Brunos Fitness

Archive for the ‘Bodybuilding Myths’ Category

Some guys focus solely on pushing the weight in their sessions. This is because they think there is a strict correlation between the amount of weight lifted and an increase in muscular size… and for many guys, the size of muscles like the biceps and pectorals is the point of bodybuilding.

This is not always the case. The fact of the matter is that regardless of what you do in the gym, you can’t build more muscle tissue out of nothing. If you aren’t eating more than enough of the nutrients that your body needs to maintain itself and to build the new muscle tissue, you aren’t going to get bigger — no matter how heavy the weights you lift are. It’s that simple.

Now, contrary to the point above, others think that if size is their goal, then life should become a 24-hour buffet. They eat everything and anything in sight, in the hopes that it will help spark new muscle growth.

What these individuals need to realize is that, yes, they do require more calories, however, the body can only assimilate so many of those extra calories into lean muscle tissue. After that, the remainder will go toward fat mass. Your P-ratio is what determines the amount of surplus calories going to fat and the amount going toward lean muscle mass. Your P-ratio is partly influenced by genetic make-up — which is something you can’t change — but the changeable factors that affect are your workout program, your nutritional intake and the timing of your meals.

So if size is your goal, you need to make sure that you are eating enough to get growth in the first place, but not so much that with the additional muscle mass, you get a great deal of fat mass as well.

Some guys are so intently focused on their training that they want to be sure that frequent sessions in the bedroom are not going to have a negative impact on their sessions in the gym.

Generally speaking, having frequent sex won’t impact your weight-lifting performance. If anything, it should increase your workout performance since, once again, sex causes a release of the hormone testosterone, and the more testosterone one has circulating throughout the body, the more muscle tissue can be built.

It seems like when you walk through a gym these days, everyone is huddled around the free weights doing arms, while there is no one to be seen at the squat rack. Men often decide to forgo any leg training and just concentrate on their upper bodies. They figure that since they went for a run that morning or did some interval training on the bike the day before, they have already worked their legs enough.

The truth is that working your legs will indirectly help your upper body grow. Your leg muscles are incredibly large; when stimulated, they release a large amount of testosterone — the primary anabolic hormone responsible for muscle growth — throughout the body. Thus, you will benefit your upper body on days you don’t even work it out.

Also, having a strong lower body is the best basis for the rest of your training. Otherwise, it is like trying to build a house without a foundation — not very effective. So be sure you don’t pass up your leg training sessions any longer.

One of the key factors to getting stronger is rest. If you are going to the gym day in and day out, and pushing yourself to the max, you are likely not recovering from your workouts and not getting any stronger. It is when the body is resting that it can repair itself and rebuild so that it is stronger the next time around. If you work out again before your body has recovered, you will only break the muscle down further, causing you to become weaker rather than stronger.

Incorporating some easy or “off” days into your fitness program will give your body the time it needs to recover and will give you a psychological break. You will find that you are better able to stay motivated and you will greatly reduce your chances of overtraining and injury.

This is a very common notion among bodybuilders, who constantly ask fellow gym partners what kind of fitness program and diet tricks they use, thinking that if they do the same, they will see the same results.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Granted, it may be a very good program and you may see some results with it, but remember that you have a different physiological makeup than every other guy in the gym, and your body will respond to various training protocols in a different manner. So your best bet is to incorporate some aspects of this “workout God”’s regimen into your program, but play around with the techniques and figure out what works best for you.

You may simply need to reduce the number of reps or substitute one exercise for another in the program. The important thing is to come up with the plan that works best for you.

Do you think your metabolism knows what time it is? While your body does run according to a circadian rhythm, your metabolism does not shut down at night. You still need to provide your body with fuel to repair and rebuild while you sleep, and to prevent it from going into a catabolic state brought on by a long period of fasting. This is especially important if you work out later in the day.

After a workout, your body is crying for a good source of carbohydrates, so don’t skimp because you think eating at this time will make you gain fat.

It is important to make sure you are eating healthy foods later in the day — such as lean meat, healthy fats, plenty of vegetables, and even some complex carbohydrates if you are really active later in the day — to reduce your risk of adding unwanted body fat, but there is no need to avoid eating altogether.

We are constantly bombarded with ads for a wide variety of supplements. Some promise you a tight, ripped middle, while others ensure that you can pack on pounds of new muscle over the course of just a few weeks. There may be some benefits to a few of these supplements, but more often than not, your results won’t be much better than those you would get from a good training program combined with a well-planned out diet.

These are truly the two factors that lead to the greatest gains, so you should focus most of your energy on them rather than on finding the latest magic pill. Also, some supplements can have very harmful side effects (such as infertility, increased heart rate and nervous system problems) that should not be taken lightly. You are far better off achieving your results naturally; remember that your long-term health is not something you should risk.

Are you devoting an entire day of your workout program to biceps and triceps? Do you have a separate day for hamstrings and quads? What some guys don’t realize is that compound lifts work many muscles indirectly.

Take the bench press: If you perform this exercise on your “chest day,” you will also stimulate your triceps fairly heavily. This means that by carefully choosing your exercises, you can incorporate more muscle groups into every workout, which will provide better results in less time.

Keep in mind that you don’t always have to do very specific exercises to target certain smaller muscles; by simply working them indirectly, you will see improvements in your strength and size.