How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?
How often should you change your workout routine? Every day? Every week? Every month? Do you really need to change your workout all that much?!?!
Man, that’s an easy question!
The answer depends on what you’re working out for but generally, you should change your routine every 8-12 weeks.1I said it depends because if you’re doing macrocycle training, for example, then you would switch things up every 12 to 16 weeks. As for what macrocycle training is, that’s a separate discussion!
With that out of the way, here’s why you shouldn’t change your routine more frequently.
Rather than going to the gym and flying by the seat of your pants on what exercises you’re going to do, let’s imagine that you’re running a program.
After a few weeks of running it a handful of times, your strength plateaus at the few measly pounds you were able to add to most lifts.2Yeah, major bummer! And the centimeter of new muscle you swore you grew hasn’t multiplied into mounds of curvaceousness.3Yeah, what a disappointment! And, most importantly, you’re not sore anymore!4Yeah, talk about WTF!!!
It’s been a handful of weeks and the magic program you were using just isn’t working its magic anymore.
So now you want to swap out your routine for one you’ve read on a fitness savant’s blog. Or seen discussed by the gym bros on a message board. Or came across in a popular Youtuber’s latest video. Maybe replace what you’re doing with something detailed in a magazine, book, or social media post. Fuck, you might even want to give a go that program you’ve heard your anal bleacher’s boyfriend’s hairstylist’s mailman’s uncle’s next door neighbor’s landscaper’s cousin is having great results with.
Now that we’ve set the scenario up, let’s examine why changing your workout for something else is going to be a mistake.
When you began our hypothetical program that’s no longer working, you were doing a series of movements that you probably weren’t used to.
Oh, and you were also doing that series of movements that you probably weren’t used to in an order that you probably weren’t used to.
Oh, and you were also doing that series of movements that you probably weren’t used to in an order that you probably weren’t used to for a number of reps that you probably weren’t used to.
Oh, and you were also doing that series of movements that you probably weren’t used to in an order that you probably weren’t used to for a number of reps that you probably weren’t used to for an amount of sets that you probably weren’t used to.
You did all that with the now ineffective workout program a couple of times, which helped you get used to the exercises, their order, and the amount of reps and sets.
Well, that’s why you’re no longer getting sore!
Contrary to popular belief, DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, isn’t an indicator of muscle growth or any other sign of a program’s effectiveness. What soreness means is that you did something that your body isn’t used to, as was the case with the program’s exercises and workload before you became accustomed to it!
Okay, but what about your strength and you not getting any stronger, you say?
Wouldn’t it be good to switch things up to shock your muscles then?!
Ummmm, no.
Why?
Because getting “stronger” means as much as getting sore!
When you began our workout program that’s no longer working, you weren’t able to perform the exercises with that much weight. Then the next week, you were able to perform the lifts with heavier weight. The same for the following weeks…until *BOOM!!!* one week comes when nothing improves.
Because you got strong, you took it as meaning that the program was working. And now that you’re not making the same huge leaps and strides as you were, you think that the program has outlived its usefulness.
As I said in the previous section, you getting “stronger” doesn’t mean much.
See, the increase of strength you felt within a few weeks into the routine and then equated to muscle growth had little to do with that. Instead, what you experienced was the neurological adaptation stage, when the brain is learning how to recruit the muscles in the new movement pattern. As you repeat the exercises from one workout to the next, the movement becomes easier. Hence, you feel “stronger”.
But wait, if I’m NOT building actual muscles or increasing strength, how THE FUCK DOES IT MAKE SENSE NOT TO CHANGE SHIT?!?! Fuck, this hypothetical program you have me doing isn’t even working!!!
– you, about to fly into a murderous rage about me having you do something that doesn’t even exist, further giving credence to what people have told you about your anger management issues
While it’s true that the program isn’t working in the initial weeks of its running, that doesn’t mean it never will.
Indeed, the program will work so long as you stick with it.
Why?
Because sticking with a program allows your body to see that the stress it’s being exposed to isn’t limited to a few incidences that can be dealt with by making relatively simple neural adaptations but instead requires the building of muscle to better prepare itself for that stress on a continual basis.
As we’ve seen, you don’t get stronger and more muscular by changing exercises and routines ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!
How you get stronger and more muscular is by doing the same routine and its exercises over and over and over and over again so the body can stop making neural adaptations in favor of adding muscle mass.
There’s nothing else to it.
It’s not bad to do the same workout every week. What’s bad is constantly changing shit.
That’s why you should do the same workout day in and day out for weeks upon weeks.
To see even better results, not only should you do the same workout every week but you should also use a training program and run it all the way to its end. At its termination, that’s when you can use a thorough evaluation of your results from it to decide your next move. For instance, if you have ADD or you’re still as unimpressive as when you started, then it might be a good idea to try something new. But if you see good results, then you could try and pass yourself off as a smart lifter by running the same program over and over again until your body stops responding to it.
That’s all there is to it.
Oh, and another thing…
Seeing a program all the way through doesn’t mean that you can’t make slight adjustments.
As long as you’re not butchering the program like you know better than the person who designed it, you can do small things like mix-up the exercise order, add an extra set, change the lifting speed, increase rest so you can do more reps the ensuing set, alter your grip or foot positioning on an exercise, use a different attachment. Oftentimes, you’ll be surprised how one or two minor tweaks are all you need to get the gain train back on track again.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s turn our attention to you changing something else more often.
And that something else is your workout clothes!
PEW-YEW!!!
Glossary: exercise, gym, muscle, muscle soreness, program, results, routine, work out, workout