You’ve all seen the infomercial for p90x, the new training program that’s taking the country by storm! With a bunch of DVDs, food charts, and a special patented “muscle confusion” (ooooooooh) program, they’ll get you insane results in only three months and 3 payments of $39.95 (plus 20 bucks for shipping, jeez)! The main selling point for this program is the “muscle confusion,” so I want to break it down to normal people terms to explain what you’re actually getting. I won’t even charge you 140 bucks for the info!
As you lift weights and do exercises, your muscles are broken down, and then rebuilt over the next few days. If you continue to do the same exercises on a consistent basis your muscles will get used to the cycle of breaking down the same way and rebuilding the same way, and they’ll actually adapt to get less affected, which will in turn give you less results for the same amount of work. If you’re an Econ guy, think of this as diminishing returns. You’ve probably heard this referred to as a ‘plateau.’ Not good.
In order to fix that, you need to “confuse” your muscles constantly (see what I’m getting at here?) in order to keep them guessing and never give them the opportunity to adapt. If your muscles are constantly guessing and getting hit from different angles, with different exercises or a different number of sets or reps, then they can never get comfortable and you won’t hit that dreaded “plateau” of decreased gains. The head trainer for the people on the set of 300 said that the actors never did the same workout twice.
Keep this in mind next time you think about doing the bench press in the gym for the millionth time in a row. Mix it up! Try incline bench presses with dumbbells, or do some dumbbell flys, or stick with the bench and switch your grip from narrow to wide or vice-versa. Usually do three sets? Try five! 12 reps per set? Up the weight and drop the number of reps down to 6. Not only will this ‘confuse’ your muscles, but it will also keep you from getting bored in the gym. If you’re bored, you’ll dread the gym and probably not give your all. Challenge yourself to come up with new ways to work your muscles, and you’ll see better results.
New to the gym and need some more exercises? Find one of the trainers in the gym and just ask him what other exercise they’d recommend to mix it up for your ____________(chest, legs, back, etc.). Be careful if you’re going to ask another guy working out, because they might not know what they’re doing. Every day I’m in the gym I probably see 10 people who are doing exercises incorrectly.
Lastly, be realistic in what you’ll get out of this program. If you want to look like the guys on the infomercial, you’re going to need a gym membership and fully dedicate yourself for far longer than 12 weeks. Set realistic goals and stick with it, and you’ll get there.
Steve
