3 Toxic Bodybuilding Myths That Are Wasting Your Precious Time!
As a teacher I quite literally don’t have time for these 3 myths that are accepted by most as basic truths. I really hope that I can save you some time and cause some thought provoking moments with this one.
The world doesn’t need another teacher explaining at length how hard or how long they work. If you’ve spent a minute on #edutwitter you’ll get the idea, and if you’re a teacher yourself then you’ll just know.
I could tell you about the long hours, the intensity of the job, or the symptoms of fatigue that many of us get (it’s migraines for me mainly), but I won’t. Just Google ‘teacher tired’ if you’re curious.
I’ll just say that I lost a full ten kilograms in just my first term as a teacher such were the demands of the job.
*Now whilst that might sound dreamy for some, this was at direct odds with my goals and I was left feeling sickly, depleted, and with low self-esteem because of such a stark and unwanted transformation as a result of extreme stress.
And I say this merely to outline the point that it’s bloody hard to keep healthy as a teacher in the current school system, let alone to chase ambitious fitness goals.
It’s easy to feel guilty for not living up to some of the fitness fads of the day and for not pouring hours into whatever fitness goals you may have, but I’m here to give you a different perspective.
Healthy and happy now, thriving on a fitness protocol that compliments my lifestyle and goals; I’m here to say that I’m not convinced by many of the fitness truisms that many of us worry so much about.
And here are the three false concepts that I am urging you to put in the bin.
1. More is More: You have to spend hours in the gym to make progress
Not many people know that the prevailing wisdom up until the 1940s was to complete one exercise set for each muscle group. It was only when Reg Park wrote “The Secret of the Multi-Set System” that anyone would have considered training for multiple sets (and they called him crazy). This is where the famous 3X10 workout structure originated.
You may not have heard of Reg Park, but you have probably heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger who popularised this approach and even took it further, as documented in the famous bodybuilding documentary “Pumping Iron”, reportedly training twice a day for hours on end.
The problem is that Schwarzenegger later admitted in an interview: “The reality is, I made up a lot of this stuff because I felt like that’s the way you get attention.” So as it turns out “The Governator” can’t be relied on for this one.
I also think it’s worth considering that taking your training advice from chemically enhanced elite bodybuilders is a bit misguided if, like me, you’re genetically average and working a full time job as well as balancing other commitments.
Truthfully, physiological and scientific evidence suggests that one set per muscle group to failure should obtain similar results to the ‘multi-set’ approach provided the quality of repetition and the intensity of effort is sufficient. Take a look at Fisher et al., (2013) as a starting point if you’re interested.
You might even argue that if you do train until true failure, then you shouldn’t be able to do that many sets…
I spend considerably and consistently less than one hour in the gym every week and my progress is the same as (or perhaps even better than) the days where I trained 3, 4, 5, or even 10 times per week!
Perhaps take a look at the work of Mike Mentzer if you’re interested in some more high profile examples of people who have adopted this approach (called High Intensity Training).
2. You should work out through pain and fatigue
It was Mike Mentzer himself who opened one of his “Heavy Duty” seminars with the question: “Has anybody grown so fast that it’s starting to disturb them… kind of bothers them? No. Because that’s why we’re all here.”
He explains that the growth process of muscles is far slower than you might even realise and reminds the audience that to add 4.5kgs of muscle in a year is a “tremendous achievement”, which of course translates to 0.012kgs per day.
He goes on to give the analogy that if you water a plant every day, multiple times a day expecting to accelerate the growth process, you’re missing the point. The plant will grow slowly and you have to just be patient.
Thinking back to that 4.5kgs per year though, after 5 years could be transformational, but you do just need to relax and be patient and don’t torture yourself over something so slow (and so unimportant in the grand scheme of things) — but that’s me speaking now.
I again believe that certain toxic expectations are put on average well meaning people who are trying to live up to the standards of genetically gifted or chemically enhanced individuals, and fitness influencers with products to sell.
Truthfully though, if you’re trying to live a normal life with work and family, there’s no way that you can recover from an intense session in less than 3, 4, or even 5 days sometimes (although everyone is different).
If you’re tired and aching, your body is recovering and growing. Relax. Let it do it’s thing.
3. “Functional Training” will help you in your day to day (teaching) life
This one might be a bit controversial… and I might be wrong. But…
I once read a fifty page document full of training recommendations compiled by the NFL for it’s athletes based off of physiological research — and I can’t for the life of me find it.
But a large part of it outlines “The Law of Specificity” which is a principle whereby training for a certain skill will promote skill development for that particular skill.
Confused?
Basically, in order to have ‘skill transfer’ from practice and to improve at a certain task, your practice conditions must replicate testing conditions as closely as possible.
Still confused?
If you want to be the fastest person in the world at folding t-shirts on a folding rack, you must practice folding t-shirts on a folding rack. It won’t help you to fold hoodies, neither will using no folding rack for extra challenge, or to wet the t-shirts to make them harder to handle.
You must train and practice with specificity for skill transfer.
Luckily, that’s not the point of training. That’s not why I personally go to the gym for even one hour a week (miserable places as they are).
I go because I want to improve my ability, increase my health and longevity, build an attractive physique, enhance cognitive function, and develop my cardiovascular fitness.
These things alone make me a better person in life. It makes me sharper, have better mood, more able to move through space with ease and comfort, and most importantly as a teacher; it helps me get to the bathroom and back in the short (and rare) breaks that we get through the day.
Some of the ‘functional’ training recommendations that I see (whilst they have great conditioning benefits), would arguably be less functional then just good old fashioned resistance training with a maximum intensity of effort and progressive overload.
In conclusion
We all just want to be healthy and happy as a bottom line.
Our aspirations, creations, and utopias may differ, but that must be true for most people. Right?
I’ve just had a rethink about some of the fitness assumptions that I had accepted as default — such as more is more.
It’s had a massive impact on my own happiness, time, and energy.
I would love it if even one person has that eureka moment that I did and reconsiders some of these toxic myths that are just… fruitless.
If you’ve read this far I would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and disagreements please!
