If you have a heartfelt desire to commit to a genuine muscle-building program, it’s a precarious affair unless you are with the right guide, since the body-building and fitness industry is more commercially driven than you can ever imagine, with new websites popping up by the day.
The self-proclaimed experts of this multi-billion dollar industry are hardly knowledgeable about even the basic facts, accomplishing sales-target with expensive pills, powders and so-called miracle programs being their sole concern. One wrong step may lead to fatal, undesirable results, sometimes causing you to lose your muscle-building potential irreversibly. The following are some of the most important and harmful myths regarding muscle-building:
Myth #1: Muscle-building is synonymous with “pump it!” The greater the pump achieved, the more the progress…
For starters and novices, the term ‘pump’ is used to describe the feeling one gets when the blood gets retained in muscle tissue due to weight training, causing the muscles to swell. This, as expected, gives one an obvious sense of progress, but is false since it hardly lends a hand in helping muscles to grow. Thu,s the individual is led into a false sense of achievement, whereas performance is the true measure of progress, where one can rate oneself by the value of weight lifted or number of reps performed as compared to a previous session.
Myth #2: Muscle-building reduces body flexibility.
This concept is from the old days where hefty, rugged people were called muscle bound. On the contrary, muscle-building is in fact known to speed up one’s reflexes rather than slow them down. Simply put, stronger muscles imply not only greater force which it can apply, but also greater agility and speed of reflexes. For instance, stronger leg muscles lead to increased foot speed.
Myth #3: Theory regarding form of exercises should be followed to the letter.
While following good form in the gym is recommended, trying to be too accurate may not, in fact, lead to positive results. Instead of achieving the stimulation desired, the muscles may in fact become prone to injury. Natural body movement should never be compromised upon or restricted. Let the instinct of natural body movement take the lead. Too much obsession for perfection may yield unwanted results.
Myth #4: If you ‘feel the burn,’ you are doing things right!!
This is another misconception. The burning sensation, as we all know, is caused due to the secretion of lactic acid by muscular tissue during exercise. This lactic acid production should, in fact, be kept in check by doing limited number of reps, say 5-7 instead of the conventional 10, rather than overworking the muscles, subjecting them to wear and tear.