Building Muscle Fast - 3 Muscle-Building Myths That Can Bring Your Progress to a Trickle

If you have been lifting weights and researching muscle building for any significant amount of time, you have probably come across a great deal of confusing, conflicting, and just plain bad advice The upsurge in the popularity of bodybuilding and fitness on the internet has unfortunately brought forth a wealth of misinformation about the best ways to eat and train to for building maximum muscle mass

If you have been lifting weights and researching muscle building for any significant amount of time, you have probably come across a great deal of confusing, conflicting, and just plain bad advice. The upsurge in the popularity of bodybuilding and fitness on the internet has unfortunately brought forth a wealth of misinformation about the best ways to eat and train to for building maximum muscle mass. Here are three of the most blatant myths in the fitness world that you would do best to avoid.

Low Reps to "Bulk", High Reps to "Tone"

The most common myth about building muscle is that low reps and heavy weights should be used to "bulk," and that lighter weights and higher reps should be used to "cut" or "tone." Some gurus and bad trainers even go so far as to recommend avoiding key heavy exercises like squats and deadlifts when trying to lean down. You must understand that "bulking" and "toning" are nonsensical words created and used by bad trainers and self-proclaimed gurus.

As far as your physique goes, you should be concerned with building muscle and losing fat. Building new muscle tissue requires an intense stimulus from compound movements and heavy weights. Fat loss requires a caloric deficit from proper diet and exercise. Not only will switching to lighter weights during a fat loss phase NOT help your results, it will make your physique WORSE. To retain, or even gain muscle while losing fat, you must give your body the same intense stimulus that allowed it to build the muscle in the first place.

You can Only Digest 30 Grams of Protein per Meal

Though the vast majority of bodybuilding nutritionists realize that you need a great deal of protein to build muscle, there is still immense debate over the exact amount required. There are an unfortunate number of people who insist that the human body has some kind of cap on the number of grams of protein it can absorb in a given time period, and that any more is useless or even counterproductive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As you gain more muscle and get used to eating a high protein, high calorie, muscle-building diet, your body will increase its ability to use this nutrient. Most "experts" recommend eating somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, but a better guideline for an intense trainee would be closer to 2 grams per pound. At a current weight of 250 pounds, I can tell you that I have seen my best muscular gains eating 80-100 grams per meal and around 500 per day.

Overtraining

True overtraining is a real issue, but nowhere near to the extent gurus would have you believe. Many writers will claim that the use of proven bodybuilding techniques such as drop sets, supersets, and split routines will somehow lead to a state of extreme fatigue and a nearly complete lack of progress. What you should realize is that most people that write nonsense like this have made very little muscle-building progress themselves and are basing their claims on supposedly scientific studies instead of real-world results.

If your muscular gains are lacking, you should always check your diet before worrying about "overtraining." If you are not eating enough to gain weight, then it is no wonder that your strength and muscle mass are not increasing. A true state of overtraining is generally something that only advanced athletes need to worry about.

Hopefully you are now better-educated about the best ways to build muscle. Avoiding these myths will put you on the fast track to your best gains ever.

David LaMartina is a competitive powerlifter who currently sits at a solid 250 pounds and has achieved a 590 squat, 315 bench, and 635 deadlift. If you found his muscle-building tips helpful, visit this site. If you would like to learn more about how to gain muscle through smart, intense training and quality nutrition, click here.