7 Biggest Muscle Building Myths

Are you struggling with muscle building? Then it might be because you have never heard of these biggest muscle building myths out there. Check it here.

Quick summary

  • Bodybuilding is popular among young people who want to define their aesthetic superiority, but there are many myths surrounding this fitness trend.
  • Some common bodybuilding myths include the belief that you need to work out daily, follow an ideal person’s routine, train till failure, and focus on one muscle group per day.
  • Changing your workout routine too often and overeating are also common mistakes that can hinder your bodybuilding progress.
  • Supplements are important, but exercise and diet are the key factors in bodybuilding. It’s important to consult with professionals and do your own research to debunk myths and achieve clean results.

Bodybuilding is the new generation way of defining aesthetic superiority, and the urge starts right when a person hits adolescence.

Usually, college is tagged with a gym, and a good number of young people sweat it out during their college days.

Thanks to the growing fitness concern, and now there are a bunch of exercising strategies out there, and old school gymnasiums are now mostly fitness clubs.

Bodybuilding is definitely the most popular fitness product in the wellness segment, and technically many of the popular big-screen actors are the brand ambassadors.

The popularity went like wildfire from west to east, and with that, there also grew the myths regarding bodybuilding.

You can laugh off at some of the myths, but some might push people into the wrong side of the river.

The objective of this article is to plot some of the popular myths regarding bodybuilding1 and debunk it for you.

And here you go, some of the biggest muscle building myths you might come across.

Read more: How Long Does It Take To See Muscle Growth?

Common bodybuilding myths debunked

muscle building myths

1. You need to work out daily

This is one of the biggest myths that you would confront once you hit the gym.

The noob instructors are the people who gain half the knowledge and come up with home-made theories.

Some would work 7 days a week thinking muscle building is all about exerting too much of stress over muscles.

This way, you are ignoring the muscle recovery, repair, and nutrient dissemination, all of which are critical factors in muscle building.

For those who are new to bodybuilding, 3 alternate days a week or to the best 4 days in a routine is more than enough.

Anything more than 4 days means you are killing your muscle and putting yourself at risk of muscle catabolism.

Proper rest after a workout is very crucial, and the rest period must be fortified with nutritious diet, at least 8 hours of sleep, and reduced stress levels.

2. Follow that ideal person’s routine

This where most of the newbies go wrong in the first place.

The ideal person’s workout is meant for his/her physique and capabilities.

There is no point in following someone’s workout strategy to make yourself look like them.

They might have spent years to reach there, and one fine day when you read their life story and discovered their workout strategy doesn’t mean its a doorway to your dream body.

Plus, most professional bodybuilders or cover models are genetically superior, and that’s once reason why they were able to sustain lots of muscle injuries and could deal with such heavy physical stress.

Until unless a pro writes a workout plan specifically for newbies, don’t waste your time copycatting the elites out there.

Stick to your basic workout strategy and climb the steps. If you make till there, by then, you might have developed a custom workout strategy on your own.

3. Train till failure

Some people believe that pushing to the extreme limits of the human body is the only possible way to build muscle.

Train till the failure is how people push the limits, but there is one potential flaw with this strategy.

In order for the muscle to grow correctly, ‘systemacy’ is what you need, not the ‘brute force.’

Usually, workouts are planned in 3 – 4 sets with 10 ~ 15 reps in most cases, and people often overdo it to break the muscle limit.

If you push too hard in the starting, you are creating fatigue for the muscles, which will hinder your performance in the following sets.

Technically, it should be the last set in each muscle group where you should push harder, and if you can easily manage it, then it is time to upgrade the weight.

4. One day one muscle

The majority of gym-goers love this strategy because you go to the gym every day, you are focusing only on one muscle group at a time, and moreover you are giving enough time for muscle recovery.

Well, if this is the case with you, then take a quick turn restart everything because this is going to halt your progress soon.

Muscle does not need more than a day or two for complete recovery and repair.

If you leave it unattended for a week, the tissue goes stiffer, and the process of micro-tearing won’t happen properly.

At best, you should give workout to your muscle once every two days, and for this a 2-day spilt is the best strategy so that you will train your muscles twice a week with good enough rest.

As and when you graduate in bodybuilding, the professional routines might change from this basic rule, but as far a newbie is concerned, this is how one must start.

5. Renew your work out every week

Another biggest mistake is to change your routine very often, and some people swap it every week.

There was an old school technique to ‘confuse’ your muscles by changing workouts very often to promote faster growth.

But then this technique has minimal benefits, and overtime proved to be less effective.

When you choose a workout, you must at least stick with it for 3-4 weeks for the muscles to properly get adapted to the tension.

Once your muscles are capable of picking increased weights, then you are ready to jump into a new routine.

6. Overeat and workout harder

Another old school strategy that will do very little good for your bodybuilding.

Overeating is no way a perfect method to supply essential nutrients.

When you are bodybuilding, you need proteins, carbs, fats, omega-3-fatty acids, lots of micronutrients, stimulants, etc.

If you blindly eat food, you might be adding some calories, but they wouldn’t be necessarily useful calories.

You need to define a diet that matches your nutrient requirement and workout routine.

By this, it means that you should know how much protein, carbs, fats2, and others are being added into your body.

The most significant benefit of picking a diet is that you will be able to fine-tune your physique and bring more aesthetic features like shredded muscles, lean muscles, specific cuttings, etc.

7. Supplements are the key, and workout comes second

This is extremely wrong, and if that is how you are prepping your mind, then give it a bang and feed this.

In bodybuilding and athletics, exercise and diet are the key factors, supplementation comes secondary when you fail to meet the nutritional requirement from food.

That doesn’t mean they are not pivotal in bodybuilding, but not as much as the exercise matters.

So, if you think that loading some expensive supplements and skipping your workout will make you a beast, then this info is an eye-opener.

Muscle building supplements can deliver some nude nutrients in the most natural way possible but comes only after your diet.

Also, stay away from anabolic steroids3 and other chemical enhancers as it is not as worthy as putting your body at risk for some fake muscles.

Conclusion

bodybuilding

These are some of the widespread myths revolving bodybuilding, but it can be anything depending on your country.

The basic idea is to educate the newcomers about bodybuilding, which will help them refine their expectations for some clean results.

Going by myths will end up bad for both the trainee and the bodybuilding industry.

Its always better to get some suggestions from professionals out there, or listening to the connoisseur instructor in your gym.

Also, having a doctor friend or paying a visit to your sports doctor will fortify your muscle building.

Not all bodybuilding websites trade useful info, and for this reason, do a background study and cherry-pick some of the legendary content posters to grab the real deal.

Moreover, the same internet will give you all the information you need to know about bodybuilding, so spend some screen time to learn the science of bodybuilding which will help you develop the logic behind it.

References

  1. Clarkson, Priscilla M., and Eric S. Rawson. “Nutritional supplements to increase muscle mass.” Critical reviews in food science and nutrition 39.4 (1999): 317-328. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408699991279196
  2. Karst, H., et al. “Diet-induced thermogenesis in man: thermic effects of single proteins, carbohydrates and fats depending on their energy amount.” Annals of nutrition and metabolism 28.4 (1984): 245-252. https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/176811
  3. Yesalis, Charles E., et al. “Anabolic-androgenic steroid use in the United States.” Jama 270.10 (1993): 1217-1221. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/408303
Written by Tom Knight
Fact Checked by Experts
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