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 in the gym when it comes to
exercise and weight gain, do the research yourself.
Simple, basic principles apply
to all weight and muscle gain such as progressive overload,
variable frequency of reps and high intensity workouts.
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.
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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
of protein, it’s easy to believe that protein is the best
fuel for building muscle, however muscles work on calories which
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 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.
Gary is the author of several ebooks, including "Maximum
Weight Loss in Ten Weeks" - the complete ebook and time-saving
solution for burning away unwanted fat, and "Maximum Weight
Gain in Ten Weeks" - easy-to-use and follow techniques
that serve as a guide to muscle growth without having to "live
in the gym".
Visit Gary’s website at http://www.maximumfitness.com/
