The fitness world is full of misinformation, bros. Everywhere we look there’s a new study pointing out something is going to kill us, a new meme making fun of something we thought might work, and a new supplement ad promising the secret to a six pack.
This misinformation pisses me off, to be honest. I’m tired of hearing this shit, so we’re going to set the record straight. Get your popcorn ready and grab your jimmies, because this is likely to rustle a few. Here are 4 fitness lies that need to die.
- Cardio is a gainz killer.
I fully admit I used to firmly set up shop in the camp that thought steady state cardio would zap your gainz. I avoided the treadmill, running outside, biking, or anything else generally known as cardio, because I didn’t want to waste away precious muscle mass.
Now that I’m a little older and a little wiser, I realize just how fucking dumb I was. Cardio doesn’t kill your gainz. In fact it’s the exact opposite, cardio can seriously help you make gainz.
Cardio helps make your heart more efficient with its stroke volume, which means your heart pushes out more blood per pump. It also helps build the capillary support network, and if you’re looking to gain lean muscle tissue, increasing the capillary network in that tissue is important if you want that new muscle mass to function well.
Surprisingly, HIIT alone doesn’t really do these things. HIIT strengthens the left ventricle of your heart, and causes that wall to thicken, but it doesn’t increase stroke volume or the capillary network. HIIT may be awesome, but it’s not the end all be all.
If you’re a jacked bro and you start training for a marathon, then yes you will probably lose some muscle mass. You can get plenty of cardio benefit from a few 30-minute sessions each week. There’s no need to spend hours pounding away.
- You should really be training each body part more than 1x per week.
Monday is international chest day. Every good bro knows that. Am I saying you need to give that up? No, I’m saying you’ll get better results if you train your chest on Monday and Thursday instead of just Monday.
Two of the biggest keys that govern muscle strength and growth are frequency and volume. They’re so important that I’ve covered them specifically before. By and large most bros out there who stick to a basic body part split routine could benefit a ton from adding in more frequency and volume.
How do you do that? Start training specific bodyparts more than once a week. Aim for 2-3x a week, and you’ll notice the gainz come a hell of a lot quicker. Don’t stress too hard about not being fully recovered or anything like that.
Unless you’re a top-level athlete who is getting paid millions of dollars, that’s not necessary for you to worry about. 2-3 workouts a week of the same body part won’t kill you, as long as you’re smart. That means don’t walk into the gym with the goal of pummeling yourself into submission. Contrary to popular belief the gym is supposed to make you feel good. Not like you just got into a fight with Connor McGregor and Ronda Rousey.
- Crossfit is only a home for people who have a deathwish.
I can already feel my peers in the fitness industry giving me a death stare for this one. It’s the truth, though. Crossfit gets a terrible name from a minority of the people in the program. The same thing could be said of bodybuilding and powerlifting. Both of those sports have their fair share of douchebags who say and do stupid shit.
There’s a reason Crossfit has gotten so popular. It works. It turns average looking people into athletic looking individuals who have discovered they can get strong, lean, and perform well.
Do I agree with all of Crossfit’s methodology? Not really. I don’t see how performing snatches for a high number of reps is a good thing at all. And box jumps are idiotic for the most part.
But every experience I’ve had with various Crossfit gyms has been stellar. They’ve had excellent programs to integrate beginners, and do a great job of keeping the beginners and highly advanced athletes separate.
And as far as Crossfit killing your gains goes? Don’t be idiotic. There’s still a premium on pushing heavy weights, there’s just also a premium on being able to move and perform. What a novel concept.
- Supplements actually do a damn thing.
Bros rely way too much on supplements. We rely on them too a point where it’s downright annoying. I can’t tell you how many times the first question I get asked is something like, “what’s a good protein powder to help me build muscle?”
Supplements by and large aren’t going to help most people out. By their very definition they are the last 5% of a program. They shouldn’t be worried about until the other 95% is taken care of.
Protein powder is a great way to get protein in if you aren’t eating enough. It’s not necessary you have to get it down the hatch 30 minutes after a workout though.
Amino acids taste good, but they’re largely a scam, especially if you’re eating enough protein. Getting a caffeine buzz from preworkout is nice, but most of the time that’s all it is.
Creatine is one of the few supplements proven to do anything, and even with creatine its benefits are very minimal.
Does this mean stop taking supplements? That’s up to you. But if you took the money you spend monthly on supplements and started applying it to things that actually do help, like high quality food, I’d bet you get better results.