- Building Muscle Myth 1
Your muscles need to be on a 'pump' in order to grow and develop.
For those of you who are just starting out building muscle, a 'pump' is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside a muscle tissue when you train with resistance. The muscles will swell up and leave your body feeling bigger, tighter, stronger and more powerful.
While a pump does feel fantastic, it has very little, if anything to do with properly stimulating your muscles to grow.
A pump is simply the result of increased bloodflow to the muscle tissue and is certainly not indicative of a successful workout.
A successful workout should only be gauged by the concept of progression. If you were able to lift more weight or perform more reps than you did in a previous session, then the workout was a success and there are your first signs of muscle building progression.
- Building Muscle Myth 2
If you're not blessed with god-like genetics, you will struggle to build muscle.
Blaming one’s genetics is the oldest trick in the book. It’s the ultimate excuse because it deals with an issue not many people really understand.
What are genetics and do they affect muscular development?
Your genetics are the factors which make us what and who we are. They evolve from the process of inheritance and cannot be individually controlled.
You heard correctly, we have very limited control over what we are given; therefore total concentration should be given to working on what genetics we already have.
Whenever I talk about human genetics to professional teams and clients, I immediately relate them back to common variations between different races. Some pacific Islanders and Maoris (New Zealand Native) are known to carry a genetic makeup called ‘monoamine oxidase’ which gives an increase in muscle tissue size over some other races. Sometimes it has nothing at all to do with your heritage. Many people are gifted with good bone density, fast metabolisms and broad shoulders, all of which may work as an advantage or disadvantage when building muscle.
The best way to visually inspect a variation in a person’s genetic makeup is to visit a bodybuilding competition in your local area. There you can see well developed men and woman who have obviously had great success building muscle, with minimal body fat levels, putting it all out there for everybody to see.
Diversity can be seen when comparing contestants abdominal regions. Believe it of not but the Hollywood style 6 pack abs with straight lines and even-sized abdominals is rarely seen. Some people’s genetic makeup means they have 8 squares, or crooked abdominals which are formed more like bricks rather than an ice tray.
Your genetics are what you have inherited from past generations. We haven’t got the choice of where we come from so blaming your genetics on a lack of development is laughable.
One needs to start understanding both their strengths and weaknesses before building muscle, if that means working three time as hard converting those weaknesses into strengths, then so be it.
I hope the above two myths now make a lot more sense and you can continue on with the more important aspects of your muscle building training.
