Training FAQ #7: What is "muscle confusion"?

[Animal Rep]

The term “muscle confusion” may be one of the most important for all bodybuilders and powerlifters. When you hit a rut or plateau, there’s a good chance that your body has adapted to what you were throwing at it. The human body is a highly adaptive organism, after all. Doing the same thing day and day out will cause your body to adapt and gains will stop. Simply put, "muscle confusion" is about keeping your body guessing by varying the different elements of your training. These elements include things like how many sets and reps you do, the amounts of weight you put on, the types of exercises you use, the days you train, the sequence of exercises, the length of your rest periods, etc. So if you’ve hit a roadblock, blast through it by using the principle of muscle confusion.

[zatch]

you hit that right on the head, change it up, keep your muscles guessing, and they'll grow...

[BaseballMonster]

hey nothing in my workout is routine, I may have some foundational exercises that I do the same every workout but I always switch up the order in which I workout.

[Mangekyou]

About how often then should i change my exercises?, and like the previous buddy said, are foundational exrcises we should never change?

[JMC]

About how often then should i change my exercises?, and like the previous buddy said, are foundational exrcises we should never change?

Timeframes are going to be different for everyone. This goes to show the importance of keeping a strict logbook. When progression ceases, probably time to change it up a bit.

[holdmyown]

To achieve muscle confusion, can it be as simple as just changing the sets x reps or simply super setting your current routine? or do most the exercises in my split need to be mixed up?

[TheAnima!Packist]

I have tried throwing in some sets to failure, instead of a set to 6. I follow Ox's method, balls to the wall then back off.

[Machine]

There is no such animal as "Muscle Confusion" this is a sham science term that has grown in popular belief among neophytes of late.

MACHINE

[Eric210]

What I have found recently to work good is for benching, I added in reverse grip, since the new study saying that it works your upper chest more than incline benching. Also throwing in some pyramid sets on the beach muscles

[jexta]

I typically don't have any real set routine... the only thing set in stone is the days in which I work the groups: chest/tri - back/bi - shouldars/forearms - legs/abs and I been thinking about changing that eventually but I kinda got a question that results from how I work my days:

I usually go to the gym with those groups in mind and do what sounds fun... like on chest day, sometimes it just feels like DB press is where its at and so on and so forth.. so many workouts and you cant do them all so I usually change it up day by day; Is this bad??? should I have a strict routine and then every few weeks switch up the workouts and days possibly? or am I still fine just doing whatever seems right at the moment?

[In Flames]

I typically don't have any real set routine... the only thing set in stone is the days in which I work the groups: chest/tri - back/bi - shouldars/forearms - legs/abs and I been thinking about changing that eventually but I kinda got a question that results from how I work my days:

I usually go to the gym with those groups in mind and do what sounds fun... like on chest day, sometimes it just feels like DB press is where its at and so on and so forth.. so many workouts and you cant do them all so I usually change it up day by day; Is this bad??? should I have a strict routine and then every few weeks switch up the workouts and days possibly? or am I still fine just doing whatever seems right at the moment?

I'm not a Pro but in my personal opinion you're perfectly fine. I do exactly what you do. I have a set routine, as in which body-part I'm going to work on that day, etc, but the exercises constantly change, even the sets/reps sometimes. Sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly. Just depends how I feel. One week/month all Barbell, next week/month all Dumbell, etc. One week sets of 8-15 reps, next week maybe sets of 30-50 reps, then back down to 4-6 reps, who knows. This keeps it from getting boring and monotonous and gains keep coming.