You need to shock your muscles to keep building them = myth

[Rexbo]

I disagree ... I think the flaw is in the examples you use.

Variation in exercise does lead to continual adaptation but this is primarily form variation in speed, volume, cadence, and intensity of weight as related to your 1 rep max.

That is one of the fundamentals of Westside Barbell Training

I totally agree. I dont know how many studies I see of adaptation to exercise.

First, there are different types of muscle fibers. Fast and slow. Fast are only good for about 2-3 reps, depending on the person. And slow compose the rest of the lifting per set. So if you always did 3 reps, you would only hit roughly 10%(in most people) of the fibers in any given muscle. We all know that a muscle fiber contracts and only one specific force, the only difference between a one rep max and a ten rep max is that ALL THE FIBERS in the muscle are recruited for the one rep, whilst about 20% are recruited for 2 reps on the 10 rep set. Basically what I am saying that its imperative to vary, volume, reps, and most important exercise's to develope the most you can.
I wont even get into the different types of energy (ATP, Creatine Phosphate, Glycogen) that muscles use at different levels of exaustion.

 

[Intenceman]

"Shocking" seems to work better for hypertrophy than for strength. You can build strength for a long time without "shocking" your body, however, to stimulate a compensatory build up of muscle- a "shock" ie, a new or changed stimulus can be beneficial.

 

[Lumberg]

I have recently thought about the same issue. I feel that variation of exercises is mostly for the mind and not the body. The neromuscular condition aspect (the part where you recruit less muscle fibers to do the same exercise) I think only takes place to a significant degree after a VERY long time. Of course like Zyg said you are always lifting more weight; another technique would be to do the same exercise but go high rep one period and low reps another period.

Anyways sometimes I like keeping my routine very similar for months on end; I still feel I progress. At times I need the change. That need is mostly mental.

JC

 

[DJRAZR]

Damn guys!

This was an article from askmen.com
I didnt think of this. I put it up for a good laugh. Maybe i should of put this in the beginning.

But i can continue to do the same exercises every time, aslong as i keep adding weight. Gains will keep coming.

 

[bignate73]

Damn guys!

This was an article from askmen.com
I didnt think of this. I put it up for a good laugh. Maybe i should of put this in the beginning.

But i can continue to do the same exercises every time, aslong as i keep adding weight. Gains will keep coming.

LOL, yes, by all means, you should have put that little warning at the beginning!

this is a tough crowd, if you post something that you know is blatantly funny or wrong....best put something up to cover yourself from the onslaught, and keep you from them riding you. hehe. these guys can be brutal.

peace

 

[coolcolj]

actually I agree

 

[Lumberg]

actually I agree

..with nignate or the original article.....or were you leaving that vague on pupose?

 

[needsize]

I partially agree with the original post. I'm not a believer in changing exercises to shock the muscles. There really are only a few usefull exercises per bodypart, anything else is just useless yuppie training. So I pretty much always use the same exercises, I may change the order or the rep scheme, but that's it. My growth comes fromt the fact that I'm always adding weight to those given exercises.

 

[Lumberg]

I partially agree with the original post. I'm not a believer in changing exercises to shock the muscles. There really are only a few usefull exercises per bodypart, anything else is just useless yuppie training. So I pretty much always use the same exercises, I may change the order or the rep scheme, but that's it. My growth comes fromt the fact that I'm always adding weight to those given exercises.

well said. over the past year I have discovered most of the great exercises that hit the muscles just right for me. but I thought I was still pretty much a newbie so I tried switching to different exercises--not as satisfying and my joints started to ache more. So my plan now is to have an arsenal of exercises that work for me and maybe switch among them (even though there aren't that many--some I will do every period) for variety. Like needsize said once you find the right exercises (and it ain't hard--I found them within a few months of getting on here) the way to go is to vary order and rep schemes. Another source of variety is the order of your body parts in your split or how you split up your bodyparts. But for the most part the exercises stay the same.

BTW one example of a great exercise I have found recently is 1 arm reverse grip tri pulldowns--with a cross body movement. They beat the hell out of using a rope or a bar.

JC

 

[coolcolj]

Like Need size says, its pointless to keep changing exercises. That just slows progress down because your body will be making primarily nueral gains after a switch an exercise for the first few weeks. This makes you think your making progress, but your just adapting to the exercise through neural means rather than hypertrophy.

I've been using the same set of exercises over the last 6 months, just trying to get stronger in them. The only things I change are tempo, reps and sets schemes, and intensity percentages of 1RM.