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MF MYTHBUSTINGFalse. Of course, everyone has a set
of rectus abdominis muscles lurking
under their belly fat, and yes, once you
drop below 10% body fat, you’ll see
hem. But that doesn’t mean they’re
created equal. Train your abs for
hypertrophy like you would any other
bodypart:withsetsofeighttotenreps,
using weight if necessary, and they’ll
grow like anything else. So when you
eveal them via health eating, you’ll
have something worth showing off.11 DON’T TRAIN THE SAME BODY PART
BODYBUILDING DOGMA, OFTEN MISINTERPRETED. UNLESS YOU’RE DESTROYING YOUR AR
WORKOUT FROM HELL, IT’S FINE TO DO CHINUPS TWO DAYS IN A ROW.12 S l o w c a r d i o
is pointless
■ Some runners
have moved away
from long-slog
volume in favour of
sprints. Those
runners tend to lose.
“By doing slow
continuous training
you’re stretching
the left ventricle of
your heart, allowing
it to pump more
blood per beat,” says
coach Aaron Jahn.
“During HIIT
training, the heart is
pumping blood in
and out as fast as
possible to supply
you with oxygen,
which thickens the
walls but doesn’t
have the same
effect. Long, slow
training improves
cardiac output,
which makes you
more efficient.”14 Winners
never quit
■ Wrong. “Winners
quit the right
things,” says
productivity coach
Oliver Emberton. “If
anything, they quit
more often than
other people. We
mistake a burning
desire within us for
certainty that we’ll
get it. But willpower
can’t rewrite the
laws of the universe.
“Everyone knows
it takes hard work to
become successful,
but that’s only half
the story. It also
takes courage and
insight to pick the
right things.”
The moral in the
gym? Pick a few key
moves to improve,
and throw out
everything else for
a few weeks.13 Lower it
slowly
■ Tempo-focused
coaches state the
eccentric phase
— the lowering part
— of any exercise is
the most important.
But it’s not always
the case. “By
eliminating the
eccentric bit of your
training — for
instance, by doing
moves that don’t
have a lowering
part, like power
cleans or rope
climbs where you
jump off at the top
— you’ll cause
morphological
adaptations,” says
coach Ross Edgley.
“You’ll increase
strength while
limiting the higher
stress and tension
caused during the
eccentric phase.”WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD WEIGHTSure, if you want to
fast-track an injury.
Your alternative:
create more tension
with the weight
you’ve got. “If
muscle’s the goal,
lifting to a strict
tempo works better
than simply
‘cheating’ the weight
up,” says trainer
Martin Sutcli e.
“Lower the weight
for four seconds,
pause at the bottom,
then reverse
directions. It works
for almost any
move.”AUGUST 2016 MEN’S FITNESS 71