More often than not, we hear in the gym or read online these muscle myths that probably have their origins in the so called “bro science”. Today, we will go over 5 of the most common myths and debunk them with some science.
One thing to be considered is that pretty much any given exercise will recruit more than one muscle group. When you’re training chest, for example, you’re also loading your shoulders and triceps. By training your back, you’re recruiting a lot of biceps and forearm fibers. Not to mention your core muscles, that are used for stabilization pretty much all of the time.
Eventually, you’ll reach a point where it’ll get really difficult to add more weight or reps to your training, that’s when you might want to manipulate the frequency of your workouts to break a plateau, for example. At this point, mixing different kinds of stimuli can be extremely beneficial for your overall progress.
Studies have already demonstrated that full-body workouts induce greater or at least similar hypertrophic response compared to 3-way and body-part splits, as long as you’re able to rotate properly between the exercise variations (for example, if one day you do a standard shoulder press, the next day do lateral raises and so on).
In fact, de-load weeks, where you dial back the intensity of your workouts, are better than not hitting the gym at all. Also, light stretching and cardio will reduce soreness and speed your recovery by improving blood circulation throughout the body.
As long as your caloric deficit is moderate (about 500 calories) and you’re training and eating properly, you should still be able to make gains.
Sure, if you’re on a caloric surplus you might just be able to make more gains, but not by much. You’ll probably also gain a decent deal of fat, which you’ll have to cut later, so in the end if you don’t need to put on massive size, it’s best to just eat at your equilibrium rate or have a slight deficit you want a lean physique year around.
Muscle soreness has to do with many other factors, such as lactic acid buildup, your fitness level, and how sensitive your nociceptors (pain receptors) are, and is not directly related to real hypertrophy.
Do you think that if your soreness can be reduced with things like stretching, warming up, ice cold compressions and such it means your workout was less effective? Of course not.
- Trained muscles need 48 hours of rest.
One thing to be considered is that pretty much any given exercise will recruit more than one muscle group. When you’re training chest, for example, you’re also loading your shoulders and triceps. By training your back, you’re recruiting a lot of biceps and forearm fibers. Not to mention your core muscles, that are used for stabilization pretty much all of the time.
Eventually, you’ll reach a point where it’ll get really difficult to add more weight or reps to your training, that’s when you might want to manipulate the frequency of your workouts to break a plateau, for example. At this point, mixing different kinds of stimuli can be extremely beneficial for your overall progress.
- You’ll get better results with a body-part split.
Studies have already demonstrated that full-body workouts induce greater or at least similar hypertrophic response compared to 3-way and body-part splits, as long as you’re able to rotate properly between the exercise variations (for example, if one day you do a standard shoulder press, the next day do lateral raises and so on).
- Muscle recovery requires complete inactivity.
In fact, de-load weeks, where you dial back the intensity of your workouts, are better than not hitting the gym at all. Also, light stretching and cardio will reduce soreness and speed your recovery by improving blood circulation throughout the body.
- You won’t gain muscle on a caloric deficit.
As long as your caloric deficit is moderate (about 500 calories) and you’re training and eating properly, you should still be able to make gains.
Sure, if you’re on a caloric surplus you might just be able to make more gains, but not by much. You’ll probably also gain a decent deal of fat, which you’ll have to cut later, so in the end if you don’t need to put on massive size, it’s best to just eat at your equilibrium rate or have a slight deficit you want a lean physique year around.
- Feeling sore means a good workout.
Muscle soreness has to do with many other factors, such as lactic acid buildup, your fitness level, and how sensitive your nociceptors (pain receptors) are, and is not directly related to real hypertrophy.
Do you think that if your soreness can be reduced with things like stretching, warming up, ice cold compressions and such it means your workout was less effective? Of course not.
