The overwhelming majority of weight gain misconceptions are handed down via “gym talk” and so-called experts who have no idea how the body works. Myths consume time and cause irritation, and if accepted at face value, may actually slow your development in the gym. When it comes to exercise and weight gain, don’t trust everything you hear at the gym; do your own study.
Simple, fundamental concepts like progressive overload, variable rep frequency, and high intensity exercises apply to all forms of weight and muscle development. Let’s examine some of the most prevalent weight gain misconceptions.
While high repetitions help burn fat, low repetitions help build muscle.
Muscle growth requires progressive stress. That is, you must do more repetitions than you did in your last session for that activity. If you do the same number of repetitions at each exercise, and if the weight on the bar does not vary, nothing will change on you. You must develop strength.
Definition is defined by two characteristics: large muscular mass and a low body fat percentage. To lose body fat, you must decrease your calorie intake; although high repetition exercise will burn some calories, wouldn’t it be preferable to burn them off with a quick walk? Even better, utilize the low repetitions to develop muscle, which will boost your metabolism and cause you to burn more calories (less fat).
Vegetarians are unable to develop muscle.
Indeed, they can! Strength training combined with soy protein isolate supplementation has been proven to increase solid bodyweight. Studies have demonstrated that a meat-free diet does not affect athletic performance and that those who strength train and consume solely soy protein isolate as a protein source may increase lean muscle mass.
Strength training will enhance your manly appearance.
If you are not intending to bulk up via strength training, you will not. Muscle gain is a lengthy, difficult, and sluggish process. Your strength-training regimen, along with a high-quality diet, will dictate how much muscle you gain. Additionally, you need extra food to bulk up. Women do not generate enough testosterone to support the same level of muscle development as males.
By exercising, you can consume anything you want.
Of course, you can eat anything you want if you’re not concerned about your appearance. Exercise does not entitle you to eat as many calories as you desire. Although exercise burns more calories than not exercising, you must still balance your energy intake and expenditure.
If you take a week off, you will revert to your previous state.
Taking a week or two off sometimes will have no adverse effect on your training. By taking this time off every eight to ten weeks in between strength training cycles, you develop the habit of rejuvenating yourself and healing any little nagging ailments. By taking longer layoffs, you do not lose muscle fibers but just volume; whatever size lost will be soon regained.
By increasing my protein intake, I can bulk up my muscles.
Building muscular mass requires two components: increasing stress to excite muscles beyond their typical resistance levels and consuming more calories than you can burn. With all the recent buzz around high protein diets and the fact that muscle is composed of protein, it’s tempting to think that protein is the optimal fuel for muscle growth. However, muscles operate on calories, which should be obtained mostly from carbs.
If I’m not hurting after a workout, I’m not working hard enough.
Soreness after a workout is not a reliable indicator of how effective the exercise or strength training session was for you. The more fit you are for a certain activity, the less pain you will feel afterward. When you modify an exercise, add a heavier weight, or do a few more repetitions, you increase the stress on that body component, which results in discomfort.
Resistance exercise does not promote fat loss.
Nothing could be more erroneous. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue that contributes to a metabolic rate increase. The faster our metabolism, the more fat we can burn. Cardio exercise burns calories while we exercise but offers nothing more to aid in fat reduction later.
Weight training not only helps us burn calories when we exercise, but also while we are at rest. Weight training promotes muscle development, and the more lean muscle mass we have, the more fat we burn via an enhanced and increased metabolism.
There is no gain without suffering.
This is one persistent misconception. Pain is your body’s way of communicating with you that something is amiss. If you have significant discomfort during an exercise, stop and rest. To build muscle and endurance, you may need to experience some discomfort, but this is not real pain.
Steroids will cause me to become enormously large.
This is not true; strength exercise and proper diet will result in muscular growth. Taking steroids in the absence of exercise will not result in muscle gain.
The majority of steroids promote muscle development by improving recuperation, while some enhance strength, allowing for more stress to be placed on a muscle. Nothing will happen without food to develop muscle and exercise to activate it. The majority of weight gain associated with the use of some steroids is due to water retention, not muscle.
Strength training will have no effect on your heart.
Wrong!! Strength exercise combined with brief rest intervals can elevate your heart rate for over 100 beats per minute. For instance, completing a set of breathing squats ensures that your heart works overtime and that your whole cardiovascular system receives an excellent overall body workout.
Any weightlifting exercise that lasts at least 20 minutes is beneficial for the heart and the muscles involved.
I can build muscle while losing weight.
Wrong. Only a few exceptionally talented individuals with superior genetics are capable of increasing muscle growth without increasing body fat. However, the typical hard gainer must first maximize their muscle growth and then reduce their body fat % to attain the ideal form.
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