You likely shouldn’t even be changing them every month.
This may sound shocking to you, especially when you see people talking about keeping the muscle guessing, shocking the body, and confusing the muscles. Those things sound good in theory, but in reality, they are complete and utter B.S.
Your muscles don’t know if you’re doing a different exercise. They aren’t actively trying to “figure out” what you’re doing, and then once you do, they say “aha! I’ve got you now! I’m done responding.”
The only thing your muscles know is tension. And if you want to stimulate the muscle, you need to get to the last 4 to 5 reps before failure. Those are what we call “effective reps.”
It’s these handful of reps that really force the body to change. That’s why I’m constantly harping on using good form, a full range of motion, and training close to failure. More on this in a bit.
Today I’m going to tell you 2 reasons why you shouldn’t be changing your workouts every week (or even every month) and when you actually should change your workouts for maximum results:
1) The Body Prefers to Make Neurological Adaptations Over Muscular Adaptations
2) The Body Doesn’t Need to Be Shocked, It Needs Tension
3) When to Change Workouts for Maximum Results
The Body Prefers to Make Neurological Adaptations Over Muscular Adaptations
There are 2 primary ways the body responds to Strength Training. 2 primary ways the body gets stronger. We need to understand these 2 pathways to be able to understand why we shouldn’t change our workouts too often.
The first is through neurological adaptations, and the second is through growing the muscle tissue.
When someone is new to strength training, both adaptations happen at the same time (which is why beginners get stronger faster than anyone else), but eventually the neurological adaptations slow down and eventually stop, and the only way to keep getting stronger is through muscular adaptations. And that’s what we’re really after- it’s the muscular adaptations that will change your life! Bigger muscles equal more strength, more endurance, more toned and defined, etc.
So what exactly is a neurological adaptation?
It’s similar to when your body learns to ride a bike. It’s the body getting better at the actual skill of lifting. And the skill of recruiting your body’s muscles for a given movement.
Strength is the ability of the nervous system (the brain sends a signal down the spinal cord to nerves, which sends a signal to muscles to fire)
When you first start working out, you’re not very good at recruiting the muscle you do have. Over time, you get a lot better at recruiting those muscles. At the same time, your body responds to the workouts by increasing the size of your muscles. And all things being equal, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle.
SO how does this apply to not changing workouts too often?
Every time you switch exercises, your body has to become efficient with that new movement. You’ll notice when you switch to a new exercise, your strength on that exercise goes up pretty quickly over the first few weeks.
So you assume you’re making a ton of progress, right?
Wrong. The reason your strength is increasing so much is that your body is primarily adapting neurologically first.
Why? Because it’s cheaper and easier for the body to adapt neurologically than it is to adapt by growing its muscle tissues.
When given the choice, the body prefers to adapt neurologically.
So it’s really once you’ve become efficient with a movement that your body starts seeing the best muscular changes. Even though your strength seems to increase more slowly. Because with every rep/weight you add to a movement you’re already very efficient at, the only way that strength increases happens is from growing muscle tissue. And that’s what we’re after!
So if you make the mistake of changing your workouts every week or even every single month, you’re choosing to make slower progress!
Which brings me to point 2:
The Body Doesn’t Need to Be Shocked, It Needs Tension
Point 1 showed the importance of NOT trying to “shock the body” or “confuse the muscle.”
The only thing that matters for getting results is:
Using good form, a full range of motion, and training close to failure.
When you do the last 4 to 5 reps before failure, your body is maximally using every muscle fiber to move the weight. And it’s that tension that the body experiences on those last 4 to 5 reps that signals to the body it needs to grow.
So instead of trying to shock your body into growth, just make sure you’re using good form, a full range of motion, and training within about 1 rep shy of failure. Do that on 2-3 sets per muscle group 2 times per week, and you’ll get a lot stronger (which means you’ll reap all the benefits of strength training!)
So when SHOULD you change your workouts?
The simple answer is:
Only when you stop making progress with your current program.
So if you’re still seeing progress after 3, 4, 5, even 6 months…don’t change it! Just keep going and squeeze every drop of progress you can from that program. Then and only then do I recommend changing programs.
Now I know some of you are horrified at the idea of doing the same program for months at a time.
I have 2 things to say to that:
First, are you going to the gym for results or to be entertained? If you’re after results, why don’t you try to stay with something for a little longer than you usually would? It’ll be worth it!
But second, we’re all human. And sometimes we need to mix things up just to stay engaged and enjoy the workouts. If you really hate your current program, then it’s time to switch things up.
At a minimum, though, I’d recommend doing a program for at least 6 weeks before changing things! If you can stand to do a program for 8, 10, or even 12 weeks, I think the results will be worth it! But PLEASE just give it a minimum of at least 6 weeks.
If you’re not seeing results in the gym, my guess is that changing your workout program too often could be part of the problem. If you’re guilty of this (I know I have been, especially when I first started my strength training journey), then commit to following a program for 6-12 weeks. Train hard, make every set count, and enjoy the results of sticking to your program!
And if you’re ready to start your strength training journey or you want to optimize your strength training workouts, then join my 12 Week Program today!
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