How To Build Muscle - 6 big lies that kill your bodybuilding progress

The BIG LIES in this post are described as such in the context of drug-free, genetically normal bodybuilders. But some of the big lies are TRUTHS in the context of bodybuilders who are drug-fed and genetically highly gifted.

Never mind what the drug-fed genetic freaks can build muscle on. What works for them doesn’t work for drug-free, genetically normal bodybuilders.

LIE 1: TRAIN MORE OFTEN TO GROW MORE MUSCLE

There may seem to be some logic here because, in many activities, the more often that a skill is practiced properly, the quicker that competence is acquired. But bodybuilding training isn’t like pure skill training. Furthermore, when someone discovers that a modest amount of proper training builds muscle, there’s a tendency to think that training more often will yield even better results.

A bodybuilding workout will build muscle only if it safely stimulates growth and is followed by sufficient recovery time and supply of nutrients to permit the body to heal, which means to recover from the training and build a very small amount of overcompensation tissue—muscle.

Train too often, and you may not stimulate any growth because you’re unable to train hard enough because of the excessive frequency of training. And even if you do stimulate growth, you’ll not have sufficient recuperation time between workouts to permit the growth to occur.

It’s very easy for a natural bodybuilder with normal genetics to overtrain. But someone with outstanding genetics for bodybuilding can prosper on more frequent training, and such a person can prosper on even more frequent training if he’s on bodybuilding drugs.

Hardgainers are best off training no more than three times a week, but with just twice a week being ideal for many bodybuilders. But the super-responsive, drug-fed bodybuilding elite can prosper on six workouts a week. (Some, for short periods, have progressed on twice-daily training, six days a week!)

Such high frequency is training suicide for hardgainers. But even the pros can overtrain, and many of them have discovered that, even with their huge advantages, when they cut back on their training frequency (and volume) they are better able to build muscle.

Don’t think that by splitting your training over, say, four workouts a week is necessarily easier on your recovery system than two brief full-body workouts. Because the muscular system is so interwoven, and many exercises overlap somewhat in the muscles they recruit, some split routines train some of the same muscles at every workout. Furthermore, intensive training for just a limited area of musculature still has an overall systemic demand that needs to be recovered from before you work a different area of your physique.

Recovery time—and lots of it for hardgaining bodybuilders—is essential in order to build muscle.

LIE 2: TRAIN LONGER TO BUILD MORE MUSCLE

The origins of this lie are the same as for the previous one. Men and women with exceptional genetic talent for an athletic activity, especially when assisted by performance enhancing drugs, can prosper on a far greater volume of training than can drug-free, genetically normal athletes.

Some great medium- and long-distance runners, for example, inherited an ability to process oxygen and produce energy that’s in another world relative to that of a normal person. Of course, the great runners further enhance their natural advantages with great dedication to training, but they had way more to work with from day one. The same sort of point applies in the bodybuilding world.

As little as just one work set can stimulate muscle growth, provided that its quality is high enough. If you ever need to do more than three work sets for a given exercise, you must be loafing. Train harder. Make three work sets per exercise your ceiling. Sometimes, just one or two work sets per exercise is better. Some body parts are much larger than others, and thus can sometimes benefit from multiple exercises in a given program, but there’s no need to do a great many sets per body part.

Too much training is as counterproductive as training too often. But most hardgaining bodybuilders train too often and do too many sets per workout, and that combination is usually a major part of the explanation for why they continue to make little or no progress.

LIE 3: THE ROUTINES THAT WORK FOR THE BIGGEST GUYS WORK FOR OTHER BODYBUILDERS, TOO

The routines that work for the biggest bodybuilders only work well for people who have the same genetic advantages and drug support that the biggest guys have. While the big guys know what works well for them, that doesn’t mean they know what works for drug-free bodybuilders with normal genetics.

Someone who struggled for years without building any muscle, but then managed to build 25 pounds of muscle drug-free, knows way more about how to train genetically normal, drug-free bodybuilders than does a genetic freak on tons of drugs who has built over 100 pounds of muscle.

LIE 4: A BODYBUILDER’S DIET SHOULD BE A LOW-FAT ONE

A low-fat diet undermines if not prohibits muscle growth even if your caloric intake and protein consumption are adequate. The phobia of dietary fat that many bodybuilders seem to have seriously undermines their ability to build muscle.

When you’re trying to build muscle, get about 30% of your total caloric intake from healthy dietary fats. Avoid newfangled fats, fried food, deep fried food, and anything with trans fats or hydrogenated fats. If you check food labels, you’ll see that most processed food contains unhealthy fats.

And even if you’re cutting back on body fat you still need to consume healthy fats because they supply essential nutrients. A low-fat diet is unhealthy.

LIE 5: TO BUILD BIG MUSCLES IT’S NOT ESSENTIAL TO BE STRONG

Even bodybuilders who have a similar amount of muscle can vary greatly in their strength levels. The explanation may include differences in leverages, muscle belly lengths and efficiency of the nervous system, and variations in the ratios of the different types of muscle fibers. A smaller bodybuilder who is better put together for strength may be stronger than a larger bodybuilder.

But you have to get stronger than you are now, to build muscle. If you can bench press 150 pounds for eight reps now, and in a year’s time you still can’t bench press more than 150 pounds for eight reps, you’re highly unlikely to have bigger chest and triceps muscles. But if in a year’s time you can bench press 200 pounds for eight reps in the same technique as before, you’ll have somewhat bigger chest and triceps muscles. Then if, for instance, 18 months later you can bench press 265 pounds for eight reps in the same technique as before, you’ll have substantially bigger chest and triceps muscles.

The “get stronger to get bigger” maxim is misinterpreted or abused when bodybuilders focus on adding poundage at the expense of exercise form. Don’t be guilty of that. Exercise form must be correct consistently. You must not get injured.

LIE 6: WHEN YOU’RE BULKING, YOU NEED LOADS OF FOOD

On growth programs, many bodybuilders overdose on food, and thus overdose on body fat. While you need a sufficient surplus of calories and nutrients to grow on, “sufficient” doesn’t mean a gross excess. What “sufficient” means is enough to permit muscle growth but without adding appreciable body fat.

Most bodybuilders need to allow a small amount of body fat to accompany a larger amount of muscle growth. But many bodybuilders have overdone the bulking mentality and added far more body fat than muscle, which doesn’t yield a pleasing end result.

But no matter how ideal your caloric consumption may be, and how ideal your dietary fat and protein intakes may be, if you’re not training effectively, the surplus of nourishment will go to waste, and just add to your waistline.

To build muscle, you need an effective training program in combination with sufficient nutritional surplus and lots of sleep (and rest in general).

Related Articles :
How To Build Muscle - 8 Food That Help
How to Build Muscle Mass and Lose Weight
How To Build Muscle Fast
How To Build Muscle - 5 Mistakes

How To Build Muscle - 8 Food That Help

Pump Up Your Plate !
You can’t build muscle without hitting the gym, but you can grow your guns (or your gams or your six-pack) more efficiently by properly fueling your body. There’s no single food that holds the secret to bigger, stronger muscles, but protein is one nutrient that plays a major role in muscle development.

Protein is composed of 22 amino acids (what are these?), 9 of which our body can’t produce naturally, so it’s necessary to get them from foods like meat and dairy products. There’s one particularly promising amino acid called leucine that works “like a light switch,” according to Roberta Anding, RD, dietitian for the Houston Texans, to signal muscle protein synthesis, crucial to muscle growth and repair. Though protein requirements vary based on your size and activity level, a general rule is to consume about 20 g of protein per serving about three times a day. You should aim to get 2.5 to 3 g of leucine in each serving to maximize your time in the gym. You won’t want to exceed around 28 g of protein in a single sitting, because there’s a limit to how much your body can use at one time.

Avoid Common Strength Training Mistakes

In addition to filling your plate with protein-rich foods, it’s important to eat an array of foods in general, with a balance of carbohydrates and healthy fats, as well as fruits and veggies. Carbs supply your body with the energy it needs to build muscle, while fats help keep your brain and central nervous system—which control your muscles—performing smoothly. Meanwhile, fruits and vegetables pack antioxidants. These have anti-inflammatory properties and may help protect against muscle soreness.

To help you gain an edge in the weight room, we’ve identified a few mighty morsels that contain an optimal balance of nutrients for muscle growth. Read on and load up your plate today.

Cottage Cheese

Little Miss Muffet must have been able to pump major iron thanks to all those curds and whey—a dish more commonly known as cottage cheese. The white stuff is an excellent source of whey protein, one of the best muscle builders out there. Whey has the highest concentration of leucine, so each cup of cottage cheese delivers about 2.8 g of leucine and 28 g of protein.

Smoothie with Whey Powder

While there are a number of ways to get whey through food, such as milk, cheese, and yogurt, whey protein powder is another option for meeting your daily protein and leucine needs. A 25 g scoop of the magic dust packs 2.5 g of leucine. “When I work with clients, I teach them to make smoothies,” says Susan Kleiner, RD, PhD, owner of High Performance Nutrition near Seattle, WA. Mix frozen fruit—it’s full of important antioxidants—with milk, 100% fruit juice, or yogurt, and add about 21 g of whey supplement, she suggests. Throw in a touch of flaxseed or extra-virgin olive oil to inject some healthy fats into the concoction.

Eggs

There’s a reason eggs seem to top most healthy foods lists these days. Not only are they a lean snack at around 70 calories a pop, but also full of big-time benefits for your muscles. You’ll eat up 6 g of protein and 330 mg of leucine per egg, plus yokes contain the ultra-valuable nutrient choline, which supports acetycholine, the most abundant neurotransmitter in your body. “You can’t expect to train hard without choline,” Kleiner says, “Brain cells can’t be well fed without phospholipids from egg yolks.” She suggests making a protein-packed meal of one whole egg with four egg whites. “You’ll get all of the leucine you need in a serving, as well as the important components of the egg yolk. If you can throw in vegetables, you’ll have a wholesome beginning to your day.”

In addition to setting you up with more than 3 g of leucine, a can of tuna contains a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids, which produce multiple muscular benefits. Research published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine has indicated that omega-3 fatty acids found in fish may contribute to signaling muscle protein synthesis in older adults. A study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine indicates that fish oil may also reduce inflammation and decrease muscle soreness, which may allow exercisers to train longer and harder. Finally, you can’t ignore the fat-burning properties of fish. “Fish proteins enhance loss of abdominal fat. As you build muscle you want to burn fat, and fish is a key factor in keeping that down,” Kleiner says.

Chicken

When you think of building a beefy body, you may think of, well, beef. However, chicken’s one of the best sources of leucine around. A mere 3 ounces of chicken breast will set you up with more than 3 g of leucine and nearly 20 g of protein, at less than 100 calories. Because it’s a lean meat, chicken can help you maintain a healthy muscle-to-fat ratio. “[To build muscle] you want to gain the most muscle and the least amount of fat,” Kleiner says.

Quinoa

This mighty grain packs 8 g of protein per cup, including a complete set of branched chain amino acids—leucine, isoleucine, and valine—that play a crucial role in helping muscles grow. With each cup you’ll also get 39 g of carbohydrates—not always a bad thing. The body’s number one need is energy, which carbs supply, says Kleiner. “You must meet your energy need before you go out and build muscle. If you’re cutting carbs to lose body fat, you’re missing something important,” she says. “I see a lot of people who underfuel this way.”

Coffee

If you feel like a jolt of java puts a spring in your step, you’re not entirely mistaken. “Most people find they can work out harder longer if they have caffeine before exercise,” Kleiner says. A UK study found that the combination of caffeine and a carbohydrate, such as cereal, allowed soccer players to sustain higher work intensity. Similarly, research from the University of Illinois found that coffee may reduce pain during exercise. Research has also indicated that there may be a plus side to a postexercise cup of joe. An Australian study found that glycogen—your muscles’ fuel during exercise—is more rapidly replenished when athletes consume caffeine with their carbohydrates.

Edamame

One cup of these green guys (without shells) will jump-start muscle protein synthesis with 17 g of protein and a little more than 1 g of leucine. They’re also packed with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which support your brain and central nervous system. “To function at peak capacity in the gym, your brain must have enough healthy fats,” Kleiner says. A cup of edamame also serves up a healthy dose of inflammation-reducing antioxidants.

Related Articles :
How to Build Muscle Mass and Lose Weight
How To Build Muscle Fast
How To Build Muscle Fast
Mistake How To Build Muscle

How to Build Muscle Mass and Lose Weight

Most body builders wonder how to build muscle fast and lose weight at the same time. However, working out with this goal in mind will lead them to keep lifting weights for years on end. The body needs lots of food in order to gain muscle, together with reducing all activities that are considered extraneous. To shed fat and lose weight after building muscle mass, the body needs a lot of cardiovascular type tedious exercise and a much less number of calories.

How to Build Muscle Mass and Lose Weight by Building Muscle

• Strength Training
The quickest way of building muscle is just to get stronger. The stronger one is, the stronger they will look. One should adopt a strength training program and perform barbell exercises that hit several muscles simultaneously, such as dead lifts, squats, and overhead presses. It is advisable to begin with an empty barbell, and gradually increase the weight after familiarizing oneself with the exercise technique.


• Proper Nutrition
To build muscle and get stronger, one needs a solid nutrition. Keeping the nutrition healthy enables one to lose fat. It is advisable to avoid food that is packaged in boxes, and concentrate on those that are available in their natural state. Limit the consumption of junk food to about once per week, avoid trans-fats and soda. Following such tips will lead to a significant difference within a short time.

How to Build Muscle Mass and Lose Weight by Losing Fat

• Cardiovascular Exercises
Strength training builds muscles while at the same time reducing one’s body fat. The body fat is further decreased by eating healthy food. It is advisable to do about half an hour of cardio after finishing strength training. Doing these three times a week can help as long as it is done with moderate intensity. The main aim of cardio is not to exhaust oneself, but to burn fat. One should take heavier breathes when working out than when resting, but should not gasp.


• Cutting Calories
Another tip for losing fat involves cutting calories. One is advised to track his food intake with the help of Fitday and begin eating about 18 times the current body weight. After a week, cut about 500 kilo-calories and then check the balance after another week. If after this one has lost weight, then they can continue consuming a similar amount of calories. However, failure to lose weight should be fixed by cutting another 500 kilo-calories.


• Avoid Starvation
Not anyone wishing to lose fat should attempt to starve him or herself. Fat acts as an emergency storage for the body, and failure to eat will lead to the body holding the fat and burning the muscle. This is the exact opposite of what one is looking for. Therefore, one should only cut calories after failure to make notable progress.

In the case of female bodybuilders, losing fat, building muscles and strength training is the same as that of their male counterparts. The only difference is that women possess other hormonal profiles that men do not have. This means that women will always have more body fat and less muscle mass than men will. However, the approach of how to build muscle mass and lose weight remains the same.

Related Articles :
How To Build Muscle Fast
How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat
Ways To Build Muscle
Mistake How To Build Muscle