Variety In Training, Is It Needed?

Variety In Training 

You may have heard the following statements

“You gotta keep the body guessing to make progress” 

Or

” You need to confuse your muscles to grow ”

What’s muscle confusion? 

There is no such a thing as muscle confusion, there is something called the S.A.I.D principle (specific adaptation to imposed demand) meaning our body will adapt to the specific stress that it is being put under.

For strength training the adaptation response is for the body to develop more muscle tissue, become stronger and improve overall fitness levels.

If we always imposed the same stress, then we do not give the body a reason to change. What worked for you when you started training will not work 6 months down the line as the body becomes accustomed to the demand.

We need to continually challenge our muscles by creating a new stress to get a positive response. This is what people really mean when they talk about “muscle confusion”.

Where this gets confusing is when an individual starts thinking that they need to be constantly switching exercises and hopping from program to program to progress.

Yes the constant switching will create a response but you never spend long enough on a certain stimulus to get any worthwhile progress.

The number one way to progress for the majority of people is through progressive overload and learning to get better through variations of basic movements ( squat, hinge, push, pull )

A simple way to provide this overload is through manipulating reps,sets,load to progressively increase your total amount of workload over time.

There are other variables to consider but these are the basics.

Yes we know this sounds simple and not very exciting but it works!

The constant switching of exercises/training styles never allows you the chance to master a movement or monitor progress.

Particularly for beginners, who need to learn the basic movements and practice these regularly.

We understand training needs to have a element of fun to it and it should contain this but this fun shouldn’t come at the expense of progress.

Get the ‘meat & potatoes’ part of your workout done and then have some fun with your accessory work or take some workout selfies!

“Simple isn’t easy”