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Bodybuilding and common Training Errors (Part 1)

Eating like a pigeon: There's nothing simpler than the fact that if you are not putting on weight, you just have to eat larger quantities so you can grow more body tissues. That means not only more proteins but also more carbohydrates and even fats.

I would like to clear up the myth that you can gain muscle tissue by training alone. It is only possible if you eat enough and then you will gain weight and consequently bigger muscles. Otherwise the weight you lift is irrelevant, but if you are gaining weight then you are both performing and eating in the correct manner.

Intensity Intensity: Bodybuilders love to train hard, boast of training hard, and do the impossible, triple drop sets and forced reps, and all sorts of other extremely tiring techniques. The difficulty with this is that although their musculature can recover from this beating in a couple of days their central nervous systems are absolutely poached. The CNS can take over a week or more to recover from this type of repeated attempts to failure training, which makes repeating the workouts with a similar or greater weight just impossible for several weeks or more.

Why any bodybuilder should want to do this, I really don't know. Although normal tissue recovery takes about 72 hours; at which point you can push on with your training, if your CNS has been over stressed in any way, then you will become under-trained until the CNS has fully recovered. So when you can begin to train at your pace you will have lost any previous muscle gains...so just think about it in future.

This is OK in the short term but to train like this week in week out whilst attempting to increase poundage's or total load in a linear manner is a lunacy that literally forces you to reduce training frequency and total load to a minimal level. Frequency and total load are the key determinants of successful training for size and strength! Why would anyone deliberately minimise both of them?

Single factor training: Probably 99% of ordinary people in gyms are currently training according to single factor training theory, or the principle of super compensation. Probably 5% of elite strength athletes are training this way and they are all bodybuilders. Now I know most people are not even aware of what dual factor theory is so here is a brief explanation. Single factor theory treats fitness and fatigue as existing to the exclusion of each other.

Let's say as an example that you feel tired and your muscles are sore after training, then you should recover first before starting to train again. This is what is known as super compensation theory, which is basically saying that fitness is decreased at this point and then gradually rises back to where it was just before your next work out. You then proceed to train by slightly increasing your load whereby pushing your fitness up a level. This cycle is then repeated.

Dual factor theory considers fitness, fatigue and preparedness as being factors apart but not exclusive to one another. Your long-term ability is considered to be fitness and it changes gradually and is not related to fatigue. Your immediate ability is considered to be preparedness which is what you can do NOW but is not influenced by fatigue.

According to dual factor theory you can train to the point of extreme fatigue, and have a terrible state of preparedness but still be making improvements in long-term fitness. In other words you DO NOT have to fully recover between workouts all the time and nor should you.

Macronutrient fascism: "Carbs just suck", "You get fat by eating fats" and "Just eat protein to get more muscle". No and a big NO. We need all of then in some form or other. Each person might be different in personal needs depending on personal objectives, but to actually cut one of the macronutrients out of our diet is plain dumb.

Different mixes of macronutrients produce different results and by taking away one from the equation you just won't achieve anything. I would personally start off with an isocaloric diet which is a great method to obtain both health and strength.

Lifestyle what lifestyle?: So if you are the type of bodybuilder who does biceps on a Friday night just to get that pumped up look to go out clubbing, then you need a good kicking. If really do want to achieve a bigger and stronger look then you need to keep a check on your whole lifestyle. Otherwise all your good hard training efforts will produce zero gains.