Common Misconceptions

The days seem to be dragging by for people. I’ve seen less of the irregulars coming to the gym but by no means should one interpret this as “less people are coming to the gym” , in fact more people are going to the gym on a regular basis than at the beginning of the semester. This brings more diversity to the pool of individuals to study but also some personal problems such as Mr. O and I having a hard time finding equipment to use, equipment being taken and left about instead of where it should be, and disputes with the beginners and the advanced.

The more time I spend the more the daily grind becomes just another part of life, almost meditative in this aspect.  One works out to gain a sense of release from their daily lives, whatever troubles this person can be used as fuel to push their anger during the work out or if it is a constant thought that is straining them the thought goes away when there is two hundred pounds of iron and stainless steel above your head.  

Sadly, bringing in more people results in misinterpretation of the human anatomy, which is an important subject in regards to working out. It seems that the beginners get advice from the intermediates who are still learning the craft themselves. As with most beginners it is recommended to work out part of the body such as biceps and back or triceps and chest. The use of this is that it helps the individual focus on one part of the body at a time which provides a more adequate work out for that certain part. A couple more benefits from doing this is that since only one part of the body is used a week the healing process can fully repair the micro lesions in the muscle fibers. One common misconception to building muscle is that people tend to think that you “gain” more muscle fibers, this is false but instead you add more mitochondria to the skeletal muscle cell in this region which enables the muscle to use more energy which helps for longer workouts. You essentially make a demand for more energy that your body needs to fill. The mitochondria that fills the cells makes the cell expand, this leads to the muscle becoming bigger, however mitochondria is only gained in the muscle if the cell requires more energy, if the individual does not maintain a length of an hour or more the muscle will not improve as vastly because the strain on it isn’t constant.  Basically, hypertrophic training is what increases size.  Hypertrophy is when the individual works with a lot of “time under tension” training. This is defined as a light weight with over twenty repetitions in a set. A lot of new patrons rarely realize this kind of training is extremely viable in obtaining a certain “look” that it seems our society has deemed as “sexy”.  

New comers tend to say “I don’t want to look like a monster” or “I want to get toned but not big!” these people are severely mistaken as to the effort it takes to obtain and maintain that level of muscle growth.  The advanced people of the gym tend to correct the new comers letting them know that to get to this level of muscle growth the new comers would need to train two to three hours a day, take steroids, eat a strict diet, and do all the above for over five years.