7 Muscle building myths

C

CobaltSSGuy

0
What are your thoughts? Do you agree/disagree? Why?

The only one i'm on the fence about is the "slower lifting builds muscle" They say that it doesn't do anything for you, but unless i'm just way off, i've noticed that when you do a gradual slower lift, your muscles become more "stable" or less shakey while lifting. If that makes any sense...

[I'm not sure if this is a repost, i searched and didn't find anything.]
 
Faster lifting will recruit more fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers have more potential for growth. slow twitch muscle fibers will always be recruited first, and fast twitch fibers will be recruited if your slow twitch fibers can't lift the weight on their own. Let's say you do a 12 rep set, at the first reps you're probably not recruiting a lot of fast twitch fibers, but if you lift it as fast as possible, you will be recruiting large amounts of fast twitch fibers throughout the entire set.

Now, it must be said that it is the intended speed that matters. If you life heavy, the bar will move slow, but the thing that matters is that you put everything you've got behind it.

Now of course, this doesn't mean you can lift so fast that you compromise good form, that is not the idea. Lift as fast as possible while maintaining good form.
This is all for the concentric (lifting portion) of the exercise, on the eccentric, varying tempos can be a good idea.

I'm not saying slow concentric lifting never has it's place, but for most people looking for maximal hypertrophy it's better to lift fast.

Chad Waterbury, an author who writes over at t-nation has several articles explaining the mechanisms behind lifting fast:
T-Nation.com | 3 Reasons to Lift Explosively

If you want, I can try to look up more.
 
If I see one more link to T-nation, I'm burning my computer.

The thing I like about Men's Health is they tend to find practicing professionals to write their articles. The myths, and truths, are accurate.
 
You can hate t nation all you want, but do you hate the authors? Don't just look at the site, look at who writes the articles.
You can say what you want about their BB pics and supplement pushing, but they do have a lot of good and respected authors who write there. I've never gotten **** when I've linked to something from for example Eric Cressey, unless of course it was published on t nation. Bottom line is, where it is published doesn't matter, the writer makes the content and if the article is good or not has to do with the writer. T nation is probably one ofthe best site on the internet for free articles if you know what authors to read from.

Isn't mens health a place for fitness and cardio bunnies anyways?
 
c'mon, Karks, you should know me better than that to actually be upset about something so oblivious. Link all you want. I hold no ill grudge against T-Nation, and they do have some good articles on there. Do not feel offended.

when it comes to strength training...Men's Health is actually pretty decent from some other magazines I can list.

Myths are extremely common, and they pop up even in here all the time, so it's nice that we have places we can go to debunk these "facts."
 
Karky said:
Faster lifting will recruit more fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers have more potential for growth. slow twitch muscle fibers will always be recruited first, and fast twitch fibers will be recruited if your slow twitch fibers can't lift the weight on their own. Let's say you do a 12 rep set, at the first reps you're probably not recruiting a lot of fast twitch fibers, but if you lift it as fast as possible, you will be recruiting large amounts of fast twitch fibers throughout the entire set.

Now, it must be said that it is the intended speed that matters. If you life heavy, the bar will move slow, but the thing that matters is that you put everything you've got behind it.

Now of course, this doesn't mean you can lift so fast that you compromise good form, that is not the idea. Lift as fast as possible while maintaining good form.
This is all for the concentric (lifting portion) of the exercise, on the eccentric, varying tempos can be a good idea.

I'm not saying slow concentric lifting never has it's place, but for most people looking for maximal hypertrophy it's better to lift fast.

Chad Waterbury, an author who writes over at t-nation has several articles explaining the mechanisms behind lifting fast:

If you want, I can try to look up more.
Click to expand...

makes great sense! thanks for the link!
 
Good thread....it all makes basic sense.

T-Nation tends to come up with some pretty intense stuff...almost like those tabloids, they tend to like to write stuff that has a shocking title, as if they're onto something huge and re-writing the science as we know it. They hype it a little, but it still merits reading and has worth!

Men's Health pings away at the generic info....they basically keep saying the same thing in as many different ways as possible. It's good reading for the newbie, intermediate or anyone looking to kill some time while sitting on the toilet. ;)

I know I've mentioned my nutritionist quite a bit..he's a consultant/writer for Men's Health...and he's spent a lot of time rippin' into a lot of the stuff written at T-Nation....but still, I enjoy chewing the info and processing the thoughts...so it's all good.

As for the article, I think they conveyed the first thought wrong....the fast-lift group burned 71% more calories? That's quite a bit.....not sure I buy it.

Good info Karks. All I know is that the more intense I weight-train, the more my racquetball game and endurance swimming get messed with!

I'm also not so sold on the ratio thing....from what I understand, you just need to get the nutrients you need within the day. I'm sure there's some optimization by hitting is right after a workout, but still...it's not nearly as critical as they say. An example is right after doing a long bike-ride...they suggest immediately hitting the food so you can replenish the glycogen withing a certain window. Research shows that even hours later the body will still replenish the glycogen as nutrients become available...all this hype about a 30-minute window is just that; hype...or so the research seems to indicate. I guess it depends who did the research? :D
 
FunctionalTrain said:
when it comes to strength training...Men's Health is actually pretty decent from some other magazines I can list.
Click to expand...

Yeah, every time I think 'I fancy getting big biceps and ripped abs but only have 30 days to do it', I go straight to Mens Health :)

Seriously, if I had to sum up everything wrong about the health and fitness industry I'd just hand over a copy of Mens Health
 
Typhon said:
Yeah, every time I think 'I fancy getting big biceps and ripped abs but only have 30 days to do it', I go straight to Mens Health :)

Seriously, if I had to sum up everything wrong about the health and fitness industry I'd just hand over a copy of Mens Health
Click to expand...

Never once did I say it was a good magazine, just a certain aspect of it. I'm not talking all that big bi's and ripped abs crap either. Granted I think all those fitness magazines are s**t, but the articles written by performance experts in their magazines are pretty good stuff, and it's this part that I think Men's Health does a decent job at for people who are thinking about starting off.
 
yeah, there is usually some good info in most magasines or sites, the problem is just sorting it out from all the bad stuff.. unfortunately, most newbies can't do this. That's one of the biggest problems with learning all this yourself. You could get convinced by the wrong crowd and start believing wrong things because the people who tell you about it are persuasive. Maybe that is what has happened here.. maybe we are all just missinformed at have been convinced by people who have been convinced by other people.............................. who have believed something that is wrong to be correct..







Naaaah.. who am I kidding? I'm always right! :D
 
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