Myths Of Muscle Building

There are various methods to build muscle, lose fat, and improve your overall physical capabilities, but since there are multiple ways to do so, there are many inaccuracies that plague the fitness community. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, these myths still run strong within some communities, and there's no scientific evidence supporting their theories. Let's see analyze three common myths about building muscle.

 
Myth #1: Cardio Will Reduce My Muscle Size
Cardiovascular activity, no matter what phase of muscle building or fat burning you are in is very important for a variety of reasons. Cardiovascular exercise elevates your heart rate for a sustained period, burn calories, which can help you lose excess fat that hides muscle definition, and it will help increase your overall muscular endurance. Performing cardio too frequently, too intensely, or for too long can certainly prevent you from gaining muscle, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t incorporate cardiovascular exercises into your workout. Consider all the necessary resources required by your body to build muscle. You need good nutrition to provide protein for muscle growth, and carbohydrates and fats to fuel and enhance recovery from your intense workouts. You also need rest and recovery time between workouts to allow your body to rebuild and increase your muscle mass.

Myth #2: If You Eat More Protein, You'll Build More Muscle.
Protein promotes the muscle-building process, called protein synthesis, but you don't need an excessive amount of protein to do this. If you are consistently exercising, consuming more than 0.9 to 1.25 grams of protein per pound of body weight is a waste. Excess protein breaks down into amino acids and nitrogen, which are either excreted or converted into carbohydrates and stored.

When you consume protein it’s important that you have the right balance of carbohydrates with it. This will help stabilize blood sugar within the body. Simply put, without carbs, your body would not be able to function, and without protein, you could not build muscle. If your diet is exclusively protein, then your body will use protein as its energy source in comparison to carbohydrates. 

Myth #3: Always Workout With Free Weights.
Sometimes machines are a better alternative for muscle growth. For example, when you need to isolate specific muscles after an injury, or when you are too inexperienced to perform a free-weight exercise. Newcomers will see benefits with either machines or free weights, but as they become more trained, free weights should make up the major portion of their training program. If someone is fresh to exercising and they can't complete a pull-up, then they won't build their back and lat muscles. So instead they should do lat pull-downs with a machine to develop these muscles before they incorporate new advanced exercises. If you're a veteran lifter, free weights would be best to build strength or burn fat.