New Routine

[Esc0rtd]

Hey Guys,

Ive now gotten thru my first 3months lifting an im lovin the gains ive made already :nod:

The dreaded Plateu is upon me so its really time to mix things up again..

Ive been working on a 3 day cycle, Chest/Bi's, Back/Tri's, Legs, with cardio once or twice a week: Run/Boxing/Pilates.. Dont mock that Sh1t till youve tried it.. god dam..

Any suggestions? :shifty:

Input appreciated

[ThePman]

1. What is your plateau?

2. Why are you convinced that "mixing things up again" will help you?

[cantygirl]

Hi, congrats on your gains. Yes id imagine that doing the same routine over 3 months would get you to a plateau. It generally works out that 6-8 weeks on any program is enough, you need to be changing things regularly to continue to get those gains. What is your number 1 goal? Has that changed since you first started out?

[ThePman]

How come nobody has bothered to define the very ambiguous "gains", or has explained why it's necessary to change a program every 6-8 weeks? What needs to change, and why?

It'd be a lot more helpful to actually quantify things instead of just repeating vague statements.

[SoaringSwine]

A good programme will change with you. No need for radical overhauls every few months. Find something that works for you, and adjust it slightly when adaption slows.

[Mr_Krabs]

IMO as long as youre forcing yourself to up the weights regularly, 9/10 times it seems that plateaus are caused by diet not from doing the same lifts in the same order for too long.

Have you tried eating more?

[Esc0rtd]

Thanks for the replys guys,

1. I rip out the measuring tape once a week, and up till 3 weeks ago have made size gains all over - Legs are being stubborn but getting there :pfft:

2. Because i feel like im loosing drive doing the same thing week in/week out.. a Shock for the mind as much as the body..

Canty, my original goals were pretty vague; put 10kgs of lean mass on, be able to bench 80kgs, improve my fitness (I was a smoker for 4years)

Im not looking to be a powerlifter or contest anything, i want to bulk up, be the best that i can be, and be proud of my body.

P Man, My diet def has room for improvement, i seem to be eating all day long, but it mustnt be enough yet :shifty:

So i guess im asking, what are things you'd suggest to change things up, keep the body guessing, without being to radical?

:-s

[cantygirl]

I don't think your goals are vague at all. At least you havn't made it unattainable. Diet will play a big role in how fast you reach your goals. good protein with your carbs will help your muscles to grow and give you energy to get there. But most importantly, your muscles need recovery time so make sure you have a day off each week. Everybody suffers from plateaus, keep a record of your progress and by changing your training regularly, you will see great progress when you come back to perform the first program again. For instance, if you are currently doing barbell chest press 3X12, how about adding on 2 more rounds. Superset each press with wide arm dumbell flys. 6 weeks down the track when you come back to do just barbell press, you will be pleasantly surprised how much stronger you have become. Little changes even in the bench angle can make all the difference.

[IronHyde]

There are a few things you can adjust, you don't need to mix up your routine or anything:

You can shorten the duration and you will find it is working your muscles a lot harder as your are giving them less rest. For example if you currently have 2 minute break between sets then change to 1 minute.

Intensity, you can train for the same amount of time as you currently are but up the tempo and do higher reps on each set.

Weight, don't change anything but the weight. Try and up the weight every week or so.

You could combine a couple of those if you wanted too. So lessen your rest times and lift heavier for example.

Here is something i have read and i think it makes sense also:

You Need to ‘Shock” Your Muscles and Keep Them Guessing

This has got to be one of the dumbest and most unintelligent statements ever made (no hard feelings because I used to think like this too). Interestingly, the people who used to give me this advice must have been shocking or tricking their muscles the wrong way because they had no muscle mass on their bodies to back up that statement! Believe this and you will never see any muscular gains to your body. If you think about this myth long enough you might start to laugh. Do you think you can really change your exercises and training routine to surprise your body and get a different reaction out of them?

Your muscles do not have outside eyes that reward you with new muscle growth if you confuse them. Your muscles understand MOVEMENT and that’s all – push, pull, curl, extend, contract or release – that’s it. You can be lifting bags of sand or dead lifting 400 pounds and the action on your back is the same – your knees bend and your trunk flexes. So where is the shock? Why would your back muscles say, “Holy Macaroni Batman, you’re lifting with an Olympic bar and not sand bags anymore?” Better packon some muscle.

Or maybe you can switch up the order of your routine by hitting a weak body part twice in the week. If you only train your arms once in the week and than strategically throw arms in twice then they will be confused and shocked into growing. Please! Your muscles operate on laws of science, not on laws of trickery. Forget trying to ‘shock’, ‘confuse’, ‘trick’ and ‘keep the muscle guessing’ nonsense. The only thing that will be shocked and confused is the person messing around with the exercises with no clue why their body has not changed in a month since they started this ‘keep the body guessing’ program. Remember your muscles are not shocked by change in exercise. They are designed to tolerate it.

[ThePman]

Yeah that's what I was trying to steer the thought process towards.

When you don't say what's stalled (weight gains? strength gains? certain exercises?) we don't know what problem needs solved in the first place. When you say "change the routine", that's just as vague - what needs to be changed, and why?

People get hung up on this "shock the muscle" statement but that's not very helpful. The piece IronHyde quoted summarizes why. Your muscles only know tension. "Shock the muscles" doesn't tell you what's important to change, and frankly most people that say that don't have any idea why they're repeating it to you. They just repeat it because that's what they were told, too.

You need some variety in your workouts, but not so much that you can't stay consistent. If you're not consistent, you can't track progress - and progress is much, much, much (much) more important than "changing it up".

Changing the weights used and the number of sets, etc, is "good" change, provided you've got some reasoning behind it. Coming up with a new program out of the blue every month is not so good.

As one example, I like to use three-week cycles that vary the intensity (weight on the bar) and volume (amount of reps done per exercise) each week. That's my preference, and it works well enough, but there's lots and lots of other ways to do things.

And hell if you're just not gaining weight, that's got nothing to do with your program in the first place. You're just not eating enough.