Confusing the Muscle??

[Primal]

Hi everyone! Hope your all having a good week (or reading week if your in school)! I'm sure almost all of you guys on here have heard about confusing the muscle right? I don't know anyone that uses this method but there are a few bigger guys who swear by it. They say that (for example) if you do a barbell bicep curl over an extended period of time, the body naturally adapts to make the movement easier; in this case, it takes most of the strain off the bicep and therefore, doesn't work it effectively. I suppose I can see this, the body does naturally adapt to make better and more efficient use of calories and exertion right? But I think for the most part that this is complete and utter stupidity. Shouldn't it be that the longer you do an exercise, the better you get at it? Therefore working the muscle MORE effectively? And if your body is adapting to take off the load, then (in my personal opinion) your mind muscle connection is terrible right? Like Eric said in the last post, quality reps over quantity reps!

These are just my thoughts however, and I want to make sure that I'm getting all my facts straight! What do you guys think about this method of training? Thanks for reading!

-Primal

[TT Eric]

I've tried it for a while back in the time, good pump, good soreness, but not so great to progress as far as mass and strength, as you are not consistent with the same lifts, it's hard to progress with some exercises that you do randomly here and there. Nice fact: Arnold used the same routine for 5 years straight (5 Olympias) without changing much. Yes some minor change here and there can be useful.

Of course if you do the same training (same weight, same set, same rep, etc...) all the time over and over like a circuit, your body as long adapted to it and is no more progressing. I know a guy who has been benching 135lbs for years, he's like 230lbs, but all he does is 135lbsx10 all the time he come to the gym, never changing anything, his shape as remained the same for years. But as long as you have room to progress and take advantage of it, your body is forced to adapt constantly to be better at it and progress accordingly. Personally I've been doing pretty much the same exercises for the last 2-3 years.

Eric

[Primal]

I've tried it for a while back in the time, good pump, good soreness, but not so great to progress as far as mass and strength, as you are not consistent with the same lifts, it's hard to progress with some exercises that you do randomly here and there. Nice fact: Arnold used the same routine for 5 years straight (5 Olympias) without changing much. Yes some minor change here and there can be useful.

Of course if you do the same training (same weight, same set, same rep, etc...) all the time over and over like a circuit, your body as long adapted to it and is no more progressing. I know a guy who has been benching 135lbs for years, he's like 230lbs, but all he does is 135lbsx10 all the time he come to the gym, never changing anything, his shape as remained the same for years. But as long as you have room to progress and take advantage of it, your body is forced to adapt constantly to be better at it and progress accordingly. Personally I've been doing pretty much the same exercises for the last 2-3 years.

Eric

Yes I can totally see what you mean Eric. I suppose if you don't want to gain anymore mass or stay at where you are, this method could work out but like I said above, I think that people constantly changing up their routine just to try and confuse the muscle is... annoying. This is what the mind muscle connection is for is it not? To be able to feel the muscle contract and retract to its fullest? I think that if you find you are just going through the motions of an exercise that instead of switching it up for a new feeling per se, you could just focus on the muscle more. But what do I know?

-Primal

[TT Eric]

Yes when you train each exercises use a different neural pathway, so every time you change exercises or use variation, you use new grooves each time. The more you use a pathway, better you get at it. Many people will tell you it take many years to master a good technique at bench/squats/DL, etc... so if you change exercises all the time, it's pretty hard to excel in anything IMO.

Eric

[Primal]

Yes when you train each exercises use a different neural pathway, so every time you change exercises or use variation, you use new grooves each time. The more you use a pathway, better you get at it. Many people will tell you it take many years to master a good technique at bench/squats/DL, etc... so if you change exercises all the time, it's pretty hard to excel in anything IMO.

Eric

^Yes I completely agree. Glad to see that other people think this as well!

-Primal

[Praetorian]

There is no such thing as muscle confusion...its just plain confusion about training. You are correct on the second point...the more you do the exercise the better you get at it. Also the point about adaptation is correct but those you spoke of are interpreting it incorrectly. The adaptation to the exercise is the training effect of the adaptation to the stimulus. This is what forces the muscle to grow...ie adapt. Thus more weight, more reps, more intensity, more volume etc is used to prevent adaptation and continue the growth process. As Eric said changing things up just for change sake is a mistake made my noobs and one of the main reasons they have very little progress. Hitting the muscle from different angles is a good idea ie flat bench, incline etc but that does not mean eliminating an exercise.

P

[Primal]

There is no such thing as muscle confusion...its just plain confusion about training. You are correct on the second point...the more you do the exercise the better you get at it. Also the point about adaptation is correct but those you spoke of are interpreting it incorrectly. The adaptation to the exercise is the training effect of the adaptation to the stimulus. This is what forces the muscle to grow...ie adapt. Thus more weight, more reps, more intensity, more volume etc is used to prevent adaptation and continue the growth process. As Eric said changing things up just for change sake is a mistake made my noobs and one of the main reasons they have very little progress. Hitting the muscle from different angles is a good idea ie flat bench, incline etc but that does not mean eliminating an exercise.

P

Hahaha! Never thought I would see you type the word 'noob' Prae :P thanks for the clarification.

-Primal

[TT Eric]

Here is a good article from CT that just came out:

http://www.t-nation.com/training/biggest-training-lie

''The Biggest Training Lie
by Christian Thibaudeau

Most trainers insist that you change your program every 4 weeks. This is utter BS. Here's what you need to know...

• Most "gains" made during the first four weeks of a program are from neural adaptations, not actual muscle mass development.

• When you hit your first plateau on a new program, that's when you'll actually start to build muscle, provided you keep training hard.

• Stick with your keystone lifts all-year round if you want to build muscle. Change sets, reps, or training methods, but stay with the same big movements.

In every single gym where I've worked, trained, or given seminars, the "4-weeks shuffle" seems to be in effect. In those gyms, personal trainers insist that you change your program every 4 weeks. To do otherwise is to slit the throat of your training progress. Change or the body gets "used to" the training and it stops adapting. Let me be blunt: This is complete bullshit. ''

Eric

[Primal]

Good read, thanks Eric! I'll check out Tnation a lot more for articles. They seem to have lots that answer my questions!


-Primal