The Truth About Bodybuilding Myths
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.
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