I want to know that by the time I'm gone, there's things in your life that make you happy. There's things you know you love to do, things you know you hate to do, and you've got all these experiences to help you have a tool belt of going through into the future. Well, not every parent is going to agree with you, and I think there is this sense that times have changed. But I wonder that this whole notion of entitlement and kids not having to do all that much like they used to is not preparing them for the future, and perhaps that is a disservice.

Richard Watts has been my guest. His book is called Entitlemania, How Not to Spoil Your Kids and What to Do If You Have, and you will find a link to that book at Amazon in the show notes. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again.

And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.

Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation.

And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show.

There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the topic of exercise, diet, and weight loss, people believe all sorts of things. And a lot of what people believe is, frankly, baloney. It's unproven, worthless, and sometimes it's even dangerous. If you go into any gym and eavesdrop, you'll hear people spout all kinds of advice on exercise and diet, but in many cases, people really don't know what they're talking about.

One person who does know what she's talking about on this topic is Gretchen Reynolds. She is a writer on the subject of exercise and health for the New York Times, and she's author of a book called The First 20 Minutes. Thanks for coming on, Gretchen, and let me ask you to start by talking about exercise myths. I mean, how do we know what's fact from fiction? What's really interesting in exercise science now is that a lot of the myths are actually being studied, and when they are studied, it turns out that they are myths, that they're not correct. And, for instance, the idea that you have to, say, run an hour to get actual health benefits is just wrong.

In fact, the best science shows that the curve in terms of benefits from exercise is really steep. You get the most benefits in about the first 20 minutes. In terms of sitting on a couch or getting up and moving, you will get most of the health benefits in the first 20 minutes of moving. You will have less risk of heart disease. You will have less risk of diabetes. Your brain will be healthier. You will have less risk of heart disease. You will have less risk of diabetes. Your brain will be healthier. You will live longer. All those things are pretty well proven. And you don't have to do a lot.

You just have to do something. Right. Well, but here's the thing. A lot of times people, and I've called people on this who have written books or articles where they talk about, you know, all you have to do is 20 minutes. But the person on the cover is usually somebody who's in the gym 18 hours a week and has got the perfect body. The assumption being that if you just work out 20 minutes three times a week, you'll have a body like that. And that's a lie. It is a lie, particularly if you didn't choose the right parents, because a lot of anyone's response to exercise, as well as to diet, is genetic.

And so people have to know going in that their response to an exercise program is going to be completely unique. Some people will respond hugely to 20 minutes of exercise. Some will show very few benefits, but they will be getting the benefits. And what I would hope people will learn is that you get health benefits even if you don't necessarily lose 50 pounds. So people may need to reset their expectations of exercise. What it will do for you is make you healthier. There's simply no doubt about that at all. What it may not do is make you skinny. Well, I've heard that, you know, the people who, I'm trying to think of the guy, it was a diet book he wrote, but he was basically saying that exercise makes you hungry, and when you're hungry, you eat more. So the idea that by exercising you'll lose weight is a flawed argument because the exercise will make you eat more. There actually is quite a bit of truth to

that. And it's particularly true for women, unfortunately, which I consider scientific evidence that life is really unfair. What exercise tends to do in women and many men, and this is especially true, actually, of moderate exercise, walking. It tends to increase the level of certain hormones in your body that do, in fact, increase appetite. So anyone who thinks that you can walk for 30 minutes and eat as much as you want is fooling themselves. Many people do start an exercise program, and they do sometimes gain weight. You have to use your common sense. If you start an exercise program and you want to lose weight,

then you have to cut calories also. And you can figure you're burning more calories. You can't immediately replace them with a candy bar. If you don't eat the candy bar and you walk, eventually you will lose weight, but you have to pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you think you're a lot hungrier, you may not be. So cut back on the calories, walk a little more, and eventually most of the weight that you want to lose will come off. Well, let's go back to finish what you were talking about, that it's in the first 20 minutes, which is coincidentally the title of your book.

But it doesn't work if you do 20 minutes on New Year's Day and then wait for the next New Year's Day. So I imagine it's more than just 20 minutes a year. It's 20 minutes a week, every three weeks. 20 minutes a day would be wonderful. What science is showing pretty definitively, and this just reinforces our own common sense knowledge is any movement is better than no movement. The human body is genetically programmed to need movement. And so if you can get up and walk around the block and that's all you can do, then do that. If you can get up and walk around the block twice, you will get additional benefits, both in terms of health and fitness. And if you have bigger goals, you will get more able to run.

You will be able to eventually race. The fundamental lesson is any exercise is better than none. If you can do 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, that appears to be a real sweet spot in terms of getting the most benefits from your buck. Walk for 30 minutes and you will dramatically reduce your risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses, and you will increase your lifespan. The evidence is pretty clear about all of that. What about, there has been some emphasis and some pretty interesting research on strength training, which is not walking around the block, it's lifting up heavy things. So what do you have to say about that? Strength training is extremely important,

particularly for those of us who are no longer young. People will start losing muscle mass, about 1% a year, certainly by the time we're in our 40s. And the only way to slow that process is to lift weights because it does actually cause changes within the cells, particularly within muscle tissue, that can lead to the creation of more muscle tissue. So you will either lose less of your muscle, or if you're particularly lucky and diligent, you will add some muscle. And that has a lot of benefits. Physiologically, among its many benefits, it tends to store some of the blood sugar that would otherwise circulate in your body.

You want it in your muscles. It's healthy there. It's not healthy other places. It's also actually it burns more fat than other tissues, and that isn't a fact. So if you have more muscle mass, you will burn more calories, and you will be physiologically much healthier. And it's another instance where it doesn't have to be a lot, and it doesn't have to be complicated.

I now do push-ups every morning, which I never used to do, and it makes a huge difference in upper body strength. Do 20 push-ups, and you will be much stronger and healthier than if you don't. I remember hearing some, I interviewed someone years ago, but I always remembered this, that a huge percentage of people

who are in nursing homes are in there not because they're sick, but because they've lost the ability to get out of the chair, to just, you know, they don't have any muscle left and they can't unscrew the peanut butter jar. And they did some studies where they just increased a little resistance training to

like 80-year-olds and it made all the difference in the world. Yes, it does. I mean, the main reason that people lose their independence is because of sarcopenia, which is a loss of muscle mass. And if you can't get up out of a chair, you can't live on your own. So what a lot of scientists have told me, have mentioned to me is if you do only one exercise, do squats because squats are a really good way to build power in your legs and they allow you essentially to build the muscles that let you get up out of a chair. You don't have to do squats holding weights. Just squat down until your thighs are virtually parallel with the ground. Stand up again straight.

Do that 20 times, and you will have done a decent weight workout. Well, you know, it's interesting, and I haven't really thought about it until I started listening to this and talking to you, that typically I think people say, oh, you know, I'm going to exercise, and the motive is to lose weight, when in fact that may not be the result, and the fact that it's not the result discourages people because that's why they thought they were exercising, and they don't really see that, quote, fitness benefit or the you'll live longer benefit or the heart disease benefit,

and then they give up because they thought they were going to lose weight. There actually have been a number of very good and rather depressing studies showing exactly that, that people had anticipated losing a considerable amount of weight before they started an exercise program, and they did not. And although their blood pressure was now healthier, their cholesterol levels were healthier, they had less cardiac risk factors, they still quit exercising because they hadn't gotten skinnier. So one of the messages of exercise science today is probably that we need to rethink what we expect from exercise and remind people that what you get, if you do nothing else, if you only exercise and eat as much as you want,

you will still be healthier. And if you want to use it to lose weight, then exercise and control your diet. And if you do both, which are two things we know we need to be doing, you will see results. But a lot of the results you won't see, and they're the most important. Exercise can, in fact, add to someone's lifespan. And that's remarkable, and it's wonderful, and I hope people will learn to look to exercise for health benefits. Gretchen Reynolds is a writer for the New York Times. She writes about exercise and health and science, and she is the author of the book, The First 20 Minutes.

Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover.

We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. Join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week we deliver four fun filled shows.

In Don't Blame Me, we tackle our listeners' dilemmas with hilariously honest advice. Then we have But Am I Wrong, which is for the listeners that didn't take our advice. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our listener poll results from But Am I Wrong. And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, Gretchen, do you believe that there are people who believe that exercise offers some sort of immunity to bad eating?

Yes. And it doesn't. Exercise will burn calories, and your body doesn't really care what the calories are. It will burn them. It won't burn more than you. It will burn only a certain number. If you take in lots and lots of fat and sugar, you will almost certainly not burn all those calories,

and then you will store them. It doesn't matter how much you exercise. So you have to look. We know this. People just want it to be easier than this. Calories in, calories out. Exercise will increase the number of calories that you burn. It will not increase

them a huge amount unless you're running marathons. So if you start exercising, continue to control your diet, look at what you're eating, know that if you eat nothing but fatty foods, then exercise will not completely undo the heart damage from that or the heart risks from that. Most of what science is showing us now are things that our grandparents knew, which is you need to move more and you need to eat less and then you will be healthier. Are there any real common myths about exercise that you still hear people talk about that we haven't discussed so far that come up a lot that you're still, you know, it's like fingernails on a blackboard to you?

Stretching. Stretching is a deeply ingrained myth. The best science shows you do not need to stretch before you work out, and in fact probably should not. And I don't know about you, but I was taught in PE class that I had to stretch, had to get down on the ground and touch my toes and hold that pose for 30 seconds. And in fact, that's completely counterproductive. It will not make you more flexible.

It seems to cause in most people a neurological response that actually tightens the muscles. So you are slightly more likely to wind up hurting yourself if you've done that. And performance, your athletic performance, if that matters, tends to decline if you stretch before you work out. If you want to stretch afterwards, go right ahead. But for most people, flexibility is primarily genetic. You can change it a little bit, but not a whole lot. It's important to stretch as you get to be like me, somewhat older, to maintain some of your joint range of motion.

But the idea that you have to stretch before or even after every workout just seems to be wrong. You would have a hard time finding a personal trainer that believes that. I mean, they all think you've got to warm up and stretch this and stretch that before you do anything. Well, warming up is somewhat different. I mean, the best science actually suggests that the right warm-up is what is known as a dynamic warm-up, meaning that you literally warm up the muscles. And the best way to do that is by doing, say, a really easy version of what you're about to do. If you're going to run, then jog or even walk for five minutes. Hop in place for a little bit. Warm up the muscles by

moving them. And what you want to do then is also get enough range of motion in whichever joints you're going to be using if you're a tennis player, that means you move your arms a little bit so that you're getting a little bit of additional range of motion in the shoulder joint, but you do not do that by static stretching, meaning stretching and holding the pose. The best science shows that dynamic warm-ups are certainly the best way to avoid injury and improve performance. Don't touch your toes.

Well, I know a lot of trainers, because I've had them, will say, you know, before we work out, hit the treadmill for 10 minutes to warm up. Is that valid? That appears to be. There actually is good science showing that literally warming up the muscles, raising the heat within them, does make them a little bit looser, does make it a little easier to move them, to get them working well with the tendons, which is what you want to make sure that your joints are safe.

And that's really the point of warming up, is to try and reduce your injury risk, and your injury is usually going to be in the joint. So if you can do things to literally warm up the tissues around your joints, which you do by moving them, then you're probably, that's the best warm-up you could do, not static stretching. Any other big myths that jump out at you? That's got to be the biggest, I imagine.

That's certainly one of the most controversial. Another one, and this is one that many people may not think of in terms of exercise science, but an ongoing myth is that we are born with a certain number of brain cells and we'll never make more. Well, that's not true. We do make more brain cells throughout our life, and you'll double the number of brain cells you make if you exercise. That's a really well-documented scientific finding now,

and it's probably the main reason I keep running. Well, it's a good reason. Even if it's not true, you might as well believe it. But in this case, the science is really remarkable, what they've shown in both people and animals in terms of what exercise will do for your brain health. And it's particularly important in that it builds brain cells in your memory center. It actually has been found to double the rate of neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells in the parts of your brain that deal with memory and learning.

And for those of us who are, again, no longer 20, it's really important to have healthy memory centers. And exercise does seem to give you that. Well, as I said, when we started this discussion, you walk into any gym and you will hear all kinds of things about what's good for you and not good for you and what exercises you should do or shouldn't do. And it's good to get some of the science behind what is the truth. Gretchen Reynolds has been my guest. She writes for the New York Times, and she is author of the book, The First 20 Minutes. You'll find a link to that book in the show notes.

Have you heard of the paradox of choice? It basically says that the more choices you give someone, the more options they have, the more likely they are to choose none of them. And to test this, researchers set up a jam tasting stall in a supermarket. And sometimes they offered six varieties of jam, and other times they offered 24 varieties of jam. And then the tasters were then offered a coupon to buy jam at a discount. While more choices attracted more customers to come and look, very few of them actually bought the jam. The display that offered fewer choices made more sales.

Specifically, when there were 24 jams to taste, only 3% of the tasters bought any jam. But when there were only 6 jams to taste, 30% of the tasters bought the jam. And that is something you should know. We seem to be a long way away from a million reviews on Apple Podcasts. I'm not sure we're going to get there in my lifetime, but you can help. Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know.

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