When should you change your workout?
When should you change your workout? Some people switch up their exercises as often as every day, believing this will create “muscle confusion” and lead to more microtears.
First, it’s good to make this clear, in simple terms: you can change a training program while keeping the same exercises (or at least most of them). How? By changing the training stimulus (metabolic or tension-based) and incorporating advanced techniques such as drop sets, rest-pause, etc.
There are several different training stimuli you can use to get in a good workout.
But back to the topic…
In one study, participants performed 5 sets of 6 reps of biceps curls on an incline bench. After 7 days, one group performed the same exercise while the other performed biceps curls on a Scott bench, also for 5 sets of 6 reps.
The markers of muscle damage, measured for 4 days after the session, showed no differences between the groups!
Conclusion
Randomly switching exercises doesn’t seem to “confuse” the muscle for the purpose of hypertrophy. Sticking to a good training program as consistently as possible is important, even for tracking your progress (increasing the weights, etc.). In future training programs, changing some exercises is important mostly for motivation.
Change your workout or just change the weights?
The usual basics, the fantastic four… barbell squats, lunges, leg press, stiff-leg deadlifts… It’s no mystery!
Remember: it’s important to understand that all multi-joint movements, such as squats, single-leg lunges, and leg presses, work both the back and front of the thigh (quadriceps), as well as the glutes! Simply put: whenever you use a compound exercise to train your “legs,” you’re training your butt… and vice versa.
There are variations you can use to emphasize one area or another, but it isn’t possible to completely isolate the muscles involved in these multi-joint exercises!
And training your LOWER BODY on consecutive days will NOT provide any benefits!
