The 20 Lies of Bodybuilding

1. Overtraining Makes you Bigger

False !!! This is one of the most dangerous myths of bodybuilding. 95% of professional bodybuilders will tell you that their biggest mistake was overtraining, and it probably happened when they were on steroids. Imagine how easy it is for someone who comes to the gym, and is not a professional, to overtrain. Too much training leads to excessive fatigue of muscles, which do not have time to heal, resulting in zero increases, possibly even losses. If you work the same muscle group too many times a week it will surely be negative. A muscle group worked to the intensity it needs, needs 5-10 days to recover.

Accept that the resting period is a part of the workout. You should spend outside the gym as many days as you spend in the gym.

2. To get big you have to eat a lot of calories.

The truth is that if you have a high-calorie diet you will become very fat, along with 30% of the world's population suffering from obesity. If you want to become big, without adding fat, then don't have such a technique; very few people have an extremely high metabolism, so that whatever they eat would not get fat.

Studies have shown that when high-calorie diets are followed, most of the weight gained (65%) is fat, 15% is intracellular fluid, and what remains is muscle. It seems that 25% of muscle growth comes from protein synthesis, the rest comes from the proliferation of satellite cells in muscle tissue.

Of all the factors that promote the accumulation of muscle mass, the prevention of catabolism (the destruction of muscle tissue) seems to be the most important. Adding of adipose tissue due to the large amounts of food ingested, leads to catabolism, and some hormonal disorders that promote catabolism.

So stay away from high-calorie diets, in the long run you will only get fat or obese.

3. The longer the training time, the better.

It is not necessary to do too many sets for a muscle group. It has been shown that a single correct set, with a weight that will lead the muscle to exhaustion, is sufficient to promote muscle growth.

This can be achieved through an energetic workout, with short breaks between sets. Another option is the supersets; the idea is to work the muscle as deep and as intensely as possible. Large breaks between sets relax the muscle and are not effective in muscle growth, they help increase strength. If you work properly it is useless to make 5 series for a group if after 3 series you have already achieved the desired effect.

4. You can become as great as a professional bodybuilder without taking steroids; it only takes longer.

Even though most of the high profile publications support the natural pathway and deny the use of high level steroids, all professional bodybuilders use anabolic steroids or other hormonal drugs to increase muscle mass. It is simply impossible to reach the size and definition they reach without the use of synthetic anabolic substances. Some sports supplement companies are trying to promote such an idea in order to increase their sales.

Of course, you don't have to understand that you either leave the gym or take steroids.

Through a well-planned workout, a well-developed diet and rest, anyone can change their body. You will not get into a professional bodybuilding circuit, but you will definitely look better.

5. If you follow a low fat diet, no matter the number of calories, you will not get fat.

If you eat more calories than you need you will get fat. It is true that if you eat a lot of fat you will get fat even faster, especially since 1 gram of fat has 9 kilocalories, compared to 4, which have carbohydrates and proteins.

Also, fats are metabolized differently, consuming less energy to be digested, and are easier to deposit. But high amounts of carbohydrates will also make you fat.

6. You don't have to be strong to be big.

For a number of reasons, people, even those with the same percentage of muscle mass, have different strength values. It is not known exactly why there are many hypotheses, from the muscular nerves to the types of muscle fibers.

And strength is a relative term. To get bigger, you have to work with heavier weights. Not bigger than the ones your colleague works with, but bigger than the ones you work with. You have to increase your strength compared to the strength you had 2-3 workouts in the past.

7. Training programs that work for professional bodybuilders are good for everyone.

It happens constantly in the gym. Someone who dreams to be one of the guys from the posters, asks the biggest and scariest guy in the room how to get to the desired dimensions. Most of the time the huge guy is either full of steroids or has a very good genetics. This doesn't automatically mean that he has the best training technique, or that what is good for him is good for you.

8. You can't build muscle with a low calorie diet.

It's a little harder, and it requires more work and concentration, but it is possible. The idea is that obesity in humans and animals is not necessarily correlated with a high calorie intake, nor is the accumulation of muscle mass 100% related to nutrients. Changing the percentage of fat and muscle mass is regulated by components of the nervous system and some endocrine hormones; this phenomenon is called nutritional partitioning.

For example, some drugs, such as Clenbuterol, increase muscle mass in cattle by 30% while decreasing the fat layer, although the amount of food remains the same. And there are other examples of such drugs (growth hormone, IGF-1, cortisol, ephedrine), which increase oxygen consumption at the expense of fat. And this is without changing the diet.

You can also combine different nutrients from natural sources with a specific training program to achieve similar effects.

9. You can't grow if you work out every single muscle group once a week.

If you work hard and work hard, it may take up to 10 days for your muscles to recover. So a week break between muscle groups is the ideal resting average for each of us.

10. You cannot grow if you train only 3 days a week.

It is true that most people who use steroids do more than 3 workouts per week. But for the rest, as long as all the muscle groups work in these 3 days, it is enough.

However, you should take extra care with your diet if you go to the gym only 3 days a week, because you risk getting fat.

11. The pauses between sets must be 45 seconds.

It is true if you want to improve your cardiovascular system, or if you want to lose weight. If you want to build muscle you need to allow enough time for rest (to accumulate lactic acid, to dissipate, and ATP levels to return to normal). To build muscle mass you have to lift as much weight as possible to work all the muscle fibers.

If the high weights are limited by the lactic acid in the muscles, it is as if you were trying to swim with iron shoes. When working with heavy weights allow 2-3 minutes between sets. Notice that I said "when"; that's because you can't work so hard all the time. Training cyclization is required. One training at maximum intensity per month is sufficient, and overtraining is also avoided.

12. Weight training makes you bigger; the aerobic defines you.

The predominant factor in defining and growing muscle is the intake of nutrients. If you consume less calories than you eat you will get bigger. Conversely, if you consume more calories than you eat, you will lose weight.

Cardio exercises strengthen the circulatory and respiratory system. If you are doing it constantly it will burn calories, and in the long run, it will lead to muscular definition. But weight training can do the same, and even better. Studies have shown that burning fat with exercises done at a moderate pace for more than 20 minutes is more effective.

Weight training promotes muscle growth; it burns calories even while we are resting and sleeping. Although we burn more calories during the aerobic workout, the average for 24 hours is in favor of those who practice bodybuilding, because they burn less calories constantly throughout the day.

13. You must use state-of-the-art equipment to gain muscle mass as much as possible.

Futuristic, complex devices, which use fancy angles, are usually less efficient than the classic dumbbells and barbells. The use of free weights, in complex movements such as squats, bench press or shoulder press, are the best exercises ever invented.

14. If you do hundreds of abs daily, you will finally get a narrow waist.

There is no reduction of the fat layer only in one area of the body. If you do hundreds and hundreds of abs you will develop the abdominal muscles, but they will still be covered in fat, because this does not help to lose weight. Nothing will get rid of body fat, but a control of nutrients and calories.

15. There are sports supplements on the market that are as strong as steroids, but safer.

The only products that are more effective than steroids are other steroids. Despite the advertisements made by some manufacturers and distributors of supplements, there is nothing to act like steroids. But supplements and nutrients can be extremely effective, especially if you have a poor diet.

Biochemically, individuals vary widely, each has a different set of genes, and if we add the diet that everyone follows, it is impossible to determine what will work for someone and what does not. Therefore, some supplements work more effectively for some, while others feel nothing. And for steroids it is the same. Some people do much better with them than the others. Food supplements have some beneficial characteristics (they do not have side effects and they are not illegal), but they will never bring you the benefits obtained with the help of steroids.

16. If you leave the gym, your muscles will turn into fat.

This myth is a very inept one. Muscles cannot turn into fat as lead cannot turn into gold. Muscle tissue is made up of living cells that interact with each other, and go through various metabolic stages. Fat tissue represents only bags for fat storage. For one of the two tissues to transform into the other is totally impossible..

If you leave the gym and workouts, I mean, if the muscles will no longer be stimulated by the weights, in a constant way, they will simply adapt to the new condition. In other words they will shrink. In the case of severe injuries, when the person is immobilized in the bed, the muscle may shrink faster than the skin around it, and this gives the appearance of flask, but this also remedies itself in time.

17. Someone with a great body knows a lot about bodybuilding and fitness.

Although many believe this, if someone has big arms and is well defined, that doesn't automatically qualify him as an expert. Unfortunately, in a society where appearances matter most, those who are well-made are regarded as guru in bodybuilding. Unfortunately, many of them, even professional bodybuilders, have no idea how they became like this.

Some are genetically gifted, and they use many bodybuilding-specific drugs, this is why they manage to look so effortless. So in the gym don't look after the biggest guy, and believe everything he says just because he's big. Sometimes the best tips can teached by someone who looks just like you. Although sometimes criticized, and in bodybuilding, as in all sports, the main organ that dictates performance is the brain. Everything goes from there. The rest are details!

18. All anabolic steroids are extremely toxic and dangerous.

Here's a borrowed question from Dan Duchaine's book, "Steroid Pocketbook": If we had in front a box with Danabol (a very popular steroid), a box of Lasix (a diuretic), a bottle of Valium, a supplement with potassium and a box of aspirin, and 100 pills were consumed at once, which of them wouldn't kill you? Most likely, Danabol won't do that.

It is not a pro steroid manifest, but the example above is an illustration of the stigma attached to steroids. Many believe it causes cancer, brain tumors, enlarge heart cells, and other far more grotesque effects. Perhaps some of these side effects are possible with some steroids. But not all steroids are the same. Testosterone patches have been used for decades, and help improve the lives of older people. And among the steroids used by bodybuilders there are quite a few with almost negligible side effects.

However, some steroids are quite dangerous, so those who want to use such substances must first be thoroughly documented. And it must be kept in mind that each person is unique, and if a friend tells you about a steroid that has no side effects because he tried it, that doesn't mean you will have the same results.

19. Carbs loading increases performance.

The traditional way of loading with carbs consists in the first phase in a strict diet, without carbs, to completely clear the glycogen reserves. Then comes a period of rest and loading with carbs. But studies have shown that such an approach is not necessarily. Those who have a balanced diet, with a high intake of complex carbohydrates, and are in good physical shape, can sustain a constant effort at maximum capacity, if they don't exceed one hour. For those who work more than an hour (cyclists, marathonist, etc.), they can benefit from the carbohydrate loading period, but here, the body's ability to convert fats into energy is more important when is subjected to a prolonged effort.

20. The large number of repetitions strengthens your muscles and defines you.

Although there is evidence that a large number of repetitions lead to better vascularization, this does not help strengthen or define muscles. If a totally sedentary person would start going to the gym, whether he does a large or normal number of repetitions, he will get a better tone, the same tone for both methods. The only way in which the high number of repetitions will define is by burning more calories.

5-8 repetitions with a fairly heavy weight, will strengthen the muscles, just that you must remove the fat to see how strong they really are.