In general, most people are afraid of changes that occur in life. Think about how often one stays in bad relationships because of the fear of moving on. The constant fear of the unknown causes a vast majority of people to stay in jobs they despise. Continuing to perform the same workout continuously throughout the years because their fear of change is overwhelming. The workout they once gave them results is now one that their body adapted to and is now within their comfort zone. What do all these things have in common? That change would benefit all in these situations. Changing your workout is what I’ll be addressing in this post.
Why is changing things in your workout a good thing? Well if you are still performing the same old workouts from your high school football days you might have a problem. I’d hate to tell you this but we need to make a change quick. Your current workout should tailor to your current goals and not the goals of the past. Potentially this might mean that no longer performing that barbell bench anymore if lacking the mobility to do so or have shoulder issues due to the years of lifting and poor posture from working at a desk all day. However, barbell benching could then be replaced with a more shoulder friendly option of dumbbell bench or even floor pressing.
Let us move on to a common mistake I witness when youth athletes train by themselves. Often I see them staying in the same rep ranges over and over again for long periods. A key thing to note about the human body is it will adapt to the stresses we put on it over time. Therefore, consistently doing the same weight for the same rep ranges will no longer create that adaptation of gaining strength or hypertrophy (muscle mass). This would be why the principles of progressive overload in periodization exist. (If you ever want to put a smile on my face, ask me about my boy Milo The Kroton.) With periodization we could hypothetically have a program where we are going the same reps per a period of 4-6 weeks. For this example we will use a hypertrophy range of 8 reps. We would then move on to a strength phase where the reps would move to 1-6 reps per set for 2-4 weeks. Doing this would allow us to then come back to the hypertrophy rep range again afterwards. Doing all of this will continue allowing the body to adapt instead of becoming stagnant.
Not only does altering rep schemes help keep from stagnation in workouts, changing exercises helps to do this as well. The world famous Westside Barbell (the holy grail for powerlifters) developed the methodology of conjugate periodization which is consistently changing exercises. This method is the one that has been used to break world records. Mind you conjugate periodization is not for everyone but anyone who is lifting should be varying their exercises every 4-8 weeks. Consistently doing the same exercises, loading the same patterns can cause the development of overuse injury.
What is the main takeaway from all this? The human body is a resilient organism that adapts to the stresses placed upon it over time. Knowing this we need to actively change up workouts after 3-4 weeks to stave off stagnation. Hopefully after the knowledge you have gained here you will no longer fear change in the gym but rather put it to use for you to breakaway from that same old workout you’ve been doing the past 20 years.