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Don’t fall for Bodybuilding Myths About Weight Training And Fat Loss
Come on. Admit it. You’ve heard most of them before. Even people who don’t workout have come across them. We’re talking about such bodybuilding myths as: “Athletes shouldn’t lift weights because it will make them musclebound and slow” or “High reps are best for shaping and toning the muscles and fat loss”, or “If you don’t workout for four days the muscle will start to lose size and strength.”
Despite the great progress made in the sport over the last few decades you’ll still hear and read these bodybuilding myths. Even more troubling is that personal trainers, the Danny Deltoids at the local gym, and even some magazines, are the biggest perpetuators of such nonsense. Let’s cut through all this foolishness right now and take a closer look at some of the most common weight training myths.
Myth # 1: Muscle will turn to fat if you stop training.
Muscle can’t turn to fat anymore than fat can turn to muscle. They are two completely different substances. This myth gets it biggest boost from jealous types who wouldn’t know a barbell if they tripped over it. It doesn’t help matters either when bodybuilders and others athletes gain fat when they retire from bodybuilding training. It’s not that their muscles have turned to fat but that their muscles have lost tone and begin to sag, giving the appearance of fat. Trust us your muscle won’t turn to fat if you stop training. Of course why stop training? Training is the key to fat loss, building muscle, and overall health.
Myth # 2: Cardio is best for fat loss.
This is another of those bodybuilding myths that is a direct opposite of what you should actually do. If you had to choose only one type of exercise to lose weight, bodybuilding would be it. Firstly, cardio doesn’t build muscle tissue. Secondly, cardio doesn’t preserve muscle while losing body fat. Muscle on the other hand boosts your metabolism. The only way to preserve or build new muscle - which is what you really need to do to get lean - is through weight training.
Myth: The only way to shape your muscles is with high reps.
We hate to break it to you but it is physiologically impossible to change the shape of any muscle on your bodies. Shape is determined by genetics. There is no way to change your muscles’ final shape. In other words, if you have short biceps when you first start training, you’re going to have short biceps after 10 years of bodybuilding. If your chest is square shaped it will always be square shaped, and so on.
Myth: Soreness is indicative of workout quality.
Feeling sore in the days following a weight training workout, may indicate that you had a productive workout. But the opposite is also true. Not being sore in the days after a workout has nothing to do with whether or not you actually worked hard and challenged yourself. The more important factors are intensity level and productivity. Something as subjective as how you felt during and after a workout is probably more important than how sore you felt the following day. So don’t worry if you’re not sore. Instead, pay attention to your intensity levels, productivity, and how you felt during the workout and immediately after your bodybuilding workout.
Myth: You must train each muscle two or three times a week or it will start to lose its size and strength.
It takes up to two weeks for a muscle to start losing size and strength (muscle atrophy). A common bodybuilding myth is that if you don’t train the muscles multiple times per week they will lose their size and strength.
But more is not always better. The average individual on a four-day split weight training routine, working out at 100% intensity, will need between four and seven days off between body parts. This will maximize your fat loss and bodybuilding potential. | 
