Most Common Muscle Building Myths That Might Shock Some People

When it comes to muscle building, false or misleading information seems to be everywhere. Everyone seems to be an expert on the benefits of weight lifting, foods that instantly make you shredded and the best training routines, without any proof in sight. Myths are constantly being created over night – and they’re so hard to destroy afterwards! No matter how much scientific research and collective experience advances, some false information keep on clinging around the gym. So let’s do a good old-fashioned reality check and bust some of the most common muscle building myths of modern times. Myth no. 1: “Taking time to rest will lead to muscle loss“ On the contrary, it can be very helpful for maintaining the muscle building momentum. Recovery is vital for the body to continue making progress and even bigger muscle gains, so after you take a week off every 8-10 weeks you’ll actually come back to the gym stronger and refreshed. And don’t worry, it takes around 2-3 weeks of total inactivity for the body to start breaking down muscle tissue. Even if that happens, you’ll be able to gain muscle mass back rather quickly. Myth no. 2: “High reps are better for losing fat and low reps are better for building muscle” The truth is, if you want to achieve bigger muscle growth, you need to overload the muscles by gradually increasing the weight you work with. Therefore, performing more reps at a progressively higher weight builds more muscle, which in turn keeps the metabolism high. On the other hand, performing low reps has nothing to do with better muscle definition. Great tone and definition gains are achieved by having constant muscle development in addition to a very low level of bodyfat. Reduce the intake of calories in order to burn more fat. Related: Why High Reps Do Not “Tone” Your Muscles Myth no. 3: “You can gain muscle mass and lose fat at the same time“ This might be possible for a short period of time while you’re a beginner in bodybuilding, but soon you’ll end up choosing one of the two. When you’re just getting into working out, almost anything you do is going to have a big effect on your body, so you could be gaining a decent amount of muscle and losing fat at the same time. But this won’t last forever. It’s a question of simple biology – your body needs a calorie surplus to build muscle and a calorie deficit to burn fat. So how exactly do you plan on doing both simultaneously? The only option may be calorie cycling, which means you need to overeat on training days to gain muscle and then eat too little on rest days to lose fat. This actually works, but the effects come a bit slower slower. In other words, while you can do both at the same time, you can’t do both at the same rate. Read : Why It’s Not Impossible to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle At The Same Time by Christian Finn Therefore, if you want the best results and you want it fast enough, just stick to the traditional way: bulk up until you have the desired muscle mass, then start cutting until you achieve the desired tone and definition. Myth no. 4: “It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you train every day“ It actually matters, and how! How can anyone still believe this is beyond imagination. Investing some time into planning the best diet for your current bodybuilding goals is the very foundation of your future achievements. Make sure you are consuming the correct amount of calories, stay away from simple sugars and junk food and include high-quality nutrients in your meals. Building muscle mass while keeping fat away is not as easy as it sounds – start by keeping a track of your calorie intake. Myth no. 5: “You can’t burn fat with weightlifting“ You might have heard a lot of times that cardio is the ultimate fat burner, but sadly this effect stops the very minute you get off the treadmill. A number of new studies show that weightlifting shows way better results than cardio in terms of burning fat. Increase your weight load and build more muscle. That way you’ll keep your body burning fat all day long. According to one study, adding two sessions of weightlifting per week alone can reduce the body fat by three percent! And this is the best part: your body will burn a lot of calories in the difficult process of rebuilding the muscle tissue you break down during an intense workout, which means that you’ll keep on burning calories long after the training. Myth no. 6: “Delayed onset muscle soreness means you had a good workout“ Delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, is the pain and stiffness felt in muscles after intense exercise, caused by the inflammation of muscles and surrounding connective tissues. It is most pronounced when you introduce a new activity (or an increased intensity to an old one) to your training routine and can last from sever hours to several days, depending on your level of experience, and almost everyone connects it to having a really great workout, by sheer logic. Well, it turns out you ca

Most Common Muscle Building Myths That Might Shock Some People

When it comes to muscle building, false or misleading information seems to be everywhere. Everyone seems to be an expert on the benefits of weight lifting, foods that instantly make you shredded and the best training routines, without any proof in sight. Myths are constantly being created over night – and they’re so hard to destroy afterwards!

No matter how much scientific research and collective experience advances, some false information keep on clinging around the gym.

So let’s do a good old-fashioned reality check and bust some of the most common muscle building myths of modern times.

Myth no. 1: “Taking time to rest will lead to muscle loss“

On the contrary, it can be very helpful for maintaining the muscle building momentum. Recovery is vital for the body to continue making progress and even bigger muscle gains, so after you take a week off every 8-10 weeks you’ll actually come back to the gym stronger and refreshed.

And don’t worry, it takes around 2-3 weeks of total inactivity for the body to start breaking down muscle tissue. Even if that happens, you’ll be able to gain muscle mass back rather quickly.

Myth no. 2: “High reps are better for losing fat and low reps are better for building muscle”

The truth is, if you want to achieve bigger muscle growth, you need to overload the muscles by gradually increasing the weight you work with.

Therefore, performing more reps at a progressively higher weight builds more muscle, which in turn keeps the metabolism high. On the other hand, performing low reps has nothing to do with better muscle definition.

Great tone and definition gains are achieved by having constant muscle development in addition to a very low level of bodyfat. Reduce the intake of calories in order to burn more fat.

Related: Why High Reps Do Not “Tone” Your Muscles

Myth no. 3: “You can gain muscle mass and lose fat at the same time“

This might be possible for a short period of time while you’re a beginner in bodybuilding, but soon you’ll end up choosing one of the two. When you’re just getting into working out, almost anything you do is going to have a big effect on your body, so you could be gaining a decent amount of muscle and losing fat at the same time.

But this won’t last forever. It’s a question of simple biology – your body needs a calorie surplus to build muscle and a calorie deficit to burn fat.

So how exactly do you plan on doing both simultaneously? The only option may be calorie cycling, which means you need to overeat on training days to gain muscle and then eat too little on rest days to lose fat.

This actually works, but the effects come a bit slower slower. In other words, while you can do both at the same time, you can’t do both at the same rate. Read : Why It’s Not Impossible to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle At The Same Time by Christian Finn

Therefore, if you want the best results and you want it fast enough, just stick to the traditional way: bulk up until you have the desired muscle mass, then start cutting until you achieve the desired tone and definition.

Myth no. 4: “It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you train every day“

It actually matters, and how! How can anyone still believe this is beyond imagination. Investing some time into planning the best diet for your current bodybuilding goals is the very foundation of your future achievements.

Make sure you are consuming the correct amount of calories, stay away from simple sugars and junk food and include high-quality nutrients in your meals. Building muscle mass while keeping fat away is not as easy as it sounds – start by keeping a track of your calorie intake.

Myth no. 5: “You can’t burn fat with weightlifting“

You might have heard a lot of times that cardio is the ultimate fat burner, but sadly this effect stops the very minute you get off the treadmill. A number of new studies show that weightlifting shows way better results than cardio in terms of burning fat.

Increase your weight load and build more muscle. That way you’ll keep your body burning fat all day long. According to one study, adding two sessions of weightlifting per week alone can reduce the body fat by three percent!

And this is the best part: your body will burn a lot of calories in the difficult process of rebuilding the muscle tissue you break down during an intense workout, which means that you’ll keep on burning calories long after the training.

Myth no. 6: “Delayed onset muscle soreness means you had a good workout“

Delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, is the pain and stiffness felt in muscles after intense exercise, caused by the inflammation of muscles and surrounding connective tissues.

It is most pronounced when you introduce a new activity (or an increased intensity to an old one) to your training routine and can last from sever hours to several days, depending on your level of experience, and almost everyone connects it to having a really great workout, by sheer logic.

Well, it turns out you can actually trick your body into getting muscle soreness by doing a lot of reps or focusing on forced negatives, for example, and that means DOMS are not a good measure of the success of your workout.

If you want to get that warm and fuzzy feeling of great achievement, why not focus on giving your muscles a decent progressive overload instead of simply striving to feel pain and soreness.

Myth no. 7: “Testosterone isn’t important“

Now, this is the most important part of this list. Testosterone is the primary hormonal driver of muscle growth, and nobody can deny that. The more testosterone you have, the more muscle you will be able to gain through your workout.

How does it work?

Testosterone directly support the growth of muscles by binding to receptors on the surface of muscle cells and boosting the synthesis of protein, and by increasing the levels of growth hormone (also responsible for boosts in the synthesis of protein) that the body releases in response to exercise, thereby improving the way your muscles adapt to the training.

For these reasons, a lot of pro bodybuilders take anabolic-androgenic ster*ids (AAS), which are the synthetic counterparts of the testosterone you’re body produces naturally. Yet, as we all know, anabolics are not the safest option, producing loads of negative side effects to your health, so you might want to stay away from all that.

There are still natural ways to boost your testosterone production, be it by consuming certain good quality supplements or by making some adjustments to your diet, like eliminating sugar and including more healthy fats, zinc and vitamin D.