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In the quest to get that elusive bodybuilder
look, guys and some girls will try just about any workout
that's out there. They often go from one routine to another
without seeing any real results at all. The problem is that
many of these fad workouts don't do any good at all and some
are even harmful and downright dangerous. So the purpose of
this article is to debunk two big myths that so many would-be
bodybuilders are still believing in and get you on to the
right track.
Myth #1 is the never-ending workout from hell. This is the
kind of workout that you see in the pages of a lot of muscle
mags where some totally huge bodybuilder guy takes you through
this all day project of a workout with set after super set
of every conceivable exercise imaginable that you do 5 at
least five days a week. The idea is that the more lifting
you do, the better results you're going to get. That must
be what it takes to get ripped if the big guy in the pics
is doing it. Well, the problem is that this theory is true...
if you are taking illegal steroids like the guy in the pic
probably is. Anabolic steroids cut down the recovery time
necessary for the muscle fibers to grow back. So when you
are taking these drugs, you can afford to spend 8-hours in
the gym and get the results. But if you're not, this workout
will only help break your body down. At the very most, you
should be in the gym no more than an hour and a half and that's
it.
Myth #2 is that in order to bulk up, you lift heavier weights
with fewer reps and you use lighter weights with more reps
get you more defined. This is absurd. You can't shape a muscle.
You can only stimulate it to grow and the workout that does
this most effectively is the one that uses heavy weights with
fewer reps. Using lighter weights with more reps can feel
like it's working because you feel a burn from the lactic
acid that builds up from the exercise. But this only fatigues
the muscle and does little to help it grow. The way you get
definition is by losing the fat that is covering the muscle
and you do this with a combination of taking in fewer calories
than you burn. The first thing you want to determine is what
your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. This is the number of
calories your body burns at rest. There is a free easy-to-use
BMR calculator on the left hand column of my website. Just
click on one of the links in the resource below to check it
out. Once you find out what your BMR is, you want to consume
at least 500 but not more than 1000 calories less than your
BMR. You don't want to go on a diet that's too severe because
your body will go into starvation mode and protect itself
by lowering your metabolism. Additionally, you may wind up
burning off muscle along with the fat.
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