Should you keep the body guessing to see better results?
Mix it up
Chop and change
Keep it guessing?
It’s something you often hear and see in people new to training. Boredom, a lack of progress and bad advice has them wanted to change their workout monthly, weekly or even daily to “shock the body” into progress.
Speak to anyone who has trained for a long time and is in good shape and you will see some very common trends.
They don’t change their movements that often. They keep a structured routine. They track their weights. They apply overload with varying levels of intention and planning. They are consistent.
Why?
Because this process works. All of the things outlined here are the foundation of good training. They help you to actually progress at movements instead of changing them before you have a chance. They allow you to recover more effectively and train more consistently.
Effective training doesn’t need to be sexy, the movements don’t need to elaborate and you should repeat your workouts.
New movements will increase muscle soreness, challenge the body and spice it up in the gym but these things are not the foundation of progress.
When should you change your workout?
Changes don’t need to be profound, subtle differences to apply overload like increasing the weight, adding a rep, adding a set, slowing the tempo down or reducing rest are all good ways of the making the sessions more challenging.
A good time to change your actual workouts is when they are no longer progressing or if you are working through phases of training, this could be small changes in movements or bigger changes in overall split, or sets and reps.
Stick with a workout for long enough to see changes. Don’t expect them overnight.
Work hard at it, be consistent with it and be patient. Don’t aim to keep the body guessing, instead keep it progressing.
