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, frustration and if are 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. Lets 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.

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 shown to increase solid bodyweight.
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 what ever 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 workout than someone who doesn't,
you still need to balance your energy intake with you 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
to heal those small niggling injuries.  By having longer layoffs
you do not actually lose muscle fibres, 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
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 not be further from the truth. Muscle is a
metabolically active tissue and has a role in increasing
the 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 afterwards.

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 though an increased and elevated metabolism.


No pain no gain.

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

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Workout Without a Gym

We know that using free weights and machines is the fastest and most efficient way there is to improve your metabolism and strength, but for many reasons these may not be convenient or readily accessible to you. 

You may also have no access to a commercial gym, home gym or are on business trip, but there can be a solution, a strength-training workout without the need of expensive machines.

As with any exercise, whether you are using your own body weight, machines or free weights, if the resistance doesn't increase, your muscles won't be worked to their maximum capacity and the stimulus these fibres need to grow will be missing.

Exercises done correctly will build the lean muscle and increase your metabolism in the same way as performing exercises at a gymnasium, but without the time constraints and associated costs.

These exercises can be easily done in a bedroom, hotel room, a park, school yard, ceiling rafters in a garage or in a doorway and all you have to do is use your imagination.  There will always be a way to add more resistance to your workouts. 

Please remember: It doesn't matter where you are working out — at home, a hotel, or a park — always warm up properly before beginning your session, and cool down and stretch when you are finished.


Leg Exercises


Squats - 

They build muscle in the thighs, shape the buttocks and improve endurance.   Position your feet about 13 to 17 inches apart or at shoulder width, keeping the back straight and your head up.  If you want you can use something that will give you some support, i.e. a desk, bookcase, sink etc. 

Now squat down to where the tops of the thighs are parallel to the floor, hold for a second and then stand up, but don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement, use a nice fluid motion. Always exhale your breath as you stand up.

Lunges –

Stand straight in correct posture; now stand with one leg forward and one leg back.  Keeping your abdominal muscles tight and chest up, lower your upper body down, bending your leg (don't step out too far).

You should have about one to two feet between your feet at this stage, the further forward you step, and the more your gluteus and hamstring muscles will have to work.

Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down and stop where your feel comfortable (try not to let your back come forward) then push directly back up. Do all your reps on one leg then switch legs and do all your reps on the other leg.


Back Exercises


Chin-ups -

Chin-ups are a great upper body workout, particularly targeting your biceps, deltoid and lat muscles. Use a doorway chin-up bar, ceiling rafters in a garage or grab the moulding of your door frame, position your hands with an under hand grip and hang down stretching the lats, slowly raise your body until your chin reaches the bar level.

Pause a moment before slowly lowering yourself back to the starting position. Don’t swing or use momentum to get your body to the top, just use the target muscles. Doorway chinning bars remove from the doorway when you are not using them and can be put up and taken down in seconds.

Bent Over Row -

Take up a position with your right hand and right knee braced on a sturdy bed or some other flat surface that will provide a good support. Now pick up a dumbbell or something heavy that you can hold onto with your left hand.

Visualize your arms as hooks and slowly bring the dumbbell or object up to the side of your chest, keeping your back straight, then lower the weight back down to arms length, no lower, on extremes, safe form only please. Concentrate on your back muscles. Reverse the whole procedure and do the exercise now with your right arm.



Chest Exercises


Push-Up -

The push up is used for building chest, shoulders and arms.  Lie face down on the floor with your hands about shoulder width apart and keeping your palms turned slightly inward.  Now push-up until your arms are straight, lower and repeat for repetitions.


To make it more difficult elevate your feet.  Try placing the toes of your feet on a stable, elevated surface such as a bench, chair or a stair. Straightening your body, position your hands on the floor at shoulder width, lower your body until your chest touches the floor at the bottom, and then return to the starting position in a nice fluid motion.

Dips -

This exercise can be done between two sturdy chairs or other surfaces that provide stability. The dip is another great upper body exercise. It’s a compound movement as well and involves working all the muscles that the push up works.

Keep your head up and body as vertical as possible.  For the beginning of the movement, start at the top (arms fully extended) and lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the seat of the chairs, hold and then push up to the top of the movement until your arms are fully extended again. Keep looking straight ahead and don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement. 


Adding Weight

Although the simple weight of your own body is enough resistance to provide an effective workout we need progressive overload (added resistance) to become stronger.

So all we need to do is add some weight wherever we can find some.  Because there are no metal plates and fancy machines to use it doesn’t matter because the body doesn’t care where it is as long as it's receiving resistance of some kind. 

You can use heavy books clasped in your hands. You can buy some cheap weighted dumbbells or ankle weights.  A weighted vest will also allow you to add resistance for both chin-ups and push-ups.  Try to buy one that will let you remove and add weight as you see fit. Also a backpack filled with books can be perfect for most of the exercises and is a cheap alternative.

How about a couple of buckets and fill them with a certain level of water? As you get stronger fill them with more water. This is perfect because depending on the exercise, all you need to do is to increase or decrease the amount of water in the buckets for the required amount of resistance.


To wrap things up…

We know that using free weights and machines are the fastest and most efficient way there is to gain lean muscle and strength, but by performing the exercises in this article you’ll find that they will provide you with the same benefits as going to a gymnasium but without the ongoing costs and time constraints.

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