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The Truth About Bodybuilding Myths

By: famoustrainer You might disagree, but hear me out on this; the vast majority
of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from
"gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the
body's workings.

Myths that lead to wasted time, frustration and if are taken
blindly as truth, can really set back your progress in the gym.
Don't believe everything you hear when it comes to exercise
and weight gain, do the research yourself.

Lets take a look at some of the most common weight gain
myths:

High repetitions burn fat while low repetitions build muscle.

Progressive overload is needed to make muscles bigger.
Meaning that you need to perform more reps than you did for
your last workout for that particular exercise.

"If you perform the same amount of reps at each workout
nothing will change on you" also
"if the weight doesn't changes on the bar nothing will change
on you, you need to become stronger"

Definition has two characteristics, muscle size and a low
incidence of body fat. To reduce body fat you will have to
reduce your calories; the high repetition exercise will burn
some calories, but wouldn't it be better to fast walk to burn
these off?

Better still; use the low reps to build muscle, which will
elevate your metabolism and burn more calories (less fat).

Vegetarians can't build muscle.

Yes they can! Strength training with supplementation of soy
Protein Isolate has shown to increase solid bodyweight.
Studies have shown that athletic performance is not impaired
by following a meat free diet, and people strength training
and consuming only soy protein isolate as a protein source
were able to gain lean muscle mass.

Strength Training will make you look masculine.

If it is not you're intention to bulk up from strength training you
won't. Putting on muscle is a long hard slow process. Your
strength-training regime coupled with quality food will
determine how much you will bulk up.

To bulk up you also require more food. Women don't produce
enough testosterone to allow for muscular growth as large as
men.

By working out you can eat what ever you want to.

Of course you can eat whatever you want, if you don't care
how you want to look. Working out does not give you an open
license to consume as many calories as you want.

Although you will burn more calories if you workout than
someone who doesn't, you still need to balance your energy
intake with you energy expenditure.

If you take a week off you will lose most of your gains.

Taking one or two weeks off occasionally will not harm your
training. By taking this time off every eight to ten weeks in
between strength training cycles it has the habit of refreshing
you and to heal those small niggling injuries.

By having longer layoffs you do not actually lose muscle
fibres, just volume through not training; any size loss will be
quickly re-gained.

By eating more protein I can build bigger muscles.

Building muscle mass involves two things, progressive
overload to stimulate muscles beyond their normal levels of
resistance and eating more calories than you can burn off.

With all the hype about high protein diets lately and because
muscle is made largely of protein, it's easy to believe that
protein is the best fuel for building muscle. However muscles
work on calories that should predominately be derived from
carbohydrates.

If I'm not sore after a workout, I didn't work out hard enough.

Post workout soreness is not an indication of how good the
exercise or strength-training session was for you. The fitter
you are at a certain activity, the less soreness you will
experience after.

As soon as you change an exercise, use a heavier weight or
do a few more reps you place extra stress on that body part
and this will cause soreness.

Resistance training doesn't burn fat.

Nothing could not be further from the truth. Muscle is a
metabolically active tissue and has a role in increasing the
metabolism. The faster metabolism we have the quicker we
can burn fat. Cardio exercise enables us to burn calories
whilst exercising but does little else for fat loss afterwards.

Weight training enables us to burn calories whilst exercising
but also helps us to burn calories whilst at rest. Weight
training encourages muscle growth and the more lean
muscle mass we possess, the more fat we burn though an
increased and elevated metabolism.

No pain no gain.

This is one myth that hangs on and on. Pain is your body
signalling that something is wrong. If you feel real pain during
a workout, stop your workout and rest. To develop muscle
and increase endurance you may need to have a slight level
of discomfort, but that's not actual pain.

Taking steroids will make me huge.

Not true, strength training and correct nutrition will grow
muscle. Taking steroids without training will not make you
muscular. Most steroids allow faster muscle growth through
greater recovery, while others help increase strength which
allows for greater stress to be put onto a muscle.

Without food to build the muscle or training to stimulate it
nothing will happen. Most of the weight gain seen
with the use of some steroids is due to water retention and is
not actual muscle.

Strength training won't work your heart.

Wrong! Strength training with short rest periods will increase
your heartbeat well over a hundred beats per minute.

For example, performing a set of breathing squats and you
can be guaranteed that your heart will be working overtime
and that your entire cardiovascular system will be given a
great overall body workout.

Any intensive weightlifting routine that lasts for 20 minutes or
more is a great workout for your heart and the muscles
involved.

I can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Wrong. Only a few gifted people with superb genetics and on
steroids can increase muscle size while not putting on body
fat. But for the average hard gainer, they have to increase
their muscle mass to its maximum potential and then cut
down their body fat percentage to achieve the desired shape.

In conclusion, simple basic principles that apply to all weight
and muscle gain such as progressive overload, variable
frequency of reps and high intensity workouts are the way to
go.

Article Source: http://www.lifeweightloss.com

Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit www.maximumfitness.com right now for your 'free' muscle building e-course.

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