Muscle Myths
Monday, January 12th, 2009If you are an avid fan of training, do ensure you don’t believe these bodybuilding myths if you hear them:1. 12 Rep Rule The repetition is used in training programmes to place muscles with not enough tension for effective muscle gain. High tension leads to muscle growth and increase in strength. The standard repetitions provide a balance but do remember that for greater tension levels, use heavier weights and lesser reps and for longer tension, use lighter weights and heavier reps.
2.Three Set Rule You should not stick to this old myth. The number of sets you perform must depend on what you want to do. More the sets, lesser the reps and vice versa.
3. Three to Four Exercises per group: If you are doing twelve reps of three sets on a muscle group, you could try something different. Instead of doing too many varying exercises, you could try doing 30-50 reps.
4. My knees, My toes: There is a common perception that you should not let your knees move beyond your toes while exercising. However, evidence suggests that if forward knee movement is restrained, hip stress increases as the body transfers the strain to the lower back. Pay attention to the upper part of the body and try to stay upright while doing squats and lunges. This would reduce the stress on the hip and back.
5. Lift Weights, Draw Abs The transverse abs is not always the most important muscle group. During exercises, the body adjusts those muscle groups which are in focus to support the spine. Therefore, by concentrating only on transverse abs, the muscles that need to be prominent become limited. This affects the amount of weight that can be lifted and may also lead to injury.
