Don’t be one of those people who easily fall for the misconceptions about working out that have littered the minds of many over time. It can be a costly mistake to listen to them and exert a lot of effort when in reality, they weren’t actually accurate and you’ve just been wasting your energy and time.
In order to avoid them, one must know what these misconceptions are. Here we shall tackle a few incorrect assumptions regarding and misconceptions about working out and its closely associated side activities.
First, it is not true that doing more repetitions will build larger muscles. For an increase in size and bulk, you don’t want to do exercises with more repetitions. What you want is to engage in weight exercises that force your muscles to counteract a great amount of weight. Barbell curls and power lifting are the exercises that will actually help build your muscles and these exercises don’t need a lot of repetitions. 5-12 reps are already very much enough to break down your muscle fibers for replacement during rest.
Second, it is also not true that steroids equal large muscles. Steroids are actually natural or synthetic hormones that improve your body’s secretion of sugar and salt. This helps in increasing your energy for a more extensive and intense workout but does not directly increase the bulk, size, and tone of your muscles. These hormones are not a replacement for a good backbreaking workout, rather they work their charm when you complement them.
Third, it is not true that developing six-pack abs is done by sit-ups and crunches alone. Although these exercises actually DO tone up your rectus abdominis muscle, and the adjacent muscle groups in your abdomen responsible for that cut-up rock-hard six-pack look, they won’t do you any good if you have a thick layer of fat floating on top of them. These exercises make your abs more defined, but to make them visible, you’d have to get rid of that fat layer first by other forms of exercises and diet changes for weight loss.
Fourth, you may have heard the myth that the best time to exercise is during the morning. Actually, this has no basis in scientific truth and is mostly just a preference of convenience. Exercising in the morning works best for most people because it provides less chances of being put off by other responsibilities that may arise during the day. Also, morning is when you’ve rested your whole body from sleep and so should provide you with the most energy to do about your exercises. However, if night time is the time when you can focus best on exercising, then do so then by all means.
Last, and probably one of the most overused of them, is the saying that with no pain there is no gain. While it is normal to have soreness in the muscles especially when you’ve just started your workout routine, that same soreness should no longer be a bother when your body has adapted to the intensity of your workout. And as you load up on the weights gradually to make your muscles withstand more and more weight, the soreness should only be minimal to none.
If you experience pain while working out, this means you’re either working out TOO much or at incorrect positions. You don’t want to be inadvertently tearing ligaments and dislocating joints now would you? Soreness is good, but remember that pain is not.
With these misconceptions about working out done and over with, you should be a little more wise when it’s your turn to lift those heavy weights in the gym. For more see our bicep workouts and exercises
