Do You Change You Training Routine Constantly or.........

[Vanilla-Gorilla]

stick with the same one week from week?

Usually everytime I go to the gym I try and do something different from what I did previously. Example:

Last week I did this for chest:
Incline Barbell Press
Flex plate loaded machine Press
Incline Flyes
Cable crossovers

This week I did:
Flat barbell press
Incline Hammer Strength press
Pec deck
Dips

Next time around will be completely different as well. I do this with everything.

How many of you do the same thing as well? Is this counter productive in the long run? Or will this keep you gaining size and strength? So far my gains are good with it. I just got back into the gym after a layoff. Right before I stopped training I started doing something similar to this. It definetly keeps you from getting bored and keeps on hitting the muscles different ways.

Your opinions welcome.

Peace,
VG

 

[SHOT*]

Hell most of the time i change the excerises i do from week to week...this way i never get bored.

 

[Vanilla-Gorilla]

Hell most of the time i change the excerises i do from week to week...this way i never get bored.

So basically you do the same thing I do?

 

[Vanilla-Gorilla]

My weekly routine pretty much stays the same. Back, Chest, day off, Legs, Delts, Arms, day off, repeat or extra day off. But I always do different exercises for those bodyparts. Guess I should have been more specific.

 

[Paul Bunyan]

A beginner may be able to do the same routine for 5-6wks and get good results. As you become more advanced your body adapts more quickly and you need to change your routine more often. I think you're doing the right thing by changing your routine often.

PB

 

[Massive G]

I have mainly done the same core exercises and body part splits for the last 12 years if not more.
I have played with different schemes but the basics always stay the same.
I don't freak out and lose muscle over the over ANAL ways of training....I realize many have different goals so this is just an example for building and maintaining mass....
I'll let the cable and isolation and stabilizer muscle training guys argue amongst themselves everyday.

Basically the split

Chest Shoulders Triceps

LEGS quads calves hams

BACK (width and thickness) Bicep's forearms abs

Core Exercises

Chest

BB inclines, Smith Inclines, DB benches, Wide Grip Dips and Flyes

Shoulders

BB and Smith Presses Behind Neck (PBN), BB Militarys and PBN, DB presses

Triceps
BB and DB French presses lying, standing, seated, or incline
Close Grips BB/Smith
Dips
J/M Presses HEAVY lying tri extensions lowered then close grip press back up repeat.

Back Width
Chins, Lat Pulls -various grips.
Machine pullover
Back thickness
Seated Row machines pulley or supported
Deadlifts
BB Rows
T-bar rows
One-arm DB rows

Biceps
BB and DB curls Standing or Preacher
Machine one arm preacher(hammer strength, nautilus, cybex, or otherwise)

forearms
Reverse BB curls or Zottman DB (hammer curls)
Wrist curls Standing BB or smith and or one arm bench DB wrist curls

Abs
incline crunches weighted,lying weighted leg raises, rope crunches, machine crunches,weighted hypers, and or roman sit ups


Legs
Front Squats Smith/BB,Rear Smith/BB Squats,Leg press 45 degree, Machine Hack Squats, sumo squat deadlifts,Leg curls seated and lying,good mornings and stiff leggeds(BB and DB)

Calves
Standing calf raises, Seated Calf Raises,Calf Press

 

[Maverick]

I use the same exercies and machines but I try to switch up the order every few weeks. Sometimes I may incoprerate different machine sor exercises to shock my muscle but I only go that once I stop seeing gaines. I am a person of habit. I like to stick with what works personally.




Mav

 

[MikeS]

I may switch a little, but stay the same on the basics. I can not gain strength and size unless I pound the Squats, chest presses, lat pulls, bar curl, shoulder presses...week after week. If I switching each week around I dont get anything. I may switch the order some or the isolation movements
but stay the same on the mass gainers/compound movements.

 

[nandro]

yeah, same here. i keep certain core exercises the same and only switch when i run into an injury or somebody is hoggin what i want in the gym that day. i use weight to change my workout from one to the next. never had a problem making gains but i've run across many who had to change very often.

 

[Vanilla-Gorilla]

Last weeks back workout was a lat pulldown contraption (not sure who manurfactures it), you see Jay Cutler using it in BFTO 2000. Barbell Rows, regular lat pulldowns and Charles Galls Lumbar crunches (man do those things tear you ass up)

Today's was:

Front pulldowns (regular pulldown machine)
One arm Hammer Strength underhand grip pulldowns
One arm db rows
seated close grip rows
hypers

next week will be different once again.

Peace,
VG

 

[bigbadasian]

Reply

|--[\\\]>-------- Def. switch it up. your body adapts quickly. I myself have done the same training split for awhile now, but my exercises are dif. every workout. Today, i started s'thing dif. 2 weeks out of the mth i will do high rep. stuff (get a great pump and burn out every rep) nothing less than 12 reps, then the other 2 weeks, i'm going heavy, keeping the rep ranges b/t 6-8. I'll alternate every week, light week, heavy week, light week, heavy week. i'll try this for 2 mths and see how i react to it.

 

[Steak Helmet]

Once i max something out, I move onto the next and then come back to that one in 12 to 16 weeks, after I have maxed out another piece of equipment for that body part.

I add weight every workout no matter how I feel, I push myself to do more each time...that is why I like switching out exercises once I max them out.

 

[Extreme]

I have mainly done the same core exercises and body part splits for the last 12 years if not more.
I have played with different schemes but the basics always stay the same.
I don't freak out and lose muscle over the over ANAL ways of training....I realize many have different goals so this is just an example for building and maintaining mass....
I'll let the cable and isolation and stabilizer muscle training guys argue amongst themselves everyday.

Basically the split

Chest Shoulders Triceps

LEGS quads calves hams

BACK (width and thickness) Bicep's forearms abs

Core Exercises

Chest

BB inclines, Smith Inclines, DB benches, Wide Grip Dips and Flyes

Shoulders

BB and Smith Presses Behind Neck (PBN), BB Militarys and PBN, DB presses

Triceps
BB and DB French presses lying, standing, seated, or incline
Close Grips BB/Smith
Dips
J/M Presses HEAVY lying tri extensions lowered then close grip press back up repeat.

Back Width
Chins, Lat Pulls -various grips.
Machine pullover
Back thickness
Seated Row machines pulley or supported
Deadlifts
BB Rows
T-bar rows
One-arm DB rows

Biceps
BB and DB curls Standing or Preacher
Machine one arm preacher(hammer strength, nautilus, cybex, or otherwise)

forearms
Reverse BB curls or Zottman DB (hammer curls)
Wrist curls Standing BB or smith and or one arm bench DB wrist curls

Abs
incline crunches weighted,lying weighted leg raises, rope crunches, machine crunches,weighted hypers, and or roman sit ups


Legs
Front Squats Smith/BB,Rear Smith/BB Squats,Leg press 45 degree, Machine Hack Squats, sumo squat deadlifts,Leg curls seated and lying,good mornings and stiff leggeds(BB and DB)

Calves
Standing calf raises, Seated Calf Raises,Calf Press

Wow, Massive G you train exactly like me!!!

I love the 3-way split, I see progress all over the place and don't suffer from recovery problems. Also, best of all, my enthusiasm is peaked all the time and I am even psyched on my days off!!!

 

[Conan21]

how many things can u really switch?

for chest, there is bench, incline, dips, maybe flies.

I don't understand why someone would do entirely different exercises and workouts each time they went to the gym. How would you plan/track progress? what would be your goal each time u stepped in the w8 room?

your body will adapt faster to your training parameters more quickly than the exercise. if your doing different workouts each time, what exactly is the training effect ur trying to give your body? you can't "confuse" your body to make to make it grow. it doesn't have a mind. a good way to switch things is say for 8 weeks train for power with lower reps. focus more on powerlifting. then for 8 weeks lift in higher reps. or stagger your workouts. Monday chest workout is low reps. Friday chest workout is higher reps.

use the most basic exercises for everything with a small bit of exercises variation.

 

[Stroyer]

Routine

I generally stay with the exact same routine (sets, exercises) untill I stop making progress in strength in one or more of the lifts.

Then I may do a number of different options, I may simply drop that ex and substitute it with another, or I may simply re-arrange the order of exercises and stay with the same exercises, or I may change every exercise.

But generally I ALWAYS stay with the exact same workout per bp untill I stop progressing in strength...IMO its the best way to accurately monitor if you are making progress, plateau, or regressing.

If you are constantly changing exercises how can u accurately asses gains.

Every time I hit the gym I have one primary goal in mind, & that is to beat the previous weeks lifts, via more reps w/the same weight, or more weight getting the same # of reps.

Stroy