TOP 5 Kachkovsky myths

When a man wants to have a beautiful torso, he immediately asks the question: is it possible to pump up his own muscles as quickly as possible in natural home conditions? It turns out that it is quite possible to quickly build up muscles, not in the gym, but in ordinary home conditions; you just need to set yourself such a goal, have willpower and confidently move towards a positive result.

To do this, various exercises are used, which will be discussed now. In addition, a proper diet is of great importance, which helps to gain significant muscle mass, allowing you to quickly build up.

For jocks it’s “not worth it”

One of the most common myths that has no serious basis. But there are more than enough of the frivolous ones. First of all, this is an attempt by people dissatisfied with their physical condition to lower the status of those who have already achieved something. Moreover, we are talking about people who have not even tried to do anything to improve their physique or lose excess weight. It’s easier to say: “It’s not worth it for jocks!” than to spend an hour or two training several times a week in the gym or at least in the yard on the horizontal bars, control your diet and eat less food junk.

The funny thing is that working with weights and, in principle, physical activity, on the contrary, increases libido and sexual desire , which means that “standing” will be much better than that of a smooth lover of beer, chips and a sofa. Physical activity and strength exercises in particular stimulate the human hormonal system like nothing else. In particular, the production of sex hormones (testosterone, for example), which directly affect sexual desire.

Any active training buddy has noticed that after a fruitful leg workout (usually the one that causes the most stress and hormonal response), there is a stronger than usual desire to climb on top of your wife or girlfriend. In turn, active fat gain and physical inactivity have exactly the opposite effect - the level of estrogen in the male body increases (the female sex hormone, also found in small quantities in men) and, as a result, libido decreases.

By the way, working with weights is especially useful for older people. After 30 years, testosterone levels in men begin to gradually decline - this is a natural process. But physical activity allows you to prevent it and maintain sex hormones at a fairly high level. But for a man, testosterone is not only sexual desire, but also motivation to move on, achieve something, develop. The level of testosterone significantly affects the psychological state of a man, and it is with its sharp decrease that such an effect as “Gray hair in the beard - a devil in the rib” is often associated. Emotional frustration and the dissatisfaction it generates with oneself lead to the fact that a man commits strange, often illogical actions.

It is also worth remembering that 90% of male sexual function depends on the psychological state and only 10% on the physical state. If, under the influence of others, you start to fill your head with the idea that “I won’t be able to stand up from protein and exercise,” in the end you can achieve just such an effect.

The second nuance concerns the thoughtless use of certain types of anabolic steroids from the nandrolone . If they are used unreasonably, you can get a sharp jump in the hormone prolactin , which inhibits sexual function. The result is reduced sexual desire to the point of “not worth it.” Often sports nutrition is also mixed in here, but this is another nonsense, which we will talk about below.

Conclusion : strength training increases the level of sex hormones and, as a result, jocks often “stand” better than their comrades who do not lift anything heavier than a mug of beer.

The best exercises to get pumped up at home

We recommend that you read the article: how to gain muscle mass at home, from it you will learn how to eat properly, exercise and what you need to do to increase muscle mass.

Upper body and abdominal exercises

Push ups

To work your arms and chest, do push-ups - this is the alpha and omega of home workouts. To get the most out of them, make sure you perform the movement correctly. The back should be straight and in line with the pelvis, the pelvis should not sag. In general, the palms should be approximately shoulder-width apart, but to emphasize the chest, you can place them a little wider, and to emphasize the arms, a little narrower. Additionally, mix negative and positive incline push-ups for better muscle growth.

Positive incline push-ups work different areas of the muscles. To perform them, simply rest not on the floor, but, say, on an armchair or coffee table.
For negative incline push-ups, place your feet 1-2 feet (0.30-0.61 m) above the point of support and perform a regular push-up. Remember to keep your head slightly raised and your back straight.
Each set should consist of eight to twelve repetitions. Try to do three approaches, a man can do it.

Wall push-ups

To work your shoulders and back, do push-ups on your hands against a wall. And although this exercise is not for the faint of heart, it nevertheless works great on many different muscles. To get into the right position, lie on your back against a wall. Place your hands on the floor and slowly “walk” up. From the top position, touch your feet to the wall for balance, slowly lower until your head touches the floor and return to the starting position to complete the repetition. Try to do three sets of ten reps.

If you're nervous about doing this exercise, you can cheat a little and use a high table. Place your feet on the tabletop so that your hips and torso remain in the air, and place your hands on the floor. When doing push-ups, make sure your head is pointing strictly vertically down. This exercise is sometimes called corner push-ups.

Triceps push-ups

To work your arms, do dips or you can use a chair. A stable bench, table or chair approximately 1-2 feet (0.3-0.6 m) high will be suitable as a replacement for the bars. Place your hands on the bench behind your body, your pelvis should be in the air, your knees bent 90 degrees. Place your feet firmly on the floor and lower your pelvis until your arms are bent at about 90 degrees. Push back to the starting position. Perform three sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Plank

Planks are a great way to tone your muscles at home, strengthen your core, and are easy to modify to add more challenge to the exercise. To perform a plank, take a lying position. However, instead of resting on your palms, lower yourself onto your elbows. Tighten your gluteal muscles, straighten your back - the line between the base of your neck and the base of your pelvis should be completely straight. Hold this position for a minute, rest and repeat two more times.

A side plank is where you stand on your side, resting on your elbow and the outside of your leg. Again, keep your back straight and focus on not sagging your pelvis.
Plank push-ups: Start by lying down, palms shoulder-width apart, feet hip-width apart. Lower yourself onto your elbows into an elbow plank position, then rise back up into a prone position. Perform 12 reps in each set.

Ab crunches

To strengthen your abdominal and core muscles, do crunches. Crunches have been and remain the best exercises, so don't neglect them. Lie on your back, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor. Place your hands behind your head and lift your shoulders 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) above the floor, pause for a second, then slowly lower back. Immediately bend over again, keeping your eyes focused on the ceiling and your movements slow and deliberate. Try to do three sets of eight to twelve repetitions.

Straight Leg Raise: Lie on your back with your legs completely straight, arms extended towards the ceiling and lift, keeping your legs straight. Stretch your arms and try to touch your toes, then slowly lie back to the starting position. Complete 10 reps.

For the simplest curls, use a bottle of water, a heavy book, or buy dumbbells. While other exercises require little or no additional equipment, most upper body workouts still require weights or resistance to be effective. Take a weight that is comfortable for you and try

Biceps Curl
Triceps extension
Shoulder raises
Craving for the lower back

Exercises for the muscles of the lower body

To work your leg muscles, do intense explosive cardio-style movements. And while most people don't associate muscle growth with cardio exercise, there are plenty of moves you can perform that will give you strong, toned legs. Choose 5-6 exercises and perform each for 60 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds, then move on to the next one. After you complete all six exercises, rest for 4-5 minutes and repeat 2-3 more times. Your legs will be on fire, but this way you will quickly tone them up.

Leg exercises:

Jumping with arms swinging to the sides;
Lunges;
Burpee - perform a jump with arm swings, fall into a prone position. Repeat;
Jumping Knees - Jump quickly with each leg in turn, raising your knee as high as possible. Try to keep the time of contact with the floor to a minimum:
Side Jumps - Jump to the side, land on one leg bent at the knee, then explosively jump onto the other leg;
Twisting the body;
Box jumps or simple plyometric exercises.

Wall Squats

Rest your back against the wall and “sit” so that your knees are bent at 90 degrees and your pelvis is hanging in the air, as if you were in a chair. Hold this position for one minute. Rest for thirty seconds and repeat two more times.

Body weight squats

This is one of the best ways to pump yourself up. To perform a squat, stand with your feet hip-width apart, straighten your back, lift your head, and tighten your abs. Place your hands on your hips or extend them out in front of you, whichever is more comfortable for you. Squat down as if you were sitting in a chair. Your back should be kept straight, your knees should be directly above your toes, and they should not protrude forward. Focus on sinking your pelvis. Perform 10 times, then do two more sets after a short rest.

Bulgarian split squat: Place your front foot on the floor and place your back foot on a raised platform, such as a coffee table or chair. Lower yourself into a squat, then return to the starting position. You can spread your arms out for balance or rest them on your hips. Do 12 reps on each leg.

Swing your leg up while standing on all fours . Get down on your hands and knees and lift one leg back and up, keeping your knee bent at a 90-degree angle. Do 12 reps on each leg.

Gluteal bridge

Lie on your back, bend your knees, and place your feet on the floor. Raise your pelvis so that your body forms something like a bridge. Raise your left leg in a high pelvic position, then lower it and repeat with your right leg. Perform 10 repetitions on each leg.

Lunges

Lunges are a great way to work your glutes, thighs, and hamstrings. To perform this movement, step approximately 3-4 feet (0.9-1 m) in front of you. The leg should be bent at the knee about 90 degrees. Lower your pelvis, the knee of the front leg should be above the toe, the back leg bent at the knee should almost touch the floor. Push off and step with your other leg to complete the rep. Perform 10 times on each side, then rest and do 2 more sets.

If you have dumbbells or other weights, you can make this exercise heavier and thereby significantly increase its effectiveness. Even just a bottle in each hand is good.

Protein and other sports nutrition are “chemistry”

And protein is not worth it, but muscles grow a lot. To enhance the effect, it is injected into different loin parts of the body, or even sent through a vein, so that the muscles are completely torn apart.

It’s difficult to even say where the legs of this myth “grow” from. Obviously due to ignorance and misunderstanding of what protein and other sports nutrition are. By the way, the word “Protein” is translated from English as “Protein”. Yes, yes, all these hefty foreign cans, buckets and bags with bright labels say “protein”. It is the main component of protein. Protein for protein is obtained from whey . That is, the mentioned sports supplement is based on natural products.

To describe the process roughly, the whey is filtered through a special membrane that captures protein molecules. The resulting whey protein concentrate is used to produce protein. Actually, for the most part it consists of this very protein, plus flavoring additives, maybe a little carbohydrates, dyes, sweeteners. However, you will find a more natural product in a can of protein than in the sausage section of the store.

As you understand, good food cannot cause problems with erections, and the protein in a sports supplement like “Protein” is not a chemical. As for amino acids, this is the same protein, but already decomposed into components by special enzymes. Actually, protein consists of amino acids. Believe me, it’s better to drink a portion of protein than to eat a bun, a pie, a bite of chips or some other tasty treat.

If you are interested in the topic of sports nutrition, I recommend reading my feature article:

About the benefits of sports nutrition

Another thematic myth is described by the question: “How many centimeters will my biceps grow from a can of protein?” Not at all, my young friend who wants to get pumped up quickly. Protein is just a natural food supplement, nothing more. Using it wisely, you can improve your results, but good steak, cottage cheese, eggs, fish and other sources of protein work just as well, if not better than protein. Focus on good, quality food first and foremost and don't be afraid of sports nutrition. But use it wisely, otherwise your wallet will suffer in vain.

Conclusion : Protein is a natural nutritional supplement, like most other sports nutrition products.

All the jocks are stupid

This is another attempt to lower the status of people who stand out from the crowd, and to justify their physical inactivity and gluttony, as a result of which their belly and ass grow. Think logically, how can a large amount of muscle mass affect the level of mental development? Apparently, the same as the lack of impressive muscles, that is, not at all. And among big people there are not very smart comrades, and among small ones too, there is no connection here.

But I can say 100% that if a person has achieved noticeable results in his bodybuilding, then this at least indicates that, in addition to physical work, he has also done intellectual work. Understand the issues of nutrition, physiology, training methods, building a training split and, most importantly, have enough willpower and courage to implement the acquired knowledge in reality. Not every average person can do this. Here you have to think and work, work a lot.

Want examples of intellectually outstanding bodybuilders? Nasser El Sonbati - three academic degrees and knowledge of seven languages. Bodybuilding legend Frank Zane - degree in psychology, teacher of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other natural sciences. This is one of the athletes of the golden era, who even now looks better than many 20-30 year old citizens. At 72:

One cannot help but remember Arnold Schwarzenegger , who achieved everything he could wish for in this life. Ordinary and stupid individuals are not capable of this.

Conclusion : Use logic, don’t follow the crowd and live by stereotypes. Muscle size has no effect on the decline or absence of intelligence. Rather, on the contrary, in order to pump up, you need to put in a lot of effort, including mental effort, and I say this based on my own experience.

Fat can be pumped into muscle

Yeah, and if you don’t exercise, your muscles will turn into fat! This is sarcasm, in case anyone doesn't understand. But let's look at the intriguing topics in order.

As some overweight people like to say, “there won’t be any excess fat, I’ll pump it into the muscles.” You won’t over-pump, because the body does not have mechanisms that directly convert fat tissue into muscle. You can lose fat and build muscle, but you can’t pump fat into muscle. In fact, fat in the body is accumulated energy reserves. When 1 g of fat is oxidized, the output is a portion of energy (37.7 kJ or 8–9 kcal), water and carbon dioxide, that’s all. Fat does not turn into muscle fibers.

As for the transformation of muscles into fat after you quit training (or significantly reduce the load), this is also nonsense. If a person continues to eat sensibly, then the muscles will simply decrease - the body will remove the excess ones as unnecessary, so as not to waste energy on their maintenance. Why keep a costly resource if it is not used. Muscle cells shrink, leaving glycogen, additional water and other substances necessary for high-volume and intense work.

Although it is, of course, possible to become fat, this has nothing to do with training in the past, but only with gluttony and consuming more calories than you burn.

Conclusion . You should not save fat for the future in order to turn it into muscle - this is a myth. The more fat you have, the more you will have to spend to lose it. And if you give up intense training, but continue to eat wisely and eat good foods, then the muscle volume will go away, but it’s easy to maintain a slender, toned body.

Home workout equipment

Still, try to buy the most basic home equipment if you are serious about training. There is a huge amount of equipment that, if you know how to lift properly at home, will allow you to try new exercises and progress further, without breaking the bank.

Band expanders are customizable, come in an assortment of “weights” and can be used for thousands of different exercises.
The most basic dumbbell set is a budget-friendly way to add efficiency to your workouts.
Pull-up bars are designed specifically to fit under any doorway, many models can also be used for incline push-ups, some are additionally equipped with parallel bars.

You can't get pumped up without steroids, but they will lead to impotence and death

Or, apparently, to death from impotence. This is sarcasm again.

Firstly, anyone can train very successfully without the use of anabolic steroids. Yes, he will not pump up to the level of his massive comrades from regional bodybuilding competitions, not to mention more serious events of this kind, but compared to ordinary people he will look like an athlete. And with really high-quality adherence to diet, sleep and training, many will suspect him of being a “chemist”. Believe me, pumping up an arm to 42–45 cm without the use of sports pharmacology is completely within the capabilities of almost any person with average physical characteristics. Yes, the hand will not be completely dried out, and in this case wild relief will not be achieved, but it is quite the level of an ordinary (non-competitive) beach bodybuilder.

As for impotence from anabolic steroids, this is fundamentally strange, considering that many of them were created to treat this very impotence. Becoming sterile - yes, this is possible, although in most cases everything can be restored. Becoming completely impotent is a myth, even with terrible abuse of sports pharmacology. Among the famous bodybuilders, it is worth remembering the same Arnold Schwarzenegger, who never hid the use of anabolic steroids during the competitive period. He has four children, not counting illegitimate ones.

Conclusion . You don’t die from steroids and don’t become impotent, but from alcohol it’s easy, which has been tested and proven more than once (but it’s not advertised, because it’s profitable to sell alcohol). It is real and possible to pump up without steroids, if only you have the desire and willpower, and the means will always be found.

How to create a training program

Set up a schedule so that you do exercises for each muscle group twice a week. You don't need a coach to create an effective training plan. There are a few simple rules that are easy to remember, following which you can get the most out of your exercises and quickly and safely get your muscles in order.

Between similar workouts there should be 1-2 days of rest. If you work on your chest on Tuesday, don't return to it until Thursday or Friday.
Group exercises for similar muscle groups in one workout. For example, many chest movements also work the triceps: perform them on the same day.
Make sure you have 1-2 rest days where you do not engage in any physical activity or it is kept to a minimum. Your body needs time to rest and recover to build muscle.

To pump up quickly at home and do it safely, focus on proper form rather than a few extra reps. It is necessary that all training movements be smooth, confident and slow, and not torn and crooked. And although all exercises are different, the following points are relevant for everyone:

Inhale in a neutral or relaxed position. Exhale when tense.
Make sure your back is always straight and not bent or twisted.
Hold at the extreme point of the movement for 1-2 seconds, then slowly return to the starting position.

When doing a full-body workout, don't forget to stretch. Yoga is another option that allows you to work large muscle groups and can help strengthen your muscles and gain flexibility. Calm and relaxed activities are good for days when you are resting, this will allow you to achieve more during hard training and provide variety to the program. If you don't know which exercises to choose so that they don't require special equipment, you can try yoga.

YouTube is an endless source of yoga tutorials for any level of practitioner, so don't be intimidated if you're new to it: you'll learn how to do it at home without any special equipment.

Try to make the last 2-3 reps of each set difficult but not impossible. If you really want to build muscle, you have to put in the effort. Your body is the best indicator of your training, so keep working the muscle until you fatigue it. By the end of each set you should be struggling, so that the last 2-3 reps require complete focus and dedication.

Set goals early. If you recklessly decide to do three sets of twenty reps, you will likely be exhausted by the end of the set. But if the goal turns out to be too easy, you can always add more.

Overcoming difficulties is not the same as risking injury. If your muscles, joints or bones ache instead of burning or getting tired, you need to stop and rest.