For all the fantastic advice you can find about bodybuilding, you’ll find just as much terrible advice that will hold you back and interrupt your fitness journey. HomeGrown Lifting wants to see you hit your goals and then some, so we’re debunking the top myths about weight lifting. Ready? Let’s get started.
Keep Your Muscles Guessing
Wait, what? Your muscles can’t be kept on their proverbial toes by suddenly throwing in a set of new exercises. Muscles adapt to stimuli, and this means you can’t shock them. Your muscles will get bigger through hard work and commitment, not by trying to surprise them.
You Can Eat Anything…If You Train Every Day
We’ve heard this one so many times we sometimes hear it in our sleep. An unhealthy approach to nutrition will only make you look and feel less than your best. The phrase, “You are what you eat.” is pretty accurate. Keeping your calories and macros in check is the only way you will build muscle, lose fat, and be able to take your training to the next level.
A calorie deficit is the only possible way to get cut (become leaner). Excess calories beyond what you burn in a day will be stored as fat. It’s just science. If you have been living in that “anything goes” eating zone, don’t try to lose weight in an unhealthy way, or you’ll also compromise your muscular growth.
You MUST Train to Failure
Even top fitness influencers will offer this piece of bad advice. The truth is that this is a quick route to overtraining and losing progress. Training to fail occasionally isn’t bad, but it’s not a requirement for muscle growth. Studies have shown that, when divided into two groups, weightlifters who never trained to failure showed similar gains to those who went too hard every set.
Overtraining Is Not a Thing
This one gets to us because we care about the weightlifting community, especially our customers. Anyone who tells you that overtraining is a myth is doing so for three possible reasons: 1. They’re lying, 2. They don’t push hard at any workout, or 3. They’re using performance enhancers. We’re not suggesting you accuse people who make this claim of using drugs, but you should share the truth with them.
Overtraining leads to intense fatigue that will not begin to improve until you pump the brakes, and there are ways you can monitor yourself for going too hard. If you’re catching colds and getting injured more frequently, it may be time to be kinder to your body. Other symptoms include sleep disturbances and changes in mood. We’d like to note that functional overreaching is entirely different and is ok to do from time to time.
Untrained Muscle Becomes Fat
Ok, we completely understand how this myth began. You have to take a little time away from the gym, notice less muscle definition, and suddenly believe your once-strong core muscles are slowly wasting away to fat. The good news is that this isn’t possible because fat and muscle are different types of tissue.
The bad news is that while you’re on hiatus from the gym, you’re likely to lose some muscle mass while simultaneously gaining fat simply due to the change in your activity level. Don’t get too worked up over this because as soon as you’re back in action, your body will be ready, too.
Boost Your Workout
If you have questions about weightlifting or simply want top-quality weight training products made in the USA, give us a call. Our team has the professional background and knowledge to help you make the best choices regarding your fitness journey. We manufacture our equipment in Kentucky and are happy to ship across the lower 48 states.