Hi Alfonso,

My question for you is about muscle confusion. We’ve all heard that in order to make gains (losses) in working out we should be “changing it up” every so often to trick our bodies (muscles).

My question is why then if we take time off from working out do our bodies not fly into action and produce rapid gains (losses)?

Thanks,

Jessica

Hey Jessica,

I’m sorry but your question is what confuses my body (and brain!) Seriously though, I think I understand what you’re asking – so here goes!

Let’s first talk about the term ‘muscle confusion’. This is a phrase that Tony Horton made popular with his P90X system. The theory is that you need to keep switching exercises from one workout to the next to make your muscles keep guessing what you’ll throw at them. But I’m going to burst the P90X bubble – even though I’m a fan – and say this is actually a bit silly and way too simplistic an explanation.

The fact is that bodybuilders have known for years that in order to keep progressing every 6–8 weeks they needed to change programs and target their muscles from different angles. And the reasoning is very simple – your body is highly adaptive, and the results you get from exercise are directly related to the changes that occur from the stimulus (exercises) that you place on it. But once you’ve been on the same program; exercises, sets, reps – your body will become used to the stimulus and the gains slow. The exercise program no longer represents a challenge for your muscles. But if you change programs to one with new exercises, reps and sets you essentially issue a new challenge to your body to try and acclimate to. Makes sense right. Your body is really cool!

But there’s a limit to how often you should change it up in my opinion. You must repeat the same workout at least a few times if not for a few weeks to make significant progress and strength gains within a given exercise. Of course this is all dependent on your goals – if you’re looking for general fitness and health goals you don’t need to train like a bodybuilder or strength athlete. But you should be trying the same routines and improving with each workout. For instance, if you were to try any of my YouTube workouts, you want to try and get more reps, go through the circuit more times, or perform the sets for a longer period of time with each successive workout. To really gauge fitness progress you need to do the same workout multiple times and see if you progress from the first to the last. Makes sense right?

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘fly into action’ and ‘producing gains’ when we stop exercising. I think what you’re asking is why we don’t gain a ton of fat or lose muscle right away when we stop exercising – after all we’re confusing our bodies? Is that right? If so here’s the deal. Years of hard work and diligence in the gym don’t miraculously disappear after a couple of weeks away from the gym. Sure you’ll get a little soft, lose a bit of muscle and conditioning, but you won’t go back to square one. And I believe in some cases you can permanently change your body so that if you stop exercising you’ll still hold more muscle than if you’d never worked out in the first place. Case in point – I once had to stop working out for a year to recover from neck surgery and I still weighed nearly 205 pounds and looked like I was still hitting the gym. One year off couldn’t erase 20 years (nearly half my life) of regular consistent exercise.

So Jessica I always suggest for to you change things up in your workout. Doing so every few weeks is good for your body and for your brain. It helps you stay excited and fresh but also it teaches your body to learn new movement patterns, which help enhance your overall muscular coordination.

Hope this helps – and if you have a question – please just click here. I’d love to help you!

 

All information contained within this site, Angry Trainer Fitness.com, is for informational purposes only.  It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem – nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician.  No action should be taken solely on the contents of this website.  Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health or on any opinions expressed within this website. Please see your physician before changing your diet, starting an exercise program, or taking any supplements of any kind.