BIG LIE #11: To build muscle, focus on the pump
You could train specifically for a pump, using light weights, low to moderate intensity, high reps, and little rest between sets, but that won’t build much muscle for most bodybuilders, if any muscle.
When you train properly, you may get a pump (depending on you, the exercise, and the particular way you train), but the pump would be a side-effect only. It’s possible to train well and yet not experience much of a pump.
What matters is bodybuilding progress, not pump per se.
.
BIG LIE #12: You can reshape a muscle through training
If you have flat biceps, you can’t build muscle in just the area required to produce a peak.
If you have high calves (short calf muscle belly), you can’t build muscle in just the low area to fill out the bottom part.
And if you have a four-pack ab formation, you can’t develop a distinct six-pack.
But what you can do is develop much larger muscles of the same shape that you started with, and shed body fat so that you can see the lines of your muscle shape clearly. And that combination will transform you.
.
BIG LIE #13: To build muscle, instinctive training is better than structured training
Effective training — especially for drug-free, genetically normal bodybuilders — must be within a specific overall framework, or otherwise the muscle growth will be minimal or non-existent. There’s nothing instinctive about such training. You need to be properly informed.
Some super-duper responsive bodybuilders can chop and change their training routines a great deal and still make progress, but they aren’t typical of the huge majority of bodybuilders.
Even if some pros do train “instinctively,” what they do is based on their experience of what’s effective for them. But those men are so responsive that what works for them is often in a different world to what works for normal bodybuilders. Pretty much any training works for them, although some approaches work better than others.
.
BIG LIE #14: Some food supplements are as effective as steroids, but safe
“Works as well as steroids” is a claim that’s been used to promote some food supplements. But it’s a lie.
Only other powerful anabolic pharmaceuticals are as effective as steroids.
Absolutely no food supplement is as effective as anabolic steroids.
.
BIG LIE #15: A bodybuilder’s nutrition should be low in fat
A low-fat diet undermines if not prohibits muscle growth even if your caloric intake and protein consumption are adequate, and your training is done well. (Remember, though, that I’m referring to drug-free, genetically normal bodybuilders.)
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, which include saturated fats. Avoid newfangled fats (including margarine), 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 plenty of healthy fats. A low-fat diet is unhealthy.
.
BIG LIE #16: When you’re bulking, you need loads of food
On growth programs, many bodybuilders overdose on food, and then overdose on body fat. While you need a sufficient surplus of calories and nutrients to grow on, that doesn’t mean a gross excess. It means enough to permit muscle growth but without adding appreciable body fat, and it varies according to factors including age, bodyweight, and activity level.
To be successful with building muscle, 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, or how ideal your intake of macronutrients 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 together with sufficient nutritional surplus and lots of sleep (and rest in general).
For information on Stuart’s work, please visit hardgainer.com
