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Top 10 Misconceptions on Bodybuilding
Weight loss by women mostly produces muscle and bone loss. A combination of low
total calories,
aerobic exercise, and decreased
protein intake will cause the
body to literally strip muscle off of your body. Even with more muscle, a woman
won’t look muscular unless she has very low
body fat levels. Women naturally have
more body fat than men, which is what gives them their feminine curves.
Below are 10 commonly held misconceptions in the sport of bodybuilding :
 Women are just not
biologically suited for muscular development
 Females are convinced
to halt the development of their bodies so that they do not get too big or
muscular . What may prevent women from taking advantage of their natural
physiology is not their bodies, it is the social rules that encourage them to
remain inactive and weak. We won’t know what women are truly capable of until
they stop putting their bodies through a constant disciplining regime of some
sort whether is be in terms of caloric restriction and/or excessive exercise
with the end goal being to tear down rather than build up their physiques. Given
the same opportunities, the gap between male and female athletes is much
narrower than they would like to believe, dependent upon social forces rather
than biological determinants.
By really lifting weights and stressing your muscles you will increase your lean
mass, and since it is this lean mass (muscle tissue) that burns fat, you will
have the capacity to burn more
fat even at rest. Combining this with a moderate
amount of cardiovascular activity (not three step classes in a row) will turn
your body into a fat burning machine.
 You should only rest 45
seconds in between sets
 That's true if
you're trying to improve cardiovascular health or lose some bodyfat. But in
order to build muscle, you need to allow enough time for the muscle to
recuperate fully (i.e. let the lactic acid buildup in your muscles dissipate and
ATP levels build back up). In order to make
muscles grow, you have to lift the
heaviest weight possible, thereby allowing the maximum number of muscle fibers
to be recruited. If the amount of weight you lift is being limited by the amount
of lactic acid left over from the previous
set, you're only testing your ability
to battle the effects of lactic acid. In other words, you're trying to swim
across a pool while wearing concrete overshoes. When training heavy, take [at
least!] two and three minutes between your sets. Notice I said, "when training
heavy." The truth is, you can't train heavy all the time. Periodization calls
for cycling heavy workouts with less intense training sessions in an effort to
keep the body from becoming over-trained.
 Anyone can be a
successful competitive bodybuilder
 As in any
professional sport, the athletes that rise to the top have been genetically
advantaged to excel in that particular contest. In bodybuilding, you either
have it or you don’t and while great genetics doesn’t guarantee you a
successful career, it does determine what the final product looks like. In
the end, it is the individuals that do the most with what they’ve got that
usually come out on top.
 If you do hundreds of
sit-ups a day, you will eventually achieve a narrow, washboard-type
midsection.
 There is no
such thing as spot-reduction. Doing thousands and thousands of sit-ups will
give you tight abdominal muscles, but they will do nothing to rid your
midsection of fat.
Thigh adductor and
abductor movements will give women's
thighs more firmness, but they will do nothing to rid the area of fat, or what
is commonly called
cellulite. Nothing will rid the body of fat, unless it is a
carefully-orchestrated reduction in your
daily energy intake; in other words,
if you burn more calories than you ingest (or do that in conjunction with a
nutrient partitioning agent).
 Women need to train
differently than men
 On a
microscopic level, there is virtually no difference between the muscle
tissue of men and the muscle tissue of women. Men and women have different
levels of the same
hormones, and that's what is responsible for the
difference in the amount of muscle a man can typically put on and the
amount of muscle a woman can typically gain. There is absolutely no reason
why either should train differently than the other sex, provided they have
the same goals.
The only difference in training might be as a result of cultural, sexual
preferences. A woman might desire to develop her glutes a little more so
she looks better in a pair of jeans. Conversely, a man might want to build
his lats a little more so that he fits the cultural stereotype of a virile
man.
 Consuming foods high in
sugar before training provides your body with extra energy to sustain
workouts
 Simple sugars like
sucrose don't need to be broken down by the body's enzymes to be used as
energy like complex carbohydrates do. Therefore, they elicit a rapid release
of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood-sugar levels. The trouble is, the
sudden, rapid influx of sugar into the system causes the body to release
insulin in what must be considered a haphazard method, i.e. the amount
released is usually more than what's needed to metabolize the sugar.
Consequently, your blood sugar often temporarily drops to a point that is
actually lower than it was before you had the sugar, which might cause you to
become more exhausted much earlier than it normally would. Your body is then
forced to dip into its glycogen reserves in order to correct the imbalance.
To ensure that you have enough energy to complete a workout, eat
nutrient-
rich foods with low glycemic indices (those that elicit a smooth, steady
stream of sugar into the bloodstream) like barley, lentils or beans.
 Female bodybuilders are
trying to turn themselves into men
 This
couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, women that transform
their physiques are attempting to become better women, not men. I
attribute this thinking to a society that continues to be disturbed by
their level of physical development due to commonly held misconceptions of
gender and being unable (or unwilling) to separate an athletic pursuit
from a woman’s sexuality. Some will always see female athletes in sexual
terms and use them explain what they don’t understand. If a woman with
muscle is more of a man, is a man without muscle more of a woman?
 Weight training
decreases muscle flexibility
 Training
with weights causes your muscles to get tight and hinders
flexibility and,
consequently, athletic performance. If anything, when done properly
(slowly and using a complete range of motion), weight training increases
flexibility. Many athletes engage in
weight training in order to improve
their performance in their chosen sport -- witness Evander Hollyfield or
any number of track athletes, basketball players, or gymnasts; the list
goes on and on.
This lie might have been fueled from the feeling of 'tightness' that
accompanies an intense workout. If the workout was intense and a
sufficient number of muscle fibers were recruited and microscopically
damaged, then even the normal tonus (the normal amount of contraction
experienced by a relaxed muscle) is more than enough to cause a feeling of
pain and tightness. The tightness is compounded by the 'tugging' of the
tendons on the muscles. Stretching, however, would do much to alleviate
this tightness, and stretching is a recommended part of any athletic
pursuit.
The muscle flexibility seems to be determined more by a complex
relationship of tendon length and strength and nervous system efficiency
as opposed to muscular strength, and weight training could, possibly,
upset this delicate balance.
 The majority of female
bodybuilders must be lesbians or they wouldn’t want to look the way they do
 I don’t
know if there are any more or less lesbians in female bodybuilding than there
are in any other sport or in society in general. I do know that most women who
build competitive physiques are doing so for themselves, some even do it for the
men they are already involved with; husbands, boyfriends, coaches and trainers.
Some think that if women aren’t focused on appealing sexually to men that she
must be attracted to women, but not every pursuit is motivated by sex. The
bottom line for many rests on athleticism, competition and personal achievement,
not about scoring more numbers to beef up a little black book.
 If you stop working
out, your muscle will turn into fat
 Muscle can no
sooner turn to fat than gold can turn into lead. Muscle is made up of individual
cells--living, 'breathing' cells that undergo all kinds of complex metabolic
processes. Fat cells are simply storage packets of lipids. The possibility of
one changing into another is alike to the football in your storage closet
turning into your Uncle Sam.
If you stop working out, if you stop applying resistance to your muscles on a
consistent basis, they will simply adapt to the new condition. In other words,
they'll shrink. If the degree of inactivity or immobilization is severe, the
muscles will shrink faster than the surrounding skin, and a temporary condition
of loose skin might be experienced, but that too would remedy itself with time.
By using state-of-the-art
training
principles, consuming a nutrient-rich diet, and by getting proper amounts of
rest, almost every person can make incredible changes in his or her physique.
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