A good introduction to muscle growth is to first talk about what not to do.

In this video I want to talk about the biggest muscle growth myths and why they’re false 

No matter where you live or where you train with you’ve probably heard at least one of the following myths because they’re so widespread. 

But to avoid wasting months or even years training without results you need to know why they’re wrong and what to do instead.

So without further due let’s start with the first muscle building myth!

MYTH NR. 1

YOU NEED TO TRAIN EVERY DAY

This myth goes as follows.

Since training leads to muscle growth the more you train the bigger and more muscular you get.

While this isn’t completely false, training every day ignores an often overlooked factor in muscle growth.

Which is recovery.

Muscle fibers don’t grow during workouts.

They actually get damaged and only grow afterwards when they have time to rest.

So training the same muscle every day leaves no time for rest and recovery and is the best way to never see any significant results.

But even if you split your training and don’t hit the same muscle group every day it makes sense to keep your workouts between three and five sessions per week because otherwise you overwork yourself which also negatively affects recovery.

MYTH NR. 2

MUSCLE CONFUSION

The second myth says that you have to confuse the muscle to force growth.

This supposedly means to switch up your exercises every few workouts so the muscles don’t get used to them and continue to grow. 

OK.

Let’s make something clear here.

Unless your muscles are made of brain matter they have no cognitive abilities.

They’re not trying to guess what workout you’re about to do and can’t be confused.

What is true is that doing the same exact routine every week, down to the weights lifted and the reps done will get you nowhere.

But that doesn’t mean you need to switch your exercise every few days.

In fact that would be the worst possible way to go about it.

You see the real key to muscle growth is progressive overload.

So continually increasing the weights you lift if you do a new exercise every week there’s no way to learn it’s movement properly and progress over time.

We will talk about this in more detail later.

MYTH NR. 3

STRENGTH DOESN’T MATTER!

To be honest this myth is usually believed by people who don’t train when they see a picture of a bodybuilder.

They will say something along the lines of well he might be big but there is no real strength behind all those muscles.

This of course is nonsense.

Countless studies have shown that there is a clear correlation between muscular strength and size.

This is also why lifting heavier and heavier weights is the most effective way to long term muscle gains.

Now pumping up with light weights may look good for the camera short term but the truth is that if you want to get bigger long term you’re going to need to challenge yourself with new loads.

By this I don’t mean going all out and doing one rep maxes, but instead making small additions to your current lifts over time.

MYTH NR. 4

LOWER REPS BUILD MUSCLE SIZE HIGHER REPS DEFINE THEM

This last myth is pretty common as well.

Many beginners believe that to build muscle size they need to lift heavy and if they want to later define the muscle they need to lift lighter weights in higher rep ranges.

The problem is that this completely misses the point of how muscle fibers work.

You either train in a way that builds muscle increases strength and improves performance or you don’t.

Please understand that while you can affect the size of your muscles you can not affect the structure of them through your training.

What will make them appear more toned is not your workout but your body fat percentage.

The lower it is the more they will pop.

And since your diet is the primary determinant of your body fat percentage.

That’s what you should focus on If you want more defined muscles.

To wrap up this video make sure you don’t believe any of these myths and instead follow the proven principles of strength training instead.

After all it’s not that complicated and I will talk about them in more detail in the following videos.