I 
would like to thank everyone again. The response I have received since I started this 3-part series has been incredible. I appreciate you guys telling me your stories and letting me know how powerful this has been for you. I've had quite a few of you tell me how a light bulb went off after reading the first two parts. The realization that it wasn't your fault, but your coaches fault that you weren't in shape in time for stage or for looking better the week before. Here are some more bodybuilding myths:
Eat every 2 1/2 hours or your metabolism will slow down: This is probably the myth that I believed longer than any of them. We've all heard the fire analogy. Keep the fire burning longer by feeding it small logs all day. Well luckily for us our metabolism isn't a fire. If eating more times throughout the day speeds your metabolism up then why are we not eating every 30 minutes? Eating 3 or 6 or 9 times a day isn't going to speed up or slow down your metabolism. Science has proven that theory wrong.
No carbs before bed: I'm sure you're familiar with this one. No carbs before bed because they will turn to fat or and you won't recover. This myth has two reasons why carbs are evil before bed. I'll tackle both reasons separately here for you.
So the first is carbs turning to fat. Well on the surface it sounds right until you break the science down. First off, why would you not utilize them if your body needs them? We burn calories while sleeping and if we are at a calorie deficit and we have not hit our carbohydrate goal for the day then there is no logical reason we could not have some right?
Except for those hormones right? Carbs raise insulin and raised insulin lowers growth hormone. That is true, but our hormones fluctuate throughout the day and the fluctuations are not great enough to make a substantial difference. Same reason we all pound a huge post workout meal with carbs within 45 minutes. If our hormone fluctuations were that important then we would not eat carbs after a workout with the fear of decreasing our growth hormone.
And if you are still not convinced, a study was done with two groups of individuals. One group ate carbs spread out evenly throughout the day and the second group had carbs only before bed. Obviously the group that didn't eat all their carbs before bed lost weight right? Wrong. The group eating all their carbs right before bed lost more body fat! Now I'm not saying only eat carbs before bed, but this obviously proves that carbs will not turn to fat if eaten before bed.
Distilled water week of show: This myth piggy backs on the no sodium myth. You can't have sodium because sodium holds water blah, blah, blah. As we previously discussed sodium is necessary to achieve the best look on stage. If we are drinking distilled water to make sure we are not getting sodium not only is it unnecessary, but we are flushing important nutrients out of our body!
No social life if you compete: I see this time and time again. Competitors shut out everyone and everything around them to achieve the win on stage. No dinners with friends, no movies, no cookouts, no nights out, no girlfriend! Obviously this is unnecessary, but is a choice only you can make.
If you decide to do 2-3 hours of cardio a day, eat 1500 calories a day and cut out all carbs, workout two hours a day, pose one hour a day, eat eight times a day, and then try to get eight hours of sleep you probably won't have a social life and you will be a "hardcore" bodybuilder.
I prefer not to be a "hardcore" bodybuilder. I'll work smarter not harder. I'll stick to 4-6 meals a day, no more than 40 minutes of cardio a day and probably a lot less, keeping carbs in my macros and not drastically cutting calories and keep my workouts to one to one-and-a-half hours. Will I have to give up some things? Sure. But I'm not going to give up my social life for a few minutes on stage when you can have balance in life and not miss out on the important moments and events that only come once.
I'm hoping that if you guys take anything away from my articles, it's this: Just because everyone else is doing something or some "guru" says it must be done doesn't make it the best way to do something. Many "gurus" are giving out bad advice. That's why we are seeing cases of metabolic damage occurring left and right. For every one client you see achieving success how many are failing or developing health issues?
And do you really want to be doing what everyone else is doing? Have you seen the majority of the competitors on stage? Do you want to be the majority or the minority? The minority are the ones taking overalls and getting pro cards and I can tell you they are not doing what everyone else is doing! Hit me up on Facebook.
Who is Staggs Fitness: www.staggsfitness.com
The 90 Day Challenge: www.staggsfitness.bodybyvi.com
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/staggsfitness
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