When should you increase the weights?
Some people change exercises as often as daily, believing this will create “muscle confusion” and lead to more microtears.
Changing stimuli
First, it’s worth clarifying, in simple terms: you can change a training program while keeping the same exercises (or at least most of them). How? By changing the stimuli (metabolic or mechanical tension) and adding advanced techniques such as drop sets, rest-pause, etc.
But back to the topic: In one study, participants performed 5 sets of 6 repetitions of incline dumbbell curls. After 7 days, one group performed the same exercise, while the other did preacher curls, also for 5 sets of 6 repetitions.
The markers of muscle damage, assessed for 4 days after the session, showed no differences between the groups!
Conclusion
Randomly changing exercises does not seem to “confuse” the muscle for the purpose of hypertrophy. It’s important to stick to a good training program as closely as possible, both to track your progress (increasing the weights, etc.) and to guide future programs. Changing some exercises in future training programs is important mainly for motivational reasons.
Light weights can also deliver great results
You don’t need very heavy weights to achieve hypertrophy. That’s a myth, and it needs to be dispelled! By using the full range of motion and controlling your tempo, you can achieve great results.
You should always focus on performing the full range of motion in your workouts, since poor exercise technique combined with heavy weights can cause serious injuries during training. And that’s not what you want, is it?
So always keep in mind that the weights are not the main thing you should focus on during your workout.
