10 Myths About Bodybuilding

1.Supplements Are Necessary for Bodybuilding
Most people think that supplements are necessary for body building as many professional body builders take supplements but it's not true.Introducing supplements will only make a 10% difference at best, if your traning, nutrition and lifestyle are operating on the optimal end of the spectrum.Supplements work in synergy with traning, nutrition and sleep habits. The only thing those supplements advertisements will deliver is a lighter wallet.

Powders are nothing more than crushed up food and are loaded with artificial flavoring, preservatives, and lots of chemicals. Shakes may assist you in reaching your goal calories but don't kid yourself into believing that they will have the same anabolic effect as food. Don't let any supplement ad convince you otherwise.Preservatives, flavors and sugar basically turns your insides into a toxic waste dump.It's a choice you can take supplements if you want but you certainly don't have to.

2. You should alternate between low intensity phases and high intensity phases
Your muscles only gets bigger as a result of applying most fundamental principal progressive overload. When a muscle is subjected to a degree of unaccustomed stress and effort, muscle adapts to the added stress by growing larger. Remember that your muscles will only enlarge if you give them sufficient reason to. Ask yourself "How will your muscles grow if you reduce the overload for a low intensity phase?" No new muscle can be built because there is no overload.If you are training light you're wasting your time and body's resources. If the intensity is decreased for a number of days, strength and muscle mass gains will deteriorate very rapidly. If you're going to rest then rest; If you're going to train hard train hard.
Many magzines tells that progressive overload is as simple as doing more sets, more reps and more weight, nevertheless, it's partly true. If doing more sets was the answer, then high volume workouts, found in bodybuilding magazines, would be the key, and you would probably already be massive and ripped. Doing more reps is definately out of question, because every lady who lifted their pink colored weights with high reps would be muscular. And simply lifting more weight is not the answer because I know guys who can lift a lot of weight a few times and they are not the bigger guys.

3.If you're not getting bigger blame it on your genetics
The fact is we cannot choose our parents. Blaming your genetics is an excuse for the lazy. The genetics are not the problem- the problem is you! but ,if you're really genetic cursed, you'll always have to work a little harder to keep up to par. By training smarter and harder you can overcome most obstacle and conceal your shortcomings.

4.If you don't see results after few years take steroids
If you want to get bigger, you must give your muscles a reason to grow. Most people have heard this but they aren't aware about the second part of the equation - recovery. Your muscle gains are 100% responsible for overloading them with more weight and reps, but as intensity increases over the years so does your need for more rest.
Certainly, taking steroids will help you but at the expense of health risks like cancer, impotence, hair loss and heart disease etc. Steroids increase your hormone production above normal levels, they allow you to be sloppy with your recovery, diet and train carelessly and still make significant gains. Taking drugs will cure your problem because you'll be able to train more often and recover quicker - but why? would you rather not just take more rest days to ensure recovery? would you not just train smarter and a little bit harder instead of taking steroids?

5.I'm Traning to Sculpt, Tone, Shape and Define
Most people belive that they can literally shape or define a muscle, however, it's not true. Your muscles have an origin and insertion point, influenced by your genetics, and those factors will determine how a muscle is shaped.
There is no such thing as toning a fat arm. You either get rid of the fat and make it more defined or you build muscle and make it bigger. Your body can do one of four things - gain or lose fat and gain or lose muscle. The shape of your muscle is determined by your genetic makeup. When you work a muscle, any muscle, it operates on the "all-or-nothing" principal, meaning that each muscle fibre recruited to do a lift.

6.High Reps Equal Getting Cut and Low Reps Equal Mass

Muscle cuts are a reflection of two features on the body: pure muscle size and the low levels of body fat. If you want to build massive muscles get ready to apply the fundamental principal of progressive overload. And if you want to get cut and ripped be prepared to drop your body fat levels. Your muscles are either growing, shrinking or staying the same. If you want your muscle to grow simly exose it to progressive overload.


7.You Must Train to Failure for Best Results

Training to failure means going to the point in a set where you are physically incapable of going just one more rep is preached as the most promised rule to make continual muscle gains. Your body's primary function in life is to survive it will adapt only to the point where your body has sufficient defense to whatever element it's exposed.
Your muscles are designed to respond and to adopt to stress. Force them to do extra work and they adapt by getting bigger. Once your muscles perform more work than your previous workout your mission is accomplished. You have achieved progressive overload and it is time to move on to the next muscle group. There is no honor in continuing a Nazi torture session for another 45 minutes on the same muscle after it has already surpassed its previous work threshold. This leads to wasted energy that could be utilized growing muscle and result in a delayed recovery.

8.Train Instinctively and "Listen to Your Body"

Do competitive long distance athletes train without their stopwatch? Do swimmers work out without measuring the distance and time of each interval? Of course not. So why would someone trying to build muscle favor an ineffective and unproven tool that can lead you astray? Building muscle is based on improving the intensity of the workout progressively in each session. So why complicate things by following this 'inner compass' that has no idea of the difference between 9 reps with 225 lbs in 30 seconds and 13 reps with 185 reps in 45 seconds? Aside from listening to your body and hearing your mind say stop, can you really decipher which was more intense?


9. Getting a Pump is Necessary for Muscular Size

The muscle pump is described as when you put your muscles under an extended period of constant tension. As your muscles stretch and contract they become gorged with blood, making them feel tighter and fuller.Getting a muscle pump isn't necessary for muscle growth. Doing 100 reps with a light rep will create a huge pump, but will this make your muscle grow? of course not! Distance runners get a pump in their legs when they sprint up-hill.Do they get big muscle? No!
The main problem with training for the pump is that it leads to muscular fatigue and not muscular overload. Muscular fatigue is when you lift moderate weights for higher reps and you can not complete the set because of the burning sensation caused from the lactic acid buildup which results from a lack of oxygen to the muscle. If you get a good pump then it's okay but it's not at all necessary for muscle growth. Don't neglect the fact that you are taxing and depleting your central nervous system, hormonal system and immune system.


10.Yesterday Was Chest Day, Today Is Leg Day and Tomorrow is Arm Day

Splitting up a routine is fine and has some benefits but it is also the fastest way to over-train and burn out. Remember that you don't get stronger in the gym - you get stronger and bigger when you go home, rest, sleep, eat and are fully recovered. To super compensate from your previous workout your muscles aren't the only things that must experience a full recovery.