Is your training working, and building muscle?
If it isn’t, it’s time to find out why, and then make changes.
Start by understanding the BIG LIES of bodybuilding.
The BIG LIES are described in the context of drug-free, genetically normal bodybuilders, who are the target audience for this four-part series of articles.
But some of the BIG LIES are truths in the context of bodybuilders who are drug-assisted or genetically highly gifted. Especially so for bodybuilders who are drug-assisted AND genetically highly gifted.
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BIG LIE #1: Routines that work for the biggest bodybuilders also work for other bodybuilders
The high-volume routines that work well for the biggest bodybuilders only work well for people who have the same genetic advantages and drug support that the biggest guys have.
While the hugely muscled men know what works well for them, that doesn’t mean they know what works for drug-free bodybuilders with normal genetics for bodybuilding.
Someone who struggled for years without building any muscle, but then managed to build 20 pounds of muscle drug-free, knows way more about how to train genetically normal, drug-free bodybuilders than does a genetic phenomenon on drugs who has built over 100 pounds of muscle.
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BIG LIE #2: Train more often to grow more muscle
Of course, you must have sufficient training frequency (and volume) in order to build muscle, but that “sufficient” is a lot less than what most bodybuilders think is required.
There may seem to be some logic to BIG LIE #2 because, in many activities, the more often that a skill is practiced properly, the quicker that competence is acquired.
But bodybuilding training isn’t like pure skill training.
Furthermore, when someone discovers that a modest frequency of proper training builds muscle, there’s a tendency to think that training more often will yield even better results.
A bodybuilding workout will build muscle only if it safely stimulates growth AND is followed by sufficient recovery time AND supply of nutrients to permit the body to heal, which means to recover from the training and build a very small amount of overcompensation tissue — muscle.
Train too often, and you may not stimulate any growth because you’re unable to train hard enough due to the excessive frequency of training. And even if you do stimulate growth, you’ll not have sufficient recuperation time between workouts to permit the growth to occur.
It’s very easy for a drug-free bodybuilder with normal genetics to overtrain. But someone with outstanding genetics for bodybuilding can prosper on more frequent training, and such a person can prosper on even more frequent training if he’s on bodybuilding drugs.
Hardgainers are best off training no more than three times a week, but with just twice a week being ideal for most of them. But the super-responsive, drug-assisted bodybuilding elite can prosper on six workouts a week. (Some, for short periods, have progressed on twice-daily training, six days a week.)
Such high frequency is training suicide for hardgainers. But even the pros can overtrain. Many of them have discovered that, even with their huge advantages, when they cut back on their training frequency (and volume) they are better able to build muscle.
Don’t think that by splitting your training over, say, four workouts a week is necessarily easier on your recovery system than two brief full-body workouts.
Because the muscular system is so interwoven, and many exercises overlap in the muscles they recruit, some of the same muscles get worked at every workout on some split routines.
Furthermore, intensive training even for just a limited area of musculature still has an overall systemic demand that needs to be recovered from before you work another area of your physique.
Sufficient recovery time — which means lots of it for hardgaining bodybuilders — is essential in order to build muscle.
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BIG LIE #3: Train longer to build more muscle
The origins of this lie are the same as for the previous one.
Men and women with exceptional genetic talent for an athletic activity, especially when assisted by performance enhancing drugs, can prosper on a far greater volume of training than can drug-free, genetically normal athletes.
Some great medium- and long-distance runners, for example, inherited an ability to process oxygen and produce energy that’s in another world relative to that of a normal person. Of course, the great runners further enhance their natural advantages with great dedication to training, but they had way more to work with from day one. The same sort of point applies in the bodybuilding world.
As little as just one work set can stimulate muscle growth, provided that its quality is high enough. If you ever need to do more than three work sets for a given exercise, you must be loafing. Train harder.
Make three work sets per exercise your ceiling. Sometimes, just one or two work sets per exercise is better.
Some body parts are much larger than others, and can sometimes benefit from multiple exercises in a given program, but there’s no need to do a great many sets per body part.
Too much training is as counterproductive as training too often. But most hardgaining bodybuilders train too often AND do too many sets per workout, and that combination is a major part of the explanation for why they continue to make little or no progress.
Head on to page 2 for more BIG lies!
BIG LIE #4: Isolation exercises are essential for building muscle
The primary mass-building exercises are the big compound movements including squats, regular deadlifts, parallel grip deadlifts, bench presses, dips, overhead presses, chin-ups and pull-ups, rows, and pulldowns. Each can build mass in a broad area.
Isolation exercises can also build muscle, but only in localized areas — these are the secondary mass-building exercises. To work your entire physique from isolation work alone, you would need many isolation exercises. But just a few of the big compound exercises work almost your entire physique.
In practice, most bodybuilders use a combination of primary and secondary exercises. But if they want to build a lot of muscle, hardgainers don’t have much “room” in their routines for isolation exercises.
Hardgainers nearly always include too many exercises in their routines, especially isolation movements.
Many hardgainers, at least for some of the time, would be best off without any isolation exercises in their routines.
The most responsive bodybuilders — epitomized by the pros — are another story. They can prosper on routines that comprise many of each category of exercises.
But even the pros’ thigh development owes way more to squats than leg extensions.
Their chest development owes way more to bench presses than the pec deck.
And their shoulder development owes way more to presses than forward raises.
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BIG LIE #5: To build muscle, exercise machines are essential
The primary advantages of modern-day machines are ease of use, and safety.
Consider how much easier it is for a gym instructor to guide someone on using a bench press machine than it is to teach how to bench press with a barbell or a pair of dumbbells. And consider that good machines are set up so that the user can’t get pinned under a weight, and spotters aren’t essential.
Some of the better machinery can be used well, with good results. But machines aren’t essential. And some are poorly designed, don’t fit many users, and can cause chronic irritations and problems.
Traditional equipment means barbells, dumbbells, power rack or racks with safety bars, and ordinary benches. Properly used, that equipment alone has produced amazing results.
Because most commercial gyms have an abundance of machinery, including machines for isolation exercises, most bodybuilders get distracted by that equipment, and lose focus from the exercises that matter the most.
But once you’re truly savvy about proper training, you should be able to work out effectively in any gym.
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BIG LIE #6: High reps produce definition, low reps build muscle mass
Both high reps and low reps can build muscle.
Both high reps and low reps can yield no muscle growth.
Both high reps and low reps can be incorporated in a program that results in fat loss.
Both high reps and low reps can be incorporated in a program that results in fat gain.
But there’s no rule that high reps definitely produce definition, or that low reps definitely build mass.
It’s not the rep number per se that’s critical, but how those reps are done, and within what overall program.
No matter what rep number is performed, if insufficient effort is delivered on the wrong exercises, or even if sufficient effort is delivered on the right exercises but there’s too much training volume or frequency (or insufficient supply of the components of recuperation), there will never be much if any new muscle growth.
Twenty-rep squats, properly performed and within the right overall program, are tremendous effective for building muscle. But so are medium- and low-rep squats.
Although there’s no tradition of 20-rep bench presses, overhead presses, and rows, muscle mass has been built on both low- and medium-rep sets of those exercises.
Doing super-high reps for the abs (or any other muscle) isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference for reducing body fat unless it coincides with a sufficient caloric deficit to force your body to draw on its reserves (stored as body fat) to supply the required balance of calories.
You can shed fat while doing high-rep ab work, low-rep ab work, or no ab work whatsoever, PROVIDED that you’re in sufficient caloric deficit for long enough. But very-high-rep work may contribute to loss of muscle.
More BIG lies await! Head over to page 3!
BIG LIE #7: To build big muscles, it’s not essential to be strong
Even bodybuilders who have a similar amount of muscle can vary greatly in their strength levels. The explanation may include differences in leverages, muscle belly lengths, efficiency of the nervous system, and variations in the ratios of the different types of muscle fibers.
A smaller bodybuilder who is better put together for strength may be stronger than a larger bodybuilder.
Let’s say, for instance, that you can currently just squeeze out six reps in the bench press with150 pounds, and in a year’s time you still can’t bench press more than 150 pounds for six reps. In such a case, you would be highly unlikely to have bigger pecs, delts and triceps.
But if in a year’s time you can bench press 200 pounds for six reps with the same technique as before, you’ll have somewhat bigger pecs, delts and triceps.
Then if, 18 months later, you can bench press 265 pounds for six reps with the same technique as before, you’ll have substantially bigger pecs, delts and triceps.
The “get stronger to get bigger” maxim is misinterpreted or abused when bodybuilders focus on adding poundage at the expense of exercise form. Don’t be guilty of that.
Exercise form must be correct, consistently. You must not get injured.
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BIG LIE #8: You can’t build muscle if you train just twice a week
If you train properly at each workout — which includes training hard enough on just a small number of the best exercises — you shouldn’t be capable of training more often than three times a week.
But working out just twice a week is better for most hardgainers, because they need lots of recovery time between workouts. (Training just twice-weekly is also more practical for most people than more frequent workouts. And having just two sessions per week can really boost your zest for working out, and your training intensity.)
Of course, if you never push any set to your limit, and you stick mostly to isolation exercises, you’ll be able to train four or more times each week without becoming exhausted. But those workouts won’t stimulate muscle growth.
The primary main aim of bodybuilding is to build muscle, and to do that you need hard workouts, and when you train hard you can’t train very often.
Genetically gifted bodybuilders, especially if they are drug-assisted, have far better recuperative abilities than the rest of us, and they can make good progress on a greater training frequency, but that’s another matter.
A split program that alternates two different but very short routines, while training three times a week, can be effective for some drug-free bodybuilders if properly designed. I sometimes recommend that when I want to wean bodybuilders off programs of four or more workouts per week.
But generally speaking, just two properly designed and performed workouts a week is ideal for hardgainers.
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BIG LIE #9: To build muscle, women should train differently to men
Muscle is muscle regardless of whether it’s on a man or a woman. But men and women have very different levels of some hormones. That’s what primarily accounts for the big difference in the quantity of muscle that can be built by the two sexes, even when similar training methods and levels of dedication are applied.
But men and women usually have different goals. Few women want to build big muscles.
For a woman to build muscle most effectively, she should train using the same methods that a hardgaining man should. Going through the motions on a long list of isolation exercises is just as ineffective for building muscle on a woman as it is on a man.
Hard, serious training is required for both sexes to build muscle, but the potential for muscle growth is way less for most women than it is for most men.
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BIG LIE #10: The powerlifts will make your physique look blocky
If you’re naturally stocky (with short limbs and a broad torso), the three powerlifts (properly done) will make you a larger-muscled stocky person.
If you’re naturally lanky (with long limbs and a narrow torso), the three powerlifts (properly done) will make you a larger-muscled lanky person.
And if you’re neither stocky nor lanky, the three powerlifts (properly done) will make you a larger-muscled neither stocky nor lanky person.
To build muscle, the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift are outstanding exercises when performed properly.
Stocky bodybuilders are usually especially suited to the squat and the bench press. Lanky bodybuilders are usually especially suited to the deadlift, and often have trouble barbell squatting with correct technique for an adequate range of motion. Lanky bodybuilders may be better off with the parallel grip deadlift rather than the barbell squat, and the parallel bar dip rather than the bench press.
Get the last BIG lies on the next page!
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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