al audi
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Stay/get back in shape...Vol: Motivation
- Thread in 'General' Thread starter Started by mastermeatwad,
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al audi
Banned
- 29,810
- 4,562
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2009
al audi
Banned
- 29,810
- 4,562
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2009
1 -- You can get as big as a pro bodybuilder. without taking steroids; it just takes longer.
Despite what many of the magazines say, all professional bodybuilders use either steroids or steroids in combination with other growth-enhancing drugs. Withoutmanipulating hormones, it just isn't possible to get that degree of muscularity, the paper-thin skin, and the continuing ability to pack on mass, despitesometimes having poor workout habits and relative ignorance of the principles involved that many pro bodybuilders have. Many supplement distributors, in orderto sell their products, would have you believe otherwise.
Still, that's no reason to give up. By using state-of-the-art training principles, consuming a nutrient-rich diet, and by getting proper amounts of rest,almost every person can make incredible changes in his or her physique. The competitive bodybuilder circuit may not be in your future, but building the kind ofphysique that gains you respect is certainly achievable, as are self-respect and robust health.
2 -- In order to get really big, you have to eat a super-high-calorie diet.
Well, that's true; you'll get really big if you eat a super high-calorie diet, but you'll look like the Michelin Man's fraternal twin. However,if you want to get big, lean-tissue wise, then super-high-calorie diets are probably not for you unless you are one of those very few people withmetabolicrates so fast you can burn off these calories instead of depositing them as fat. Unfortunately, studies show that, in most people, about 65% of thenew tissue gains brought about by high-calorie diets consists of fat! Of the remaining 35%, approximately 15% consists of increased intracellular fluid volume,leaving a very modest percentage attributable to increased lean muscle mass.
According to Dr Scott Connelly (MM2K, Spring 1992, p. 21), only about 20% to 25% of increased muscle growth stems from increased protein synthesis. The rest ofthe muscle growth is directly attributable to increased proliferation of the satellite cells in the basal lamina of muscle tissue, and dietary energy(calories) is not a key factor in the differentiation of these cells into new myofibres (muscle cells).
Of all factors determining muscle growth, prevention of protein breakdown (anti-catabolism) seems to be the most relevant, but adding adipose [fat] tissuethrough constant overfeeding can actually increase muscle pro- teolysis (breakdown). Furthermore, additional adipose mass can radically alter hormone balanceswhich are responsible for controlling protein breakdown in muscle. Insulin balance, for one, which partially controls anti-catabolism in the body, is impairedby consistent overfeeding. So much for the eat-big-to-get-big philosophy!
Stay away from the super-high calorie diets unless you're a genetic freak, or you're woefully lean and don't mind putting on fat [or you'reusing appropriate pharmaceutical supplements].
3 -- If you eat a low-fat diet, it doesn't matter how many calories you take in, you won't gain any fat.
The bottom line is, if you exceed your energy requirements, you'll gradually get fatter and fatter. It's true that eating a diet rich in fat will packon the pounds quicker for a variety of reasons, the most significant being that a gram of fat has nine calories as opposed to the four calories per gram thatcarbohydrates and proteins carry. Fat is also metabolized differently in the body. It takes a lesser amount of calories to assimilate the energy in ingestedfat than it does to assimilate an equal (weight wise) amount of carbohydrates. Consequently, more fat calories get stored than carbohydrate calories. However,the gross intake of carbohydrates, as facilitated by many of the weight-gain powders, will make you fat very quickly.
4 -- The more you work out, the more you'll grow.
No, no no. This is one of the most damaging myths that ever reared its ugly head. 95% of the pros will tell you that the biggest bodybuilding mistake they evermade was to over-train--and this happened even when they were taking steroids. Imagine how easy it is for the natural athlete to overtrain! When you train yourmuscles too often for them to heal, the end-result is zero growth and perhaps even losses. Working out every day, if you're truly using the proper amountof intensity, will lead to gross overtraining. A body part, worked properly, ie. worked to complete, total muscular failure that recruited as many musclefibers as physiologically possible, can take 5-10 days to heal.
To take it a step further, even working a different body part in the next few days might constitute overtraining. If you truly work your quads to absolutefiber-tearing failure, doing another power workout the next day that entails heavy bench-presses or deadlifts is going to, in all probability, inhibit gains.After a serious leg workout, your whole system mobilizes to heal and recover from the blow you've dealt it. How, then, can the body be expected to healfrom an equally brutal workout the next day? It can't, at least not without using some drugs to help deal with the catabolic processes going on in yourbody [and even they're usually not enough .]
Learn to accept rest as a valuable part of your workout. You should probably spend as many days out of the gym as you do in it.
5 -- The longer you work out, the better.
It just isn't necessary to do 20-30 sets for a body part, or even 10 sets like many 'experts' would have you believe. In fact, research has shownthat it's possible to completely fatigue a muscle in one set, provided that that set taxes a muscle completely, ie. incorporates as many muscle fibers aspossible and takes them to the point of ischemic rigour where, rather than contract and relax, the muscle fibers freeze up, sort of like a microscopic versionof rigor mortis. Any further contraction causes microscopic tearing. Hypertrophy is just one adaption to this kind of stress and it's naturally the kindmost bodybuilders are interested in.
This kind of intensity can usually be achieved by doing drop or break-down sets where you rep out, lower the weight, and continue doing reps until you eithercan't do another rep or you've run out of weight. It can also be achieved by doing your maximum number of reps on a particular exercise: by acombination of will, tenacity, and short rest periods, you complete ten more reps. You achieve the short rest periods by locking out the weight-bearing jointin question without putting the weight down. In other words, completely surpass your normal pain and energy thresholds.
If you can truly work your muscle to the point described, it will afford you little, if any, benefit to do another set (Westcott, 1986). The exception would bethe body parts that are so big that they have distinct geographical areas, like the back, which obviously has an upper, middle and lower part. The chest mightalso fall into this category, as it has a distinct upper and lower part, each with different insertion points.
6 -- You don't have to be strong to be big
For a variety of reasons, people, even those with an equal amount of muscle mass, vary in strength enormously. It might have something to do withfast-twitch/slow-twitch muscle ratios, or it might have something to do with the efficiency of nerve pathways or even limb length and the resultant torque. Butit is still a relative term. To get bigger muscles, you have to lift heavier weight, and you, not the guy next door, have to become stronger -- stronger thanyou were. Increasing muscle strength in the natural athlete, except in a very few, rare instances, requires that the tension applied to muscle fibers be high.If the tension applied to muscle fibers are light, maximal growth will not occur (Lieber, 1992).
7 -- The training programmes that work best for pro bodybuilders are best for everyone.
You see it happen every day in gyms across the country. Some bodybuilding neophyte will walk up to a guy who looks like he's an escaped attraction fromJurassic Park and ask him how he trains. The biggest guy in the gym likely got that way from either taking a tremendous amount of drugs and/or by beinggenetically pre-dispositioned to get big. Follow a horse home and you'll find horse parents. The guy in your gym who is best bodybuilder is the guy who hasmade the most progress and done the most to his physique using natural techniques. He may still be a pencil neck, but he may have put on 40 pounds [19kg] oflean body mass to get where he is, and that, in all probability, took some know-how. That person probably doesn't overtrain, keeps his sets down to aminimum, and uses great form and concentration on the eccentric (negative) portion of each exercise repetition.
Many pros spend hours and hours doing innumerable sets--so many it would far surpass the average person's recuperative abilities. If average peoplefollowed the routines of average pro bodybuilders, they would, in effect, start to whittle down what muscle mass they did have or, at best, make only a tinybit of progress after a couple of years.
8 -- You can't build muscle on a sub-maintenance calorie intake diet.
It may be a little harder, and it may require a little bit more know-how and a little bit more conscientious effort, but it can be done. The fact is, the obesestate in humans and animals is not universally correlated with absolute levels of caloric intake and neither is the accrual of lean body mass. The ability torealize changes in lean/fat ratios is regulated by components of the automatic nervous system working in concert with several endocrine hormones; this iscalled nutrient partitioning. For example, certain beta-agonist drugs like Clenbuterol increase meat production in cattle over 30% while simultaneouslydiminishing bodyfat without increasing the amount or composition of their feed. Other drugs, including growth hormone, certain oestrogens, cortisol, ephedrine,and IGF-1 are all examples of re-partitioning agents. All increase oxygen consumption at the expense of fat storage--independent of energy intake!
Drugs are not the only way to do this, however. It's true that a significant component of this mechanism is genetically linked, but specific nutrients, inspecific amounts, when combined with an effective training programme, can markedly improve the lean/fat ratio of adult humans. MET-Rx is one such nutrientre-partitioning agent, and several companies are trying to duplicate its successes [warning: one of the authors of this article has a significant financialstake in Substrate Technologies, the makers of MET-Rx].
9 -- You can't grow if you only work each body part once a week.
If you work out -- work out intensely-- then it can take 5-10 days for the muscles to heal. Although the following should be taken with a grain of salt whendetermining your own exercise frequency, a study in the May 1993 issue of the Journal of Physiology revealed it can take weeks for muscles to recuperate froman intense workout. The study involved a group of men and women who had worked their forearms to the max. All of the subjects said they were sore two daysafter exercising, and the soreness was gone by the seventh day, and the swelling was gone by the ninth day. After six weeks, the subjects had only gained backhalf the strength they had before the original exercise! By no means are we advocating that you wait two months between workouts, but we are trying to provethe point that it takes muscles longer to heal than what you might have previously thought. For some people, especially natural bodybuilders, waiting a weekbetween body part workouts might be just what the doctor ordered for size and strength gains!
10 -- You can't make gains if. you only train with weights three days a week.
Although you probably couldn't find a single steroid-assisted athlete who trains only three days a week [well, I was, and I made fantastic gains!],there's absolutely no reason why a three-day-a-week routine couldn't work for many natural athletes. As long as your routine attacked the whole bodyand you worked to failure on each set, you could easily experience great gains on this sort of routine. However, you need to pay even more attention to yourdiet if you only train three days a week, especially if your job involves little or no physical activity, and you like to spend your idle time eating. Ignorethose who say three-day-a-week bodybuilders are only 'recreational lifters'. Think quality and not quantity.
11 -- You should only rest 45 seconds in between sets.
That's true if you're trying to improve cardiovascular health or lose some bodyfat. But in order to build muscle, you need to allowenough time for the muscle to recuperate fully (ie. let the lactic acid buildup in your muscles dissipate and ATP levels build back up). In order to makemuscles grow, you have to lift the heaviest weight possible, thereby allowing the maximum number of muscle fibers to be recruited. If the amount of weight youlift is being limited by the amount of lactic acid left over from the previous set, you're only testing your ability to battle the effects of lactic acid.In other words, you're trying to swim across a pool while wearing concrete overshoes. When training heavy, take [at least!] two and three minutes betweenyour sets. Notice I said, "when training heavy." The truth is, you can't train heavy all the time. Periodization calls for cycling heavy workoutswith less intense training sessions in an effort to keep the body from becoming overtrained. (See 'Periodization' by Brad Jeffreys on p. 85 of theFeb/March 1993 issue of MM2K)
12 -- You have to use fancy weightlifting equipment in order to make the best gains.
Futuristic-looking, complex machinery designed to give your muscles the 'ultimate workout' is typically less effective than good-oldbarbells and dumbbells. Using simple free weights (barbells and dumbbells) on basic multi-joint exercises, like the squat, bench press, shoulder press, anddeadlift, is still the most effective means of resistance exercise ever invented. Scientific research has shown that many exercise machines lack the propereccentric component of an exercise that's necessary to stimulate muscle tissue to remodel (grow). (See the article titled 'Research Confirms thatBodybuilders Should Pay Heavy Attention to Negative Reps' by Bill Phillips on p.18 of the Feb/March issue of MM2K)
13 -- Weight training makes you big; aerobic exercise cuts you up.
Manipulations in your nutrient intake are the main factor in getting cut up, and how you do it doesn't matter. If your daily caloric expenditure exceedsyour daily caloric intake on a consistent basis, you will lose fat and get more cut.
Aerobic exercise is generally meant to improve cardiovascular efficiency, but if you do it long enough, you will burn up calories and in the long run drop thefat. However, weightlifting can do the same thing, only better. Studies have shown that the body burns far more efficiently if exercise is performed at amoderate pace for periods longer than 20 minutes. (It generally takes that long for the glucose in the bloodstream to be 'burned up', causing the bodyto dip into glycogen reserves for its energy) Once the glycogen reserves are used up, the body must metabolize fatty acids for energy. That equate to lostbodyfat.
In the long run, bodybuilding is more efficient than aerobics for burning up calories. Let me explain--if researchers were to undertake a study of twinswhereby one twin performed daily aerobics and the other practiced a bodybuilding programme where the end result was increased lean body mass, the bodybuildingtwin would ultimately be a more efficient fat burner than his aerobic twin. Why? Well, by adding lean body mass, that person's metabolic requirements arehigher--muscle uses energy even while it is not being used. The aerobic twin might use more calories during the time period of exercise itself, but theweight-lifting twin would use a higher amount during rest time, leading to a higher net 24-hour expenditure. The weight lifter burns fat just sitting there.
14 -- You can completely reshape a muscle by doing isolation exercises.
You can't limit growth to only one area of a muscle. Larry Scott, for whom the 'biceps peaking' Scott curl was named, had tremendousbiceps, but he didn't have much of a peak. The shape of your biceps, or for that matter, any muscle, is determined by your genetic makeup. When you work amuscle, any muscle, it works on the all-or-nothing principle, meaning that each muscle fiber recruited to do a lift -- along the entire length of that muscle-- is contracted fully. Why would a certain number of them, like the ones in the middle of the biceps, suddenly start to grow differently or at a faster ratethan its partners? If anything, the muscles that are closest to the insertion points are the most prone to mechanical stress, and you don't see them getany bigger than the rest of the muscle. If they did, everyone would have proportions like Popeye.
This is true of any muscle, but you're probably thinking, what about quads? I know that when I do hack squats with my feet together, it tends to give memore sweep in my legs. Sure it does, but the quadriceps are made up of four different main muscles, and doing hacks with your feet together forces the vastuslateralis muscles on the outside of the leg to work harder; consequently, they grow proportionately along their entire length and give the outer quads moresweep.
As further evidence, take a look at a picture of any young professional bodybuilder before he was developed enough to become a pro. He will have virtually thesame structural lines as he does today. All that has changed is that his muscles are now bigger.
15 -- If you get a pump , you're working the muscles adequately to ensure muscular hypertrophy, or if your muscles are burning, that means you arepromoting muscle growth.
A pump, despite what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about it "feeling better than coming", is nothing more than the muscle becomingengorged with blood from capillary action. It can be achieved easily by curling a soup can fifty times. It by no means equates to the muscular intensity neededto promote growth. The same is true of the coveted 'burn' that Hollywood muscleheads advise the public to 'go for'. A burn is simply anaccumulation of lactic acid, a by-product of chemical respiration. You can get a burn by peddling a bicycle or simply extending your arm straight out andmoving it in tiny circles [or sitting in a burning fireplace!]. It does not necessarily mean you are promoting muscle growth. For hypertrophy to occur, youhave to subject the muscles to high levels of tension, and high tension levels are best induced by heavy weights.
16 -- If you do hundreds of sit-ups a day, you will eventually achieve a narrow, washboard-type midsection.
There is no such thing as spot-reduction. Doing thousands and thousands of sit-ups will give you tight abdominal muscles, but they will do nothing to rid yourmidsection of fat. Thigh adductor and abductor movements will give women's thighs more firmness, but they will do nothing to rid the area of fat, or whatis commonly [and erroneously] called cellulite. Nothing will rid the body of fat, unless it is a carefully-orchestrated reduction in your daily energy intake;in other words, if you burn more calories than you ingest (or do that in conjunction with a nutrient partitioning agent. See #
17 -- Training like a powerlifter --deadlifts, heavy squats, bench presses--will make your physique look blocky.
Blockiness, like baldness or a flat chest, is a genetic trait. If you were born blocky, then powerlifting will simply make you a bigger blocky person. The onlyway to offset a blocky appearance is to give special emphasis to the lats, the outer muscles of the thighs, and to a fat-reducing diet which will keep themidsection as narrow as possible. With these modifications, you will give your body the illusion of a more "aerodynamic" appearance. The truth is,powerlifting exercises are excellent for bodybuilding.
18 -- High repetitions make your muscles harder and more cut up.
Although there is some evidence to suggest that high repetitions might induce some extra capillary intrusion into a muscle, they will do nothing to make themuscle harder or more cut up. If a completely sedentary person began weightlifting, using either low reps or high reps, he or she would experience a rapidincrease in tonus, the degree of muscular contraction that the muscle maintains even when that muscle is relaxed, but that would happen regardless of reprange. The only way that high repetitions would make a muscle more cut up is if, by doing a higher number of reps, your body as a whole was in negative energybalance, and you were burning more calories than you were ingesting. The truth is, heavy weights, lifted for 5-8 reps per set, can build rock-hard muscles. Youjust have to get the fat off them to see how "hard" they are.
19 -- Instinctive training is the best way to promote gains.
If bodybuilders followed their instincts, they'd go home and pop open a Bud [much prefer Toohey's Red myself!]. Instinctive training is a wonderfulcatch-phrase, and it might even work for drug-assisted athletes since the very act of opening up a Bud would probably induce muscular growth in them. However,in a natural bodybuilder, the approach to long-term, consistent gains in muscular mass has to be, shall we say, a bit more scientific. Research resultsconducted by exercise physiologists recommend a systematic approach such as the one encompassed by periodization where the bodybuilder, through a period ofseveral weeks, lifts ever-increasing pre-set percentages of a one-rep lift. This heavy period is also periodically staggered with a lighter training phase'cycle'. Ultimately, the percentages increase, the maximum one-rep lifts increase, and lean body mass increases. There is nothing instinctive about it.
20 -- Women need to train differently than men.
On a microscopic level, there is virtually no difference between the muscle tissue of men and the muscle tissue of women. Men and women have different levelsof the same hormones, and that's what is responsible for the difference in the amount of muscle a man can typically put on and the amount of muscle a womancan typically gain. There is absolutely no reason why either should train differently than the other sex, provided they have the same goals. The onlydifference in training might be as a result of cultural, sexual preferences. A woman might desire to develop her glutes a little more so she looks better in apair of 'Guess' jeans. Conversely, a man might want to build his lats a little more so that he fits the cultural stereotype of a virile man.
21 -- There are food supplements available that are just as effective as steroids, yet safer.
The only things as effective as steroids are other steroids. Despite the proclamations of some supplement distributors, usually in giant, 35-point type, nocurrently available supplement works like steroids. However, nutrients and supplements can be extremely effective, especially if your diet is lacking in somecritical component or you're genetically predisposed to accept that nutrient or supplement. Biochemically, individuals vary enormously, and the interactionof genetics, coupled with the widely varying diets that each of us eats, makes it virtually impossible to gauge just what will work for one individual and whatwon't. That is why some supplements work better than others for some people, just as some people are genetically predispositioned to accept steroids morereadily than others. Food supplements do have benefits that can't be overlooked -- they're generally safe, and they won't get you thrown into jail.But none of them build muscle as fast or as well as steroids.
22 -- Professional bodybuilders represent the epitome of health and fitness.
The ultimate irony is that the IFBB is facing in trying to get bodybuilders into the Olympics is that while every athlete in every other sport is presumablythe healthiest they've ever been so that they are able to compete athletically and break records, the bodybuilder is so weak on competition day that he orshe would have trouble fending off the attacks of an enraged toy poodle. The weeks of constant dieting, workouts that continually tax the body almost beyondrecovery, and a constant influx of potentially harmful drugs and diuretics have brought most of them to total exhaustion.
And think about the huge amounts of food some steroid-using bodybuilders eat. In all the longevity sites in the world where people routinely live to be onehundred, the only common denominator is that they all either under-eat or eat just enough to meet their daily caloric requirements. By ingesting less food,they ingest less harmful chemicals, and fewer free radicals are formed in the body. The average professional builder probably eats at least four or five timeswhat these aforementioned people eat. As a result, bodybuilders often suffer from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Plus, with all that extra mass, theheart has to work that much harder and will probably stop beating years before it was designed to. That's why professional bodybuilding is the ultimate actof vanity. It was done strictly to fulfill some misguided notion of the superhuman ideal, and health was not even a consideration. Almost without exception,these guys and gals are not healthy, and they'll probably be among the first to tell you so. However, weight-training and consuming a nutrient-rich diet isvery healthy, as long as it is not carried to extremes.
23 -- Training with weights causes your muscles to get tight and hinders flexibility and, consequently, athletic performance.
If anything, when done properly (slowly and using a complete range of motion), weight training increases flexibility. Many athletes now engage in weighttraining in order to improve their performance in their chosen sport -- witness Evander Hollyfield or any number of track athletes, basketball players, orgymnasts; the list goes on and on.
This lie goes all the way back to the 1930s. Companies that were selling isometric exercise programmes by mail were trying to convince people _not_ to exercisewith barbells, simply because it wasn't practical to send weights through the mail. So they made up the 'muscle-bound' lie.
This lie might have been fueled from the feeling of 'tightness' that accompanies an intense workout. If the workout was intense and a sufficient numberof muscle fibers were recruited and microscopically damaged, then even the normal tonus (the normal amount of contraction experienced by a relaxed muscle) ismore than enough to cause a feeling of pain and tightness. The tightness is compounded by the 'tugging' of the tendons on the muscles. Stretching,however, would do much to alleviate this tightness, and stretching is a recommended part of any athletic pursuit.
The only possible confirmation of this lie concerns a baseball pitcher's arm. An intense weight training programme might affect a pitcher's ability tothrow a fast ball, but it wouldn't be because of a lack of flexibility. The speed a pitcher can generate seems to be determined more by a complexrelationship of tendon length and strength and nervous system efficiency as opposed to muscular strength, and weight training could, possibly, upset thisdelicate balance.
24 -- Loading up on carbohydrates is an excellent way to enhance your athletic performance.
The traditional manner in which athletes 'carb up' for an athletic competition usually involves first depleting the body's stores ofcarbohydrates through exercise and diet. This is then followed by rest and a high carbohydrate intake. However, studies have shown that this type ofpreparation is unnecessary. An athlete who eats a balanced, high-carbohydrate diet and is in reasonably good shape has plenty of carbohydrates in his or hersystem to meet the demands of short-duration exercises that don't exceed roughly one hour. Anyone that does exercises that last more than an hour, likelong-distance running or cycling, may benefit from 'carbing up', but the ability of muscles to use fat as a source of energy rather than carbohydratesin endurance events may be even more important to performance at that level.
25 -- Consuming foods high in sugar before training provides your body with extra energy to sustain workouts.
Simple sugars like sucrose don't need to be broken down by the body's enzymes to be used as energy like complex carbohydrates do. Therefore, theyelicit a rapid release of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood-sugar levels. The trouble is, the sudden, rapid influx of sugar into the system causes thebody to release insulin in what must be considered a haphazard method, ie. the amount released is usually more than what's needed to metabolise the sugar.Consequently, your blood sugar often temporarily drops to a point that is actually lower than it was _before_ you had the sugar, which might cause you tobecome more exhausted much earlier than it normally would. Your body is then forced to dip into its glycogen reserves in order to correct the imbalance.
To ensure that you have enough energy to complete a workout, eat nutrient- rich foods with low glycemic indices (those that elicit a smooth, steady stream ofsugar into the bloodstream) like barley, lentils or beans.
26 -- All anabolic steroids are extremely toxic and dangerous.
Here's a good trivia question borrowed from Dan Duchaine's Underground Steroid Handbook [highly recommended]: if you lined up a bottle of Dianabol (apopular steroid), a bottle of Lasix (a diuretic used by heart patients and bodybuilders who want to 'cut up' for a competition), a bottle of Valium, abottle of aspirin, and a bottle of Slow-K (a potassium supplement), which one, upon eating a 100 tablets, wouldn't kill you? Well, most likely theDianabol. This isn't an endorsement of steroids; it's just an effective illustration of the stigma generally associated with all steroids:'they'll give you brain tumors like Lyle Alzado . . . they'll cause your heart to enlarge and eventually give out [they cause spontaneousdecapitation . .]'. Maybe, but all steroids are different. Some are more dangerous than others. Birth control pills are steroids. Testosterone patches havebeen used with great success to enhance the quality of life for elderly men. Some of the steroids that bodybuilders use are very mild, and the risk associatedwith them is virtually negligible. Still, there _are_ dangerous steroids, and that's all the more reason that athletes who choose to use them must be moreknowledgeable about them. This is what Bill Phillips' Anabolic Reference Guide [_very_ highly- recommended] is all about -- education. Of course, thephysical changes that steroids bring about might cause adverse psychological effects in the user, and that fact shouldn't be ignored.
27 -- If you stop working out, your muscle will turn into fat.
This is almost too preposterous to address. Muscle can no sooner turn to fat than gold can turn into lead. Muscle is made up of individual cells--living,'breathing' cells that undergo all kinds of complex metabolic processes. Fat cells are simply storage packets of lipids. The possibility of onechanging into another is akin to the bowling ball in your storage closet turning into your Aunt Edna. If you stop working out, if you stop applying resistanceto your muscles on a consistent basis, they will simply adapt to the new condition. In other words, they'll shrink. If the degree of inactivity orimmobilization is severe, the muscles will shrink faster than the surrounding skin, and a temporary condition of loose skin might be experienced, but that toowould remedy itself with time.
28 -- Ingesting MCT . (medium-chain triglyceride) oils will give you tons of energy, but they won't make you fat.
MCTs first gained prominence for treating persons suffering from fat mal- absorption, pancreatic deficiency, or stomach or esophageal diseases. Researchersfound that MCTs, because of their better solubility and motility, underwent a rapid hydrolysis by salivary, gastric, and pancreatic enzymes. Consequently, theywere able to reach the liver and provide energy much more quickly than long-chain triglycerides (Guillot, et al., 1993). There was also some evidence that MCTsreduced lipid deposition in fat stores compared with that resulting from LCTs under identical energy intake conditions. However, this is no reason to believethat ingesting these oils in excess will not result in a positive energy balance which the body stores as fat. MCTs, like regular oils, like regular fats, havenine calories per gramme. Even though they are metabolized differently, using them in excessive amounts will add inches to your waistline.
29 -- If everyone took the same amount of steroids, everyone would look like a professional bodybuilder.
One of the ironies of steroid use is that some people are genetically 'gifted' in terms of steroid receptors. That means that they have a large numberof receptor sites in the muscles with which a particular steroid can combine and exert its mass-building effects. The man or woman who won the last contestmight very well have the most active steroid receptors rather than being the most dedicated, knowledgeable bodybuilder. On the other hand, some people mightpossess very few receptors for a particular steroid. That's why they experience very little, if any, growth on a particular steroid. Another factor thatinfluences receptor affinity is age. The highest receptor affinity seems to occur in late teenage years. This is a generalization, but it seems to be true fora good number of people. Since there is a greater uptake in these individuals, they are often able to take lower dosages for longer periods of time and makebetter gains than older users. The truth is, two bodybuilders could take the same steroid stack, train and eat the same, and one could turn out to be in theOlympia, and the other might never even win a local contest. The difference in how people react to these drugs is incredible.
30 -- Someone with a well-built body must be knowledgeable about fitness and physique development.
Despite popular belief, just because some guy has 20" [51cm] arms or 30" [77cm] thighs, that does not automatically credential him as a bodybuildingexpert. Unfortunately, in a society where looks count for so much, well-built lifters are often regarded as bodybuilding scientists. The unfortunate fact is,many well-built athletes, even pro bodybuilders, have no idea how they got where they are. Many of them are so genetically gifted and embellish their geneticpotential even further by using tons of bodybuilding drugs that they actually succeed in spite of themselves. With few exceptions, elite bodybuilders are thelast people in the world you want to turn to for bodybuilding advice if you're genetically average like 98% of us. You're more likely to find expertadvice from someone who has 'walked a mile in your shoes'.
Despite what many of the magazines say, all professional bodybuilders use either steroids or steroids in combination with other growth-enhancing drugs. Withoutmanipulating hormones, it just isn't possible to get that degree of muscularity, the paper-thin skin, and the continuing ability to pack on mass, despitesometimes having poor workout habits and relative ignorance of the principles involved that many pro bodybuilders have. Many supplement distributors, in orderto sell their products, would have you believe otherwise.
Still, that's no reason to give up. By using state-of-the-art training principles, consuming a nutrient-rich diet, and by getting proper amounts of rest,almost every person can make incredible changes in his or her physique. The competitive bodybuilder circuit may not be in your future, but building the kind ofphysique that gains you respect is certainly achievable, as are self-respect and robust health.
2 -- In order to get really big, you have to eat a super-high-calorie diet.
Well, that's true; you'll get really big if you eat a super high-calorie diet, but you'll look like the Michelin Man's fraternal twin. However,if you want to get big, lean-tissue wise, then super-high-calorie diets are probably not for you unless you are one of those very few people withmetabolicrates so fast you can burn off these calories instead of depositing them as fat. Unfortunately, studies show that, in most people, about 65% of thenew tissue gains brought about by high-calorie diets consists of fat! Of the remaining 35%, approximately 15% consists of increased intracellular fluid volume,leaving a very modest percentage attributable to increased lean muscle mass.
According to Dr Scott Connelly (MM2K, Spring 1992, p. 21), only about 20% to 25% of increased muscle growth stems from increased protein synthesis. The rest ofthe muscle growth is directly attributable to increased proliferation of the satellite cells in the basal lamina of muscle tissue, and dietary energy(calories) is not a key factor in the differentiation of these cells into new myofibres (muscle cells).
Of all factors determining muscle growth, prevention of protein breakdown (anti-catabolism) seems to be the most relevant, but adding adipose [fat] tissuethrough constant overfeeding can actually increase muscle pro- teolysis (breakdown). Furthermore, additional adipose mass can radically alter hormone balanceswhich are responsible for controlling protein breakdown in muscle. Insulin balance, for one, which partially controls anti-catabolism in the body, is impairedby consistent overfeeding. So much for the eat-big-to-get-big philosophy!
Stay away from the super-high calorie diets unless you're a genetic freak, or you're woefully lean and don't mind putting on fat [or you'reusing appropriate pharmaceutical supplements].
3 -- If you eat a low-fat diet, it doesn't matter how many calories you take in, you won't gain any fat.
The bottom line is, if you exceed your energy requirements, you'll gradually get fatter and fatter. It's true that eating a diet rich in fat will packon the pounds quicker for a variety of reasons, the most significant being that a gram of fat has nine calories as opposed to the four calories per gram thatcarbohydrates and proteins carry. Fat is also metabolized differently in the body. It takes a lesser amount of calories to assimilate the energy in ingestedfat than it does to assimilate an equal (weight wise) amount of carbohydrates. Consequently, more fat calories get stored than carbohydrate calories. However,the gross intake of carbohydrates, as facilitated by many of the weight-gain powders, will make you fat very quickly.
4 -- The more you work out, the more you'll grow.
No, no no. This is one of the most damaging myths that ever reared its ugly head. 95% of the pros will tell you that the biggest bodybuilding mistake they evermade was to over-train--and this happened even when they were taking steroids. Imagine how easy it is for the natural athlete to overtrain! When you train yourmuscles too often for them to heal, the end-result is zero growth and perhaps even losses. Working out every day, if you're truly using the proper amountof intensity, will lead to gross overtraining. A body part, worked properly, ie. worked to complete, total muscular failure that recruited as many musclefibers as physiologically possible, can take 5-10 days to heal.
To take it a step further, even working a different body part in the next few days might constitute overtraining. If you truly work your quads to absolutefiber-tearing failure, doing another power workout the next day that entails heavy bench-presses or deadlifts is going to, in all probability, inhibit gains.After a serious leg workout, your whole system mobilizes to heal and recover from the blow you've dealt it. How, then, can the body be expected to healfrom an equally brutal workout the next day? It can't, at least not without using some drugs to help deal with the catabolic processes going on in yourbody [and even they're usually not enough .]
Learn to accept rest as a valuable part of your workout. You should probably spend as many days out of the gym as you do in it.
5 -- The longer you work out, the better.
It just isn't necessary to do 20-30 sets for a body part, or even 10 sets like many 'experts' would have you believe. In fact, research has shownthat it's possible to completely fatigue a muscle in one set, provided that that set taxes a muscle completely, ie. incorporates as many muscle fibers aspossible and takes them to the point of ischemic rigour where, rather than contract and relax, the muscle fibers freeze up, sort of like a microscopic versionof rigor mortis. Any further contraction causes microscopic tearing. Hypertrophy is just one adaption to this kind of stress and it's naturally the kindmost bodybuilders are interested in.
This kind of intensity can usually be achieved by doing drop or break-down sets where you rep out, lower the weight, and continue doing reps until you eithercan't do another rep or you've run out of weight. It can also be achieved by doing your maximum number of reps on a particular exercise: by acombination of will, tenacity, and short rest periods, you complete ten more reps. You achieve the short rest periods by locking out the weight-bearing jointin question without putting the weight down. In other words, completely surpass your normal pain and energy thresholds.
If you can truly work your muscle to the point described, it will afford you little, if any, benefit to do another set (Westcott, 1986). The exception would bethe body parts that are so big that they have distinct geographical areas, like the back, which obviously has an upper, middle and lower part. The chest mightalso fall into this category, as it has a distinct upper and lower part, each with different insertion points.
6 -- You don't have to be strong to be big
For a variety of reasons, people, even those with an equal amount of muscle mass, vary in strength enormously. It might have something to do withfast-twitch/slow-twitch muscle ratios, or it might have something to do with the efficiency of nerve pathways or even limb length and the resultant torque. Butit is still a relative term. To get bigger muscles, you have to lift heavier weight, and you, not the guy next door, have to become stronger -- stronger thanyou were. Increasing muscle strength in the natural athlete, except in a very few, rare instances, requires that the tension applied to muscle fibers be high.If the tension applied to muscle fibers are light, maximal growth will not occur (Lieber, 1992).
7 -- The training programmes that work best for pro bodybuilders are best for everyone.
You see it happen every day in gyms across the country. Some bodybuilding neophyte will walk up to a guy who looks like he's an escaped attraction fromJurassic Park and ask him how he trains. The biggest guy in the gym likely got that way from either taking a tremendous amount of drugs and/or by beinggenetically pre-dispositioned to get big. Follow a horse home and you'll find horse parents. The guy in your gym who is best bodybuilder is the guy who hasmade the most progress and done the most to his physique using natural techniques. He may still be a pencil neck, but he may have put on 40 pounds [19kg] oflean body mass to get where he is, and that, in all probability, took some know-how. That person probably doesn't overtrain, keeps his sets down to aminimum, and uses great form and concentration on the eccentric (negative) portion of each exercise repetition.
Many pros spend hours and hours doing innumerable sets--so many it would far surpass the average person's recuperative abilities. If average peoplefollowed the routines of average pro bodybuilders, they would, in effect, start to whittle down what muscle mass they did have or, at best, make only a tinybit of progress after a couple of years.
8 -- You can't build muscle on a sub-maintenance calorie intake diet.
It may be a little harder, and it may require a little bit more know-how and a little bit more conscientious effort, but it can be done. The fact is, the obesestate in humans and animals is not universally correlated with absolute levels of caloric intake and neither is the accrual of lean body mass. The ability torealize changes in lean/fat ratios is regulated by components of the automatic nervous system working in concert with several endocrine hormones; this iscalled nutrient partitioning. For example, certain beta-agonist drugs like Clenbuterol increase meat production in cattle over 30% while simultaneouslydiminishing bodyfat without increasing the amount or composition of their feed. Other drugs, including growth hormone, certain oestrogens, cortisol, ephedrine,and IGF-1 are all examples of re-partitioning agents. All increase oxygen consumption at the expense of fat storage--independent of energy intake!
Drugs are not the only way to do this, however. It's true that a significant component of this mechanism is genetically linked, but specific nutrients, inspecific amounts, when combined with an effective training programme, can markedly improve the lean/fat ratio of adult humans. MET-Rx is one such nutrientre-partitioning agent, and several companies are trying to duplicate its successes [warning: one of the authors of this article has a significant financialstake in Substrate Technologies, the makers of MET-Rx].
9 -- You can't grow if you only work each body part once a week.
If you work out -- work out intensely-- then it can take 5-10 days for the muscles to heal. Although the following should be taken with a grain of salt whendetermining your own exercise frequency, a study in the May 1993 issue of the Journal of Physiology revealed it can take weeks for muscles to recuperate froman intense workout. The study involved a group of men and women who had worked their forearms to the max. All of the subjects said they were sore two daysafter exercising, and the soreness was gone by the seventh day, and the swelling was gone by the ninth day. After six weeks, the subjects had only gained backhalf the strength they had before the original exercise! By no means are we advocating that you wait two months between workouts, but we are trying to provethe point that it takes muscles longer to heal than what you might have previously thought. For some people, especially natural bodybuilders, waiting a weekbetween body part workouts might be just what the doctor ordered for size and strength gains!
10 -- You can't make gains if. you only train with weights three days a week.
Although you probably couldn't find a single steroid-assisted athlete who trains only three days a week [well, I was, and I made fantastic gains!],there's absolutely no reason why a three-day-a-week routine couldn't work for many natural athletes. As long as your routine attacked the whole bodyand you worked to failure on each set, you could easily experience great gains on this sort of routine. However, you need to pay even more attention to yourdiet if you only train three days a week, especially if your job involves little or no physical activity, and you like to spend your idle time eating. Ignorethose who say three-day-a-week bodybuilders are only 'recreational lifters'. Think quality and not quantity.
11 -- You should only rest 45 seconds in between sets.
That's true if you're trying to improve cardiovascular health or lose some bodyfat. But in order to build muscle, you need to allowenough time for the muscle to recuperate fully (ie. let the lactic acid buildup in your muscles dissipate and ATP levels build back up). In order to makemuscles grow, you have to lift the heaviest weight possible, thereby allowing the maximum number of muscle fibers to be recruited. If the amount of weight youlift is being limited by the amount of lactic acid left over from the previous set, you're only testing your ability to battle the effects of lactic acid.In other words, you're trying to swim across a pool while wearing concrete overshoes. When training heavy, take [at least!] two and three minutes betweenyour sets. Notice I said, "when training heavy." The truth is, you can't train heavy all the time. Periodization calls for cycling heavy workoutswith less intense training sessions in an effort to keep the body from becoming overtrained. (See 'Periodization' by Brad Jeffreys on p. 85 of theFeb/March 1993 issue of MM2K)
12 -- You have to use fancy weightlifting equipment in order to make the best gains.
Futuristic-looking, complex machinery designed to give your muscles the 'ultimate workout' is typically less effective than good-oldbarbells and dumbbells. Using simple free weights (barbells and dumbbells) on basic multi-joint exercises, like the squat, bench press, shoulder press, anddeadlift, is still the most effective means of resistance exercise ever invented. Scientific research has shown that many exercise machines lack the propereccentric component of an exercise that's necessary to stimulate muscle tissue to remodel (grow). (See the article titled 'Research Confirms thatBodybuilders Should Pay Heavy Attention to Negative Reps' by Bill Phillips on p.18 of the Feb/March issue of MM2K)
13 -- Weight training makes you big; aerobic exercise cuts you up.
Manipulations in your nutrient intake are the main factor in getting cut up, and how you do it doesn't matter. If your daily caloric expenditure exceedsyour daily caloric intake on a consistent basis, you will lose fat and get more cut.
Aerobic exercise is generally meant to improve cardiovascular efficiency, but if you do it long enough, you will burn up calories and in the long run drop thefat. However, weightlifting can do the same thing, only better. Studies have shown that the body burns far more efficiently if exercise is performed at amoderate pace for periods longer than 20 minutes. (It generally takes that long for the glucose in the bloodstream to be 'burned up', causing the bodyto dip into glycogen reserves for its energy) Once the glycogen reserves are used up, the body must metabolize fatty acids for energy. That equate to lostbodyfat.
In the long run, bodybuilding is more efficient than aerobics for burning up calories. Let me explain--if researchers were to undertake a study of twinswhereby one twin performed daily aerobics and the other practiced a bodybuilding programme where the end result was increased lean body mass, the bodybuildingtwin would ultimately be a more efficient fat burner than his aerobic twin. Why? Well, by adding lean body mass, that person's metabolic requirements arehigher--muscle uses energy even while it is not being used. The aerobic twin might use more calories during the time period of exercise itself, but theweight-lifting twin would use a higher amount during rest time, leading to a higher net 24-hour expenditure. The weight lifter burns fat just sitting there.
14 -- You can completely reshape a muscle by doing isolation exercises.
You can't limit growth to only one area of a muscle. Larry Scott, for whom the 'biceps peaking' Scott curl was named, had tremendousbiceps, but he didn't have much of a peak. The shape of your biceps, or for that matter, any muscle, is determined by your genetic makeup. When you work amuscle, any muscle, it works on the all-or-nothing principle, meaning that each muscle fiber recruited to do a lift -- along the entire length of that muscle-- is contracted fully. Why would a certain number of them, like the ones in the middle of the biceps, suddenly start to grow differently or at a faster ratethan its partners? If anything, the muscles that are closest to the insertion points are the most prone to mechanical stress, and you don't see them getany bigger than the rest of the muscle. If they did, everyone would have proportions like Popeye.
This is true of any muscle, but you're probably thinking, what about quads? I know that when I do hack squats with my feet together, it tends to give memore sweep in my legs. Sure it does, but the quadriceps are made up of four different main muscles, and doing hacks with your feet together forces the vastuslateralis muscles on the outside of the leg to work harder; consequently, they grow proportionately along their entire length and give the outer quads moresweep.
As further evidence, take a look at a picture of any young professional bodybuilder before he was developed enough to become a pro. He will have virtually thesame structural lines as he does today. All that has changed is that his muscles are now bigger.
15 -- If you get a pump , you're working the muscles adequately to ensure muscular hypertrophy, or if your muscles are burning, that means you arepromoting muscle growth.
A pump, despite what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about it "feeling better than coming", is nothing more than the muscle becomingengorged with blood from capillary action. It can be achieved easily by curling a soup can fifty times. It by no means equates to the muscular intensity neededto promote growth. The same is true of the coveted 'burn' that Hollywood muscleheads advise the public to 'go for'. A burn is simply anaccumulation of lactic acid, a by-product of chemical respiration. You can get a burn by peddling a bicycle or simply extending your arm straight out andmoving it in tiny circles [or sitting in a burning fireplace!]. It does not necessarily mean you are promoting muscle growth. For hypertrophy to occur, youhave to subject the muscles to high levels of tension, and high tension levels are best induced by heavy weights.
16 -- If you do hundreds of sit-ups a day, you will eventually achieve a narrow, washboard-type midsection.
There is no such thing as spot-reduction. Doing thousands and thousands of sit-ups will give you tight abdominal muscles, but they will do nothing to rid yourmidsection of fat. Thigh adductor and abductor movements will give women's thighs more firmness, but they will do nothing to rid the area of fat, or whatis commonly [and erroneously] called cellulite. Nothing will rid the body of fat, unless it is a carefully-orchestrated reduction in your daily energy intake;in other words, if you burn more calories than you ingest (or do that in conjunction with a nutrient partitioning agent. See #
17 -- Training like a powerlifter --deadlifts, heavy squats, bench presses--will make your physique look blocky.
Blockiness, like baldness or a flat chest, is a genetic trait. If you were born blocky, then powerlifting will simply make you a bigger blocky person. The onlyway to offset a blocky appearance is to give special emphasis to the lats, the outer muscles of the thighs, and to a fat-reducing diet which will keep themidsection as narrow as possible. With these modifications, you will give your body the illusion of a more "aerodynamic" appearance. The truth is,powerlifting exercises are excellent for bodybuilding.
18 -- High repetitions make your muscles harder and more cut up.
Although there is some evidence to suggest that high repetitions might induce some extra capillary intrusion into a muscle, they will do nothing to make themuscle harder or more cut up. If a completely sedentary person began weightlifting, using either low reps or high reps, he or she would experience a rapidincrease in tonus, the degree of muscular contraction that the muscle maintains even when that muscle is relaxed, but that would happen regardless of reprange. The only way that high repetitions would make a muscle more cut up is if, by doing a higher number of reps, your body as a whole was in negative energybalance, and you were burning more calories than you were ingesting. The truth is, heavy weights, lifted for 5-8 reps per set, can build rock-hard muscles. Youjust have to get the fat off them to see how "hard" they are.
19 -- Instinctive training is the best way to promote gains.
If bodybuilders followed their instincts, they'd go home and pop open a Bud [much prefer Toohey's Red myself!]. Instinctive training is a wonderfulcatch-phrase, and it might even work for drug-assisted athletes since the very act of opening up a Bud would probably induce muscular growth in them. However,in a natural bodybuilder, the approach to long-term, consistent gains in muscular mass has to be, shall we say, a bit more scientific. Research resultsconducted by exercise physiologists recommend a systematic approach such as the one encompassed by periodization where the bodybuilder, through a period ofseveral weeks, lifts ever-increasing pre-set percentages of a one-rep lift. This heavy period is also periodically staggered with a lighter training phase'cycle'. Ultimately, the percentages increase, the maximum one-rep lifts increase, and lean body mass increases. There is nothing instinctive about it.
20 -- Women need to train differently than men.
On a microscopic level, there is virtually no difference between the muscle tissue of men and the muscle tissue of women. Men and women have different levelsof the same hormones, and that's what is responsible for the difference in the amount of muscle a man can typically put on and the amount of muscle a womancan typically gain. There is absolutely no reason why either should train differently than the other sex, provided they have the same goals. The onlydifference in training might be as a result of cultural, sexual preferences. A woman might desire to develop her glutes a little more so she looks better in apair of 'Guess' jeans. Conversely, a man might want to build his lats a little more so that he fits the cultural stereotype of a virile man.
21 -- There are food supplements available that are just as effective as steroids, yet safer.
The only things as effective as steroids are other steroids. Despite the proclamations of some supplement distributors, usually in giant, 35-point type, nocurrently available supplement works like steroids. However, nutrients and supplements can be extremely effective, especially if your diet is lacking in somecritical component or you're genetically predisposed to accept that nutrient or supplement. Biochemically, individuals vary enormously, and the interactionof genetics, coupled with the widely varying diets that each of us eats, makes it virtually impossible to gauge just what will work for one individual and whatwon't. That is why some supplements work better than others for some people, just as some people are genetically predispositioned to accept steroids morereadily than others. Food supplements do have benefits that can't be overlooked -- they're generally safe, and they won't get you thrown into jail.But none of them build muscle as fast or as well as steroids.
22 -- Professional bodybuilders represent the epitome of health and fitness.
The ultimate irony is that the IFBB is facing in trying to get bodybuilders into the Olympics is that while every athlete in every other sport is presumablythe healthiest they've ever been so that they are able to compete athletically and break records, the bodybuilder is so weak on competition day that he orshe would have trouble fending off the attacks of an enraged toy poodle. The weeks of constant dieting, workouts that continually tax the body almost beyondrecovery, and a constant influx of potentially harmful drugs and diuretics have brought most of them to total exhaustion.
And think about the huge amounts of food some steroid-using bodybuilders eat. In all the longevity sites in the world where people routinely live to be onehundred, the only common denominator is that they all either under-eat or eat just enough to meet their daily caloric requirements. By ingesting less food,they ingest less harmful chemicals, and fewer free radicals are formed in the body. The average professional builder probably eats at least four or five timeswhat these aforementioned people eat. As a result, bodybuilders often suffer from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Plus, with all that extra mass, theheart has to work that much harder and will probably stop beating years before it was designed to. That's why professional bodybuilding is the ultimate actof vanity. It was done strictly to fulfill some misguided notion of the superhuman ideal, and health was not even a consideration. Almost without exception,these guys and gals are not healthy, and they'll probably be among the first to tell you so. However, weight-training and consuming a nutrient-rich diet isvery healthy, as long as it is not carried to extremes.
23 -- Training with weights causes your muscles to get tight and hinders flexibility and, consequently, athletic performance.
If anything, when done properly (slowly and using a complete range of motion), weight training increases flexibility. Many athletes now engage in weighttraining in order to improve their performance in their chosen sport -- witness Evander Hollyfield or any number of track athletes, basketball players, orgymnasts; the list goes on and on.
This lie goes all the way back to the 1930s. Companies that were selling isometric exercise programmes by mail were trying to convince people _not_ to exercisewith barbells, simply because it wasn't practical to send weights through the mail. So they made up the 'muscle-bound' lie.
This lie might have been fueled from the feeling of 'tightness' that accompanies an intense workout. If the workout was intense and a sufficient numberof muscle fibers were recruited and microscopically damaged, then even the normal tonus (the normal amount of contraction experienced by a relaxed muscle) ismore than enough to cause a feeling of pain and tightness. The tightness is compounded by the 'tugging' of the tendons on the muscles. Stretching,however, would do much to alleviate this tightness, and stretching is a recommended part of any athletic pursuit.
The only possible confirmation of this lie concerns a baseball pitcher's arm. An intense weight training programme might affect a pitcher's ability tothrow a fast ball, but it wouldn't be because of a lack of flexibility. The speed a pitcher can generate seems to be determined more by a complexrelationship of tendon length and strength and nervous system efficiency as opposed to muscular strength, and weight training could, possibly, upset thisdelicate balance.
24 -- Loading up on carbohydrates is an excellent way to enhance your athletic performance.
The traditional manner in which athletes 'carb up' for an athletic competition usually involves first depleting the body's stores ofcarbohydrates through exercise and diet. This is then followed by rest and a high carbohydrate intake. However, studies have shown that this type ofpreparation is unnecessary. An athlete who eats a balanced, high-carbohydrate diet and is in reasonably good shape has plenty of carbohydrates in his or hersystem to meet the demands of short-duration exercises that don't exceed roughly one hour. Anyone that does exercises that last more than an hour, likelong-distance running or cycling, may benefit from 'carbing up', but the ability of muscles to use fat as a source of energy rather than carbohydratesin endurance events may be even more important to performance at that level.
25 -- Consuming foods high in sugar before training provides your body with extra energy to sustain workouts.
Simple sugars like sucrose don't need to be broken down by the body's enzymes to be used as energy like complex carbohydrates do. Therefore, theyelicit a rapid release of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood-sugar levels. The trouble is, the sudden, rapid influx of sugar into the system causes thebody to release insulin in what must be considered a haphazard method, ie. the amount released is usually more than what's needed to metabolise the sugar.Consequently, your blood sugar often temporarily drops to a point that is actually lower than it was _before_ you had the sugar, which might cause you tobecome more exhausted much earlier than it normally would. Your body is then forced to dip into its glycogen reserves in order to correct the imbalance.
To ensure that you have enough energy to complete a workout, eat nutrient- rich foods with low glycemic indices (those that elicit a smooth, steady stream ofsugar into the bloodstream) like barley, lentils or beans.
26 -- All anabolic steroids are extremely toxic and dangerous.
Here's a good trivia question borrowed from Dan Duchaine's Underground Steroid Handbook [highly recommended]: if you lined up a bottle of Dianabol (apopular steroid), a bottle of Lasix (a diuretic used by heart patients and bodybuilders who want to 'cut up' for a competition), a bottle of Valium, abottle of aspirin, and a bottle of Slow-K (a potassium supplement), which one, upon eating a 100 tablets, wouldn't kill you? Well, most likely theDianabol. This isn't an endorsement of steroids; it's just an effective illustration of the stigma generally associated with all steroids:'they'll give you brain tumors like Lyle Alzado . . . they'll cause your heart to enlarge and eventually give out [they cause spontaneousdecapitation . .]'. Maybe, but all steroids are different. Some are more dangerous than others. Birth control pills are steroids. Testosterone patches havebeen used with great success to enhance the quality of life for elderly men. Some of the steroids that bodybuilders use are very mild, and the risk associatedwith them is virtually negligible. Still, there _are_ dangerous steroids, and that's all the more reason that athletes who choose to use them must be moreknowledgeable about them. This is what Bill Phillips' Anabolic Reference Guide [_very_ highly- recommended] is all about -- education. Of course, thephysical changes that steroids bring about might cause adverse psychological effects in the user, and that fact shouldn't be ignored.
27 -- If you stop working out, your muscle will turn into fat.
This is almost too preposterous to address. Muscle can no sooner turn to fat than gold can turn into lead. Muscle is made up of individual cells--living,'breathing' cells that undergo all kinds of complex metabolic processes. Fat cells are simply storage packets of lipids. The possibility of onechanging into another is akin to the bowling ball in your storage closet turning into your Aunt Edna. If you stop working out, if you stop applying resistanceto your muscles on a consistent basis, they will simply adapt to the new condition. In other words, they'll shrink. If the degree of inactivity orimmobilization is severe, the muscles will shrink faster than the surrounding skin, and a temporary condition of loose skin might be experienced, but that toowould remedy itself with time.
28 -- Ingesting MCT . (medium-chain triglyceride) oils will give you tons of energy, but they won't make you fat.
MCTs first gained prominence for treating persons suffering from fat mal- absorption, pancreatic deficiency, or stomach or esophageal diseases. Researchersfound that MCTs, because of their better solubility and motility, underwent a rapid hydrolysis by salivary, gastric, and pancreatic enzymes. Consequently, theywere able to reach the liver and provide energy much more quickly than long-chain triglycerides (Guillot, et al., 1993). There was also some evidence that MCTsreduced lipid deposition in fat stores compared with that resulting from LCTs under identical energy intake conditions. However, this is no reason to believethat ingesting these oils in excess will not result in a positive energy balance which the body stores as fat. MCTs, like regular oils, like regular fats, havenine calories per gramme. Even though they are metabolized differently, using them in excessive amounts will add inches to your waistline.
29 -- If everyone took the same amount of steroids, everyone would look like a professional bodybuilder.
One of the ironies of steroid use is that some people are genetically 'gifted' in terms of steroid receptors. That means that they have a large numberof receptor sites in the muscles with which a particular steroid can combine and exert its mass-building effects. The man or woman who won the last contestmight very well have the most active steroid receptors rather than being the most dedicated, knowledgeable bodybuilder. On the other hand, some people mightpossess very few receptors for a particular steroid. That's why they experience very little, if any, growth on a particular steroid. Another factor thatinfluences receptor affinity is age. The highest receptor affinity seems to occur in late teenage years. This is a generalization, but it seems to be true fora good number of people. Since there is a greater uptake in these individuals, they are often able to take lower dosages for longer periods of time and makebetter gains than older users. The truth is, two bodybuilders could take the same steroid stack, train and eat the same, and one could turn out to be in theOlympia, and the other might never even win a local contest. The difference in how people react to these drugs is incredible.
30 -- Someone with a well-built body must be knowledgeable about fitness and physique development.
Despite popular belief, just because some guy has 20" [51cm] arms or 30" [77cm] thighs, that does not automatically credential him as a bodybuildingexpert. Unfortunately, in a society where looks count for so much, well-built lifters are often regarded as bodybuilding scientists. The unfortunate fact is,many well-built athletes, even pro bodybuilders, have no idea how they got where they are. Many of them are so genetically gifted and embellish their geneticpotential even further by using tons of bodybuilding drugs that they actually succeed in spite of themselves. With few exceptions, elite bodybuilders are thelast people in the world you want to turn to for bodybuilding advice if you're genetically average like 98% of us. You're more likely to find expertadvice from someone who has 'walked a mile in your shoes'.
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Is it really better to pyramid in weight for sets?
I've always done the same number of reps for each set.
I've always done the same number of reps for each set.
al audi
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never ever, do you change weight? how is this even possible?
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Just bought some lunar glides with nike plus. When my knee feels better, will try to post the results from Nike plus.
Audi, where do u find those articles? The article section in bb? Lol I've never gone there Judt lurk the misc. and female bbing lol
Audi, where do u find those articles? The article section in bb? Lol I've never gone there Judt lurk the misc. and female bbing lol
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Originally Posted by Al Audi
never ever, do you change weight? how is this even possible?
I've always done 3x8.
What would you recommend for mass?
al audi
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which one?
i love this stuff its all i do on the internet
industy contacts
a couple of fitness blogs
personal logs/transformations
various fitness forums
routines
supplement science/anabolics/ph
herbs
nootropics
ifbb
foods
diet
etc.
niketalk gives me the rest of my info (general + music
al audi
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Originally Posted by SNEAKERKING757
Originally Posted by Al Audi
never ever, do you change weight? how is this even possible?
I've always done 3x8.
What would you recommend for mass?
depending on the routine ALL the variables change
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Here's my arm day as an example...Originally Posted by Al Audi
Originally Posted by SNEAKERKING757
Originally Posted by Al Audi
never ever, do you change weight? how is this even possible?
I've always done 3x8.
What would you recommend for mass?
depending on the routine ALL the variables change
- CG Bench Press
- Skull Crushers
- Push Downs
- BB Curls
- Inclined DB Curls
- Preacher Curls
- Reverse Curls
- Wrist Curls
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thanks for the help guys. it seems like i do most of that stuff but ill try to do more supersets.
Does pullups help strengthen the biceps as well? I mean if I were to consistently do this would it help?
Does pullups help strengthen the biceps as well? I mean if I were to consistently do this would it help?
aceofjays
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- Apr 18, 2005
Good looks on the articles Audi, especially the one comparing natural to drug using bodybuilders.
override, under hand pullups work the biceps really well. You'll definitely feel the burn...try not to cheat though
override, under hand pullups work the biceps really well. You'll definitely feel the burn...try not to cheat though
- 13,065
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- Joined
- Jul 6, 2002
I'll read what Lurkin posted after my nap. My whole upper half is hurting now, thanks to the burpees from yesterday. Loving the pain.
Going to go to the supermarket now to buy new supplies.
I swear I spend 30-40 mins in a market and come out with 3-4 items, smh. Comparing nutrition factstake a grip of time.
Going to go to the supermarket now to buy new supplies.
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- Jul 8, 2002
Arm day ftl. What a waste of time.
just bobby
Banned
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- Joined
- Jan 6, 2009
lol @ having an arm day.
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- Nov 9, 2007
Not only that but 4 bicep exercises and a wrist exercise? Hmmmmm
iiceman83
Banned
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- Feb 27, 2006
Nothing wrong with an arm day...ppl may shun it cause they havnt work their arms hard enough to know what a REAL arm day is like.
- 13,065
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- Jul 6, 2002
Maybe he wants that MJ Fadeway perfect wrist action.
iiceman83
Banned
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- Feb 27, 2006
Wrist excersises are very important for better grip. You dont work out ur fore arms?
iiceman83
Banned
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- Feb 27, 2006
As much as you guys may know, your still missing out on important excersises.
Like calves, forearms are often neglected and is important for grip and arm strength.
Fyi.... Wrist curls are not for working you wrist but the entire forearm. Reverse wrist curls are for the outter forearm.
Please lets not be ignorant and poke fun, when in the end you make yourselves look idiotic.
Like calves, forearms are often neglected and is important for grip and arm strength.
Fyi.... Wrist curls are not for working you wrist but the entire forearm. Reverse wrist curls are for the outter forearm.
Please lets not be ignorant and poke fun, when in the end you make yourselves look idiotic.
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- Aug 13, 2005
i'll do forearms once in a blue moon
whats wrong w/ "arm day"
u could have a 7 day split like this - chest/back/rest/shoulders/legs/arms/rest
or something
whats wrong w/ "arm day"
u could have a 7 day split like this - chest/back/rest/shoulders/legs/arms/rest
or something
al audi
Banned
- 29,810
- 4,562
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2009
i gotta agree with iice on this
i picked this up today. carbs/protein/natural
never tried before got both flavors. 49 bucks
i picked this up today. carbs/protein/natural
never tried before got both flavors. 49 bucks
- 6,376
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- Joined
- Nov 9, 2007
Forearm exercises aren't important. You can say theyre not often done, but in no way are they important.
There are other ways to strengthen your forearms and obtain a better grip that doesnt involve doing wrist curls.
just bobby
Banned
- 31
- 10
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2009
nothing is wrong with an arm day if you're a idiot noob. U don't need to dedicate a whole day for just arms.
bis and tris itself is a small muscle group that get hit everyday you train whether or not you do them directly or indirectly. throw in a couple of sets of bisand tris after you back and chest days and you'll b good
lol @ doing wrist curls. Do some deadlifts and bent rows on your back days and you'll never have to do wrist curls ever again.
bis and tris itself is a small muscle group that get hit everyday you train whether or not you do them directly or indirectly. throw in a couple of sets of bisand tris after you back and chest days and you'll b good
lol @ doing wrist curls. Do some deadlifts and bent rows on your back days and you'll never have to do wrist curls ever again.
iiceman83
Banned
- 1,030
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- Feb 27, 2006
Ppl usually do chest+ tri/ back+ bi, thats why they may shun arm day. But i feel doing an arm day here and there to be a must especially when focusing on arms.If anyone has totally blasted their arms to failure, they know it can be as grueling as any other major body part.
