“If you’re not drinking a gallon of water a day you’re dehydrated.”
People diagnose dehydration way too easily.
Not masturbating and lifting weights increases the testosterone levels and thus increases muscle mass.
[quote]Tatsu wrote:
Not masturbating and lifting weights increases the testosterone levels and thus increases muscle mass.[/quote]
After my arms grew half an inch in a week (took 4 days off and I guess accumulated inflation or something, that or I measured wrong), my flat mate suggested that it was because my T-levels were up because my girlfriend had been visiting.
[quote]Apoklyps wrote:
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
“Don’t spend longer than an hour in the gym”
Rubbish, at least for me. But then different strokes for different folks.[/quote]
Agreed 100%. If it works for you, great. But don’t screw around with the quality of your workout to keep it within an arbitrary time window.
Myth: your diet has to be perfect. Even 70% good gets me good results. I think a lot of beginners would make better gains if they focused less on eating cleaner and more on eating more.[/quote]
I think this has a lot to do with appetite and eating habits.
I like vegetables and foods that aren’t very dense in calories (yogurt for example) because I like to eat a ton. If I have vegetables, it’s going to be at the very least half a pound. Of course I love empty calorie trash foods, but I tend to eat too much in one sitting, or am left feeling unsatisified.
Point being, if you’re the type who loves to eat, learn how to make clean meals and balance your macros throughout the day. If you’re the type who picks at your food you better start learning how to get more calories in.
#1 myth is people claiming to be natural when they are assisted.
after that a lot of it has to do with this weird propaganda that the moment you go a few hours without protein or a couple weeks out of the gym your muscles start magically disappearing.
[quote]kalb wrote:
-You can’t add muscle mass and reduce fat at the same time
I do it all the time[/quote]
No, but you can’t OPTIMALLY add muscle and reduce fat at the same time.
It’s straw-manning, both ways. For whatever reason, people think that means you have to bulk up like a fat pig to gain muscle when even 100-200 calories a day over maintenance is more than adequate.
On the other side, there’s a difference between maintaining size and maintaining strength. You can maintain your strength or even get stronger on even a VERY aggressive cut, if you program right; doesn’t mean you’re building muscle.
Still, if guys just met their peri-workout needs and ate sensibly for their goals a lot of these issues would suddenly disappear.
[quote]Waittz wrote:
#1 myth is people claiming to be natural when they are assisted.
after that a lot of it has to do with this weird propaganda that the moment you go a few hours without protein or a couple weeks out of the gym your muscles start magically disappearing. [/quote]
I kid you not that I had a coworker that went to the same gym as me and he wasn’t that strong or developed that told me he wasn’t going to hit the gym that day because it was leg day and he was out of protein powder.
I actually needed help understanding how those two things were related, so I asked what he meant. He said he didn’t want to do squats without protein powder. I think I said I still didn’t understand, and asked him to bottom line it for me.
He indeed thought that it was a bad idea to go to the gym and do squats (as I said I’d seen him work out and he was maybe doing 185 for a couple of sets…I could be wrong) without any protein to take right after.
[quote]Nards wrote:
[quote]Waittz wrote:
#1 myth is people claiming to be natural when they are assisted.
after that a lot of it has to do with this weird propaganda that the moment you go a few hours without protein or a couple weeks out of the gym your muscles start magically disappearing. [/quote]
I kid you not that I had a coworker that went to the same gym as me and he wasn’t that strong or developed that told me he wasn’t going to hit the gym that day because it was leg day and he was out of protein powder.
I actually needed help understanding how those two things were related, so I asked what he meant. He said he didn’t want to do squats without protein powder. I think I said I still didn’t understand, and asked him to bottom line it for me.
He indeed thought that it was a bad idea to go to the gym and do squats (as I said I’d seen him work out and he was maybe doing 185 for a couple of sets…I could be wrong) without any protein to take right after.
[/quote]
Of course, the fact that it was leg day had NOTHING to do with him skipping the gym.
[quote]Apoklyps wrote:
[quote]Nards wrote:
[quote]Waittz wrote:
#1 myth is people claiming to be natural when they are assisted.
after that a lot of it has to do with this weird propaganda that the moment you go a few hours without protein or a couple weeks out of the gym your muscles start magically disappearing. [/quote]
I kid you not that I had a coworker that went to the same gym as me and he wasn’t that strong or developed that told me he wasn’t going to hit the gym that day because it was leg day and he was out of protein powder.
I actually needed help understanding how those two things were related, so I asked what he meant. He said he didn’t want to do squats without protein powder. I think I said I still didn’t understand, and asked him to bottom line it for me.
He indeed thought that it was a bad idea to go to the gym and do squats (as I said I’d seen him work out and he was maybe doing 185 for a couple of sets…I could be wrong) without any protein to take right after.
[/quote]
Of course, the fact that it was leg day had NOTHING to do with him skipping the gym.[/quote]
LOL! ^ nice
[quote]Tatsu wrote:
Not masturbating and lifting weights increases the testosterone levels and thus increases muscle mass.[/quote]
I believe there was a study about that. They measured beard growth in men working on oil platforms. On thursdays and fridays the men had more beard growth (which is apparantly a sign of higher testosterone levels), because the men anticipated getting laid over the weekend. Not quite the same, but there’s something for it if you’re in a bulking phase or something.
Over… Train???
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Yeah, much of those listed in the OP are actually not bad suggestions for the most part, but there are tons of “advices” that people throw out that in my PERSONAL opinion (always gotta have a disclaimer on here -lol) should not be taken as such, and may not always be the case.
-"Getting stronger will always result in increased size. " Yes, most will agree that a larger muscle will typically be a stronger one (all else being completely equal of course), but in reality, you can train specifically for one of the other and have your results display very little else. Best thing I ever did for my bodybuilding was to stop trying to get stronger all the time, and worry more about other variables in my training.
-“Look at what the ‘big guys’ are doing.” Yes this might ruffle a few feathers, but a better way to word this is to look at what the more normally developed or moreso smaller guys did, and how it worked out for them. Despite the bogus articles attributed to him in Flex magazine, Dorian Yates always said that people shouldn’t look to him for advice on Calf training solely because his responded easily and in all likelihood they would have been well developed no matter what he did. Also of note with this one is the fact that basing anything only on what you see a few odd people doing in your gym (or claiming in BS magazine articles) each week, for maybe an hour or two, and not seeing or considering what goes on the other 22-23 hours of each day, is ignoring a hell of a lot of factors.
S[/quote]
I completely agree on everything you have said here. There are many lifts I have not gotten stronger on per say, but that muscle group has DEFINITELY grown or taken on a better fullness/ shape.
I get asked a lot about my calves (not even close to Dorian) and I often have to say the same thing. I don’t train them exceptionally hard, but they respond very well to minimal stimulus as does my lower body in general. But I will echo your sentiment, that people often worry so much about those 1-2 hours in the gym when the rest, diet, etc can make the largest difference.
[quote]Waittz wrote:
#1 myth is people claiming to be natural when they are assisted.
after that a lot of it has to do with this weird propaganda that the moment you go a few hours without protein or a couple weeks out of the gym your muscles start magically disappearing. [/quote]
I am 100% natural and I only squat 135 lbs for reps.
I have dropped my squat numbers down a bit though. The heaviest I go is 405ish and I keep squats at the end of my leg day now and keep them over 12-15ish reps. Every now and then my bastard training partner gets us up under 500 and my knees say no bueno the next day.
[quote]Bauber wrote:
I have dropped my squat numbers down a bit though. The heaviest I go is 405ish and I keep squats at the end of my leg day now and keep them over 12-15ish reps. Every now and then my bastard training partner gets us up under 500 and my knees say no bueno the next day.[/quote]
^One of the big things I did when I started what I would call serious “bodybuilding” training. Backing off the actual #s (stopped logging weights and reps) and focused more on just quality stimulation.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
^One of the big things I did when I started what I would call serious “bodybuilding” training. Backing off the actual #s (stopped logging weights and reps) and focused more on just quality stimulation.
S[/quote]
But would you advise a beginner or even an intermediate train that way? (not challenging, just curious) The conventional wisdom seems to be, build up a base of strength, then focus on the quality of the reps (mind-muscle connection, continuous tension, etc.). However isn’t quality stimulation still quality stimulation even if we’re talking about a skinny fat beginner vs an experienced pro bodybuilder like yourself?
[quote]Pantherhare wrote:
But would you advise a beginner or even an intermediate train that way? (not challenging, just curious) The conventional wisdom seems to be, build up a base of strength, then focus on the quality of the reps (mind-muscle connection, continuous tension, etc.). However isn’t quality stimulation still quality stimulation even if we’re talking about a skinny fat beginner vs an experienced pro bodybuilder like yourself?[/quote]
Well, I think any experienced trainer would tell you that at the beginner stages, strength gains are sometimes all that you have to go on in terms of progress. As such, keeping logs can be very important. Still, I would emphasize actually creating a situation where the muscle is sufficiently stressed compared to just “moving” progressively heavier loads around each week with poor form, and spotters taking most of the work off of the lifter.
People talk about building up a strength base, and I agree with this to some degree. If you’re dealing with a complete newbie, someone who has had absolutely no experience subjecting him or herself to any regular situations of physical exertion, then they more than likely have never had to develop a strength level beyond just walking about town every day. Once any type of progressive resistance program, is undertaken, a dramatic shift in neurological efficiency takes place, where they become better at the repeated tasks.
This has absolutely nothing to do with any actual increase in muscle tissue. The body will decide (given optimal circumstances created by rest, nutrition, and repeated sessions) when it actually needs to add more muscle, provided the stress you’re subjecting it to is sufficient.
As you said, Quality Stimulation is key no matter what level you’re at. I was trying to stress that the often quoting (especially many years ago) gym dogma of “just get stronger and you’ll get bigger” is fairly off base in its inherent simplicity.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
[quote]Pantherhare wrote:
But would you advise a beginner or even an intermediate train that way? (not challenging, just curious) The conventional wisdom seems to be, build up a base of strength, then focus on the quality of the reps (mind-muscle connection, continuous tension, etc.). However isn’t quality stimulation still quality stimulation even if we’re talking about a skinny fat beginner vs an experienced pro bodybuilder like yourself?[/quote]
Well, I think any experienced trainer would tell you that at the beginner stages, strength gains are sometimes all that you have to go on in terms of progress. As such, keeping logs can be very important. Still, I would emphasize actually creating a situation where the muscle is sufficiently stressed compared to just “moving” progressively heavier loads around each week with poor form, and spotters taking most of the work off of the lifter.
People talk about building up a strength base, and I agree with this to some degree. If you’re dealing with a complete newbie, someone who has had absolutely no experience subjecting him or herself to any regular situations of physical exertion, then they more than likely have never had to develop a strength level beyond just walking about town every day. Once any type of progressive resistance program, is undertaken, a dramatic shift in neurological efficiency takes place, where they become better at the repeated tasks.
This has absolutely nothing to do with any actual increase in muscle tissue. The body will decide (given optimal circumstances created by rest, nutrition, and repeated sessions) when it actually needs to add more muscle, provided the stress you’re subjecting it to is sufficient.
As you said, Quality Stimulation is key no matter what level you’re at. I was trying to stress that the often quoting (especially many years ago) gym dogma of “just get stronger and you’ll get bigger” is fairly off base in its inherent simplicity.
S [/quote]
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
People who use a ‘wrap’ or wrap their midsection with some cloth in order to accelerate fat-loss/consider it ‘targeted weight loss’
[quote]Claudan wrote:
People who use a ‘wrap’ or wrap their midsection with some cloth in order to accelerate fat-loss/consider it ‘targeted weight loss’ [/quote]
Jay Cutler did this when doing cardio during his prep for last years Olympia.