Weight Gain Myths

 The vast majority of myths about weight gain are mostly passed down from 

"gym talk" and so-called experts who know nothing about the body's workings. 

 

Myths that lead to wasted time, and frustration and if taken blindly as truth, can really set back your progress in the gym. Don't believe everything you hear in the gym when it comes to exercise and weight gain, do the research yourself. 

Simple, basic principles apply to all weight and muscle gain such as progressive overload, variable frequency of reps,, and high-intensity workouts. Let's take a look at some of the most common weight gain myths. 

High repetitions burn fat while low repetitions build muscle.

Progressive overload is needed to make muscles bigger. 

Meaning that you need to perform more reps than you did 

for your last workout for that particular exercise. 

If you perform the same amount of reps at each workout nothing 

will change on you, also if the weight doesn’t changes on the bar nothing 

will change on you. You need to become stronger.

The definition has two characteristics, muscle size and a low 

incidence of body fat. To reduce body fat you will have to 

reduce your calories; the high repetition exercise will burn 

some calories, but wouldn't it be better to fast walk to burn these off?  

Better still; use the low reps to build muscle, which will 

elevate your metabolism and burn more calories (less fat).

Vegetarians can’t build muscle.

Yes, they can! Strength training with supplementation of 

soy Protein Isolate has been shown to increase solid body weight. 

Studies have shown that athletic performance is not impaired 

by following a meat-free diet, and people-strength training 

and consuming only soy protein isolate as a protein source 

were able to gain lean muscle mass. 

Strength Training will make you look masculine.

If it is not you’re intention to bulk up from strength training 

you won’t. Putting on muscle is a long hard slow process. 

Your strength-training regime coupled with quality food will 

determine how much you will bulk up. To bulk up you also require 

more food. Women don't produce enough testosterone to allow 

for muscular growth as large as men.

By working out you can eat whatever you want to.

Of course, you can eat whatever you want if you don't care 

how you want to look. Working out does not give you an open license 

to consume as many calories as you want. Although you will 

burn more calories if you work out than someone who doesn't, 

you still need to balance your energy intake with your energy 

expenditure.

If you take a week off you will lose most of your gains.

Taking one or two weeks off occasionally will not harm your 

training. By taking this time off every eight to ten weeks 

in between strength training cycles it has the habit of refreshing you and 

healing those small niggling injuries.  By having longer layoffs 

you do not actually lose muscle fibers, just volume 

through not training, any size loss will be quickly re-gained. 

By eating more protein I can build bigger muscles.

Building muscle mass involves two things, progressive overload 

to stimulate muscles beyond their normal levels of resistance 

and eating more calories than you can burn off. With all the 

the hype about high protein diets lately and because muscle is made 

of protein, it’s easy to believe that protein is the best fuel 

for building muscle, however, muscles work on calories which 

should predominately be derived from carbohydrates.

If I'm not sore after a workout, I didn't work out hard enough.

Post-workout soreness is not an indication of how good the 

exercise or strength training session was for you. The fitter 

you are at a certain activity, the less soreness you will 

experience after. As soon as you change an exercise, use a 

heavier weight, or do a few more reps you place extra stress 

on that body part and this will cause soreness. 

Resistance training doesn't burn fat.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Muscle is a 

metabolically active tissue and has a role in increasing 

metabolism. The faster metabolism we have the quicker 

we can burn fat. Cardio exercise enables us to burn 

calories whilst exercising but does little else for 

fat loss afterward. 

Weight training enables us to burn calories whilst 

exercising but also helps us to burn calories whilst 

at rest. Weight training encourages muscle growth 

and the more lean muscle mass we possess, the more 

fat we burn through an increased and elevated metabolism.

No pain no gain.

This is one myth that hangs on and on. Pain is your body 

signaling that something is wrong. If you feel real 

pain during a workout, stop your workout and rest. 

To develop muscle and increase endurance you may need 

to have a slight level of discomfort, but that's not 

actual pain. 

Taking steroids will make me huge.

Not true, strength training and correct nutrition will 

grow muscle. Taking steroids without training will not 

make you muscular. 

Most steroids allow faster muscle growth through greater 

recovery, while others help increase strength which 

allows for greater stress to be put onto a muscle. 

Without food to build the muscle or training to stimulate 

it, nothing will happen. Most of the weight gain seen 

with the use of some steroids is due to water 

retention and is not actual muscle.

Strength training won’t work your heart. 

Wrong!! Strength training with short rest periods will 

increase your heartbeat well over a hundred beats 

per minute. For example, performing a set of breathing 

squats and you can be guaranteed that your heart will 

be working overtime and that you're entire cardiovascular 

the system will be given a great overall body workout. 

Any intensive weightlifting routine that lasts for 

20 minutes or more is a great workout for your heart 

and the muscles involved. 

I can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. 

Wrong. Only a few gifted people with superb genetics 

can increase muscle size while not putting on body fat. 

But for the average hard gainer, they have to increase 

their muscle mass to its maximum potential and then cut 

down their body fat percentage to achieve the desired shape.