what common misinformation bugs you the most?

[greensoup]

since IM people are serious and knowledgeable through EXPERIENCE, i figure a thread on revealing the mass information spread in the public will help a lot. too often i've read a bunch of crap online to take it as true only to realize that i had wasted my time.

diet, lifting, anything related to training for BB or PL.

i hope this thread gets a lot of input so people less experienced can learn a lot by filtering BS/truth and save time.

i'll start off:
body can only handle about 30g protein per meal. i know this affected me through the beginnings of my training.

[Godsmack]

That steroids make anyone big, without touching a weight, or eating properly.



J

[trucelt]

time....regardless of the training program/diet..... when you see a "big" guy (BB/PL etc), it probably took him or her years to build that physique.

[PTAaron]

The concept that "lower abs" are a muscle that you can isolate.

[nator]

The idea that hard work has little or nothing to do with someone putting on size. When in fact it is the main reason.

[PTAaron]

...oh and the "fact" that you cannot lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.

[LandryP]

"overtraining"

[Zoroaster]

Benching PL style won't build your chest or triceps as well as BB style (no arch, no leg drive). Everyone at my gym tells me this when we talk about benching. They seem to discount the fact that I did not have noticeable pecs or tris UNTIL I got my PL form down and started moving more weight. "Well that's just because you're stressing them with more weight" ... no shit sherlock. Weirdest argument ever.

Related to this is the "advice" from people that I need more reps on my benching work. When I was struggling to hit 5 x 155 one day some skinnyfat ex-high school football player came over to "help me out". He was telling me that I would need to drop down to the 95 - 115 lb range for reps because "you need that endurance to handle the heavy weights" ... wtf? So I proceeded to do the opposite and took up Surovetsky's Bench program which calls mostly for reps in the 1 - 3 range after warming up. and I recently hit 205, same max as this know-it-all advisor.

[mentalflex]

I get this one at my gym: "I don't go below parallel because it is bad for your knees." LMAO!

[thedunhill225]

That some pros are pros in spite of their genetics...um...nope, there is not a pro on this planet without insane genetics.

That you can shape a muscle.

That drugs don't make a huge difference.

That testosterone does not build muscle and burn fat.

That every trainer at the gym pulls out the balance boards and those big balls for everything....how about we start by having them perform the ex in a safe stable manor FIRST??

That women should train to have 'long lean muscle'.

That women can't train as intensely as men ... Hey tommy the trainer....how did you get here? She can handle pain just fine!

Etc..........

Etc..........

[Lock it Up]

Gonna quote exactly out of a magazine for this one:

"When trying to put on size, it's not a matter of how much protein you ingest, it's a matter of having a caloric surplus or not."

I seriously laughed out loud at that. I laughed...reading a magazine. Not an easy feat.

[dakoose]

Some kid I know has been begging me for a long time to take him to the gym and workout. Last week I bring him along, and this little shit tells me I dunno what I'm doing because all the best trainers say you gotta switch things up pretty often to trick the muscles and avoid muscle memory, and any time you do the same exercise for more than a couple months you're just wasting time. Meanwhile, I have damn near 60 pounds on him and have been squatting, benching and shoulder pressing for 3 years running. He can trick his muscles and switch from tricep kickbacks to bosu pushups to squats-into-dumbbell curls until the cows come home, he won't put on a fucking pound.....and the sad part is he'll never realize that he's wrong.

[Lin1]

A trainer told me to point my toes inwards to build my teardrop, I knew nothing & wasted a year *sigh*

[darkhorizon]

"You can't get good and quality physique without steroids" - this is the most common quote around here.This is probably the reason why you can see people who don't know the difference between proteins and carbohydrates but are juicing hard...

[Daniel7908]

Without a shadow of doubt, IMO, "deep squats are bad for your knees, period." I'd be rich if I had a dollar for each person I've seen doing quarter squats (and often with really, really light weights) because of that.