By Pete Sisco - developer of Static Contraction Training
A few weeks ago we talked about three different popular
myths that can lead to a lot of wasted time and frustration
in the gym. Now let's take a look at three more
myths I can almost guarantee you've heard.
As I mentioned, there's a ton of free advice
dispensed in gyms that, if taken as gospel, can really
set back your progress. That can lead to the kind of frustration that makes guys think they are "hard
gainers" or need to resort to the needle to
get the physique they desire. Not true. Let's
take a look at more of the pitfalls to avoid while
you train rationally.
Myth #1 "You need high reps
for definition and low reps for mass."
A muscle can only do one of three things. It can
get bigger, it can get smaller, or it can stay the
same size.
The way to make a muscle bigger is to subject it
to a progressive intensity of overload. That is, the
intensity of today's workout needs to be a little
higher than your last workout for that muscle. If
you want to keep a muscle the same size you can just
perform the same workout every time. And making a
muscle smaller is easy... just don't exercise
it.
However, the idea that one type of exercise "defines"
muscle and another type of exercise makes it bigger
has no basis in reality. Muscle definition is a function
of two characteristics in the body: muscle size and
the absence of bodyfat. So if you want better definition
you need to increase the size of your muscles through
the aforementioned progressive intensity and you need
to reduce your bodyfat.
So I can hear someone asking, "But don't
high reps burn off bodyfat the way running or cycling
would?" Well, yes, any long duration activity
will burn more calories. But if you use light weights
and high reps to burn calories how will you make your
muscles bigger? You won't. It makes much more
sense to burn calories and reduce bodyfat through
jogging or cycling or some other repetitive activity
and to simultaneously build more muscle mass through
heavier, lower rep weight training. As a bonus, your
new muscle mass will also burn more calories and contribute
to fat loss.
So next time you hear this myth, correct it by thinking:
"Low, heavy reps for mass, lower overall bodyfat
for definition."
Myth #2 "New muscle gains
diminish after 48 hours."
Here's a myth that has led to more wasted man-hours
than the search for perpetual motion. The idea is
that you need to go to the gym and lift weights every
two days because after 48 hours your body starts to
lose whatever muscle you build recently.
I'm amazed this myth hangs on because anybody
can test this for himself and find out it's
pure BS. Back in 1992 I was doing Power Factor Training
and working my way up to a milestone of a one million
pound workout. Around the point where I was hoisting
about 400,000 pounds per workout (calculated by multiplying
weight x reps x sets for five exercises) I decided
I'd try a lift I'd never done before.
I saw a guy doing a clean and press, which involves
lifting a barbell from the floor to your chest and
then pressing it overhead. I tried it for the first
time with 250 pounds and as I held it overhead my
balance shifted and I felt something go "click"
in my low back. Well, that put me out of the gym for
six weeks. When I came back for my first workout after
that long layoff it was my intention to only try to
approximate my last workout. Instead, I set personal
records in all five exercises!
After a six-week layoff I'd returned to the
gym much stronger. That's 1008 hours off and
my body hadn't lost a scrap of muscle. Nowadays
I work with advanced trainees who only train half
their body every six weeks. That means it takes them
twelve weeks between training each muscle group... and
these trainees show progress on every exercise, every
workout. We just laugh at that "48 hour"
nonsense. You should too.
Myth #3 "For best results,
you need to train 'instinctively'."
"Dr. Freud, can you please tell us about man's
bodybuilding 'instinct'?" Yeah,
right.
As myths go, this one is fairly new and likely sprang
out of the New Age movement. It is sometimes more
generally expressed as "Listen to your body."
Admittedly, listening to your body does work when
some part of it is screaming in agonizing pain. But
the notion that an "instinct" will tell
you whether the intensity of 13 reps with 125 pounds
in 45 seconds is higher than 9 reps with 155 pound
in 60 seconds is just too much to hope for.
As I have said one hundred thousands times before,
you make muscle-building progress by progressively
increasing the intensity of your workouts. When the
tools of reason and math are right in front of us
and deliver very exact answers regarding this progression,
why would we rely on a vaguely defined "instinct"
to guide us?
Would competitive runners and swimmers throw away
their stopwatches and do all their training by instinct?
Would a pole-vaulter or long-jumper stop measuring
his progress with feet and inches? Of course not.
So why should a bodybuilder throw away the proven,
effective tools of reason and math in favor of a bodybuilding
instinct that has never been proven to exist?
Now you know six myths and pitfalls to avoid in the
gym. I hope the exercise of understanding how these
ideas are flawed will help you spot other time wasting,
freely dispensed gym lore.
Q. Is there a way to workout with
relatively little weight using your principles?
A. The human body reacts to various forms of stress
with a so-called "adaptive response."
For example, when bright sunlight shines on light
colored skin the adaptive response is to darken the
skin with a tan. That tan protects you during future
exposure. But if that future exposure involves more
intense sunlight then the tan is made darker.
In the realm of strength training the adaptive response
is very similar. If you expose your muscle to higher
rates of overload they will adapt by getting bigger
and stronger. If the subsequent overload is greater,
the adaptive response is greater. So, if you restrict
yourself to "relatively light weight"
you will get a relatively small adaptive response;
likely not enough to change your physical appearance
in any way.
The fact is the average adult male has muscles capable
of enormous strength. His legs can lift over one thousand
pounds, his trapezius muscles can lift hundreds of
pounds. The only practical way to get those muscles
to be bigger is to work them at the limits of their
capacity. So light weights aren't much help,
just as shade is not much help in building a good
suntan.
