Muscle Fitness
The Muscle Myths Buster!
1. The 12 Rep rule
Most weight training programs include this much repetitions
for building muscle. However, the truth about this approach
places the muscles with insufficient tension for effective
muscle gain. High tension such as heavy weights help to boost
muscle growth in which the muscle
grows much larger, and therefore leading to the maximum
gains in strength. When you have longer tension time, it boosts
the muscle size by generating the structures around the muscle
fibers, improving endurance.
The standard prescription of eight to 12 repetitions might
produce a balance, but, if you only stick to the same program
in a long run, you will not generate the greater tension levels
that are provided by the heavier weights and lesser reps,
and the longer tension achieved with lighter weights and more
repetitions. You need to change the number of reps and adjust
the weights to stimulate the growth of your muscle.
2. The three Set rule
Although there's nothing wrong with three sets, but there
is nothing great about it either. In fact, the number of sets
you perform should be based on your own goals and not on a
half-century old rule. The more repetitions you do on an exercise,
the fewer sets you should perform, or vice versa. This logic
will help to keep the total number of repetitions done of
an exercise equal.
3. Performing three to four exercises per group
It is just a waste of time. Combined with twelve reps of
three sets, the total number of reps amount to 144. If you
are doing this much reps for a muscle group, it means you
are not doing enough. Instead of performing a variety of exercises,
you should try doing 30 to 50 reps. That can be anywhere from
2 sets of 15 reps or 5 sets of 10 reps.
4. Your knees and toes
There is this saying about the gym folks that, “should
not let your knees go past your toes." Truth is that
leaning forward a little too much is more likely a cause of
injury. The Memphis University researchers in 1993, have confirmed
that knee stress was almost thirty percent higher when the
knees are allowed to move beyond the toes during a squat.
However, the hip stress increased nearly 10 times or 1000%
when the forward movement of the knee was restricted. The
knee stress happens because the squatters needed to lean their
body forward and that forces the strain to transfer to the
lower back.
Instead, you should focus on your upper body position and
less on the knee. You should always keep the torso in an upright
position as much as possible when doing squats and lunges.
This action will help to reduce the stress generated on the
hips and back. In order to stay upright, squeeze the shoulder
blades together and hold them in that position before squatting,
and then as you squat, keep the forearms 90 degree to the
floor.
5. Lift weights, draw abs
All of our muscles work in groups in order to stabilize the
spine, and the most important muscle group change will depend
on the type of exercise. The transverse abdominis is not always
the most important muscle group. In fact, when we are performing
most of the exercises, the body automatically activates the
muscle groups that are needed most to support our spine. So
if you focus only on the transverse abdominis, it can recruit
wrong muscles and limit the use of the right muscles. This
will potentially increase the chance of injury, and reduces
the weight that can be lifted.
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