Muscle Confusion Principle

[8pack]

Have you heard about this? I am not really sure what it all entails but someone at the gym told me it was a bunch of garbage. Can anyone explain it to me so I know what he is talking about. I did not want to feel like a fool and ask him then.

[Shadowschmadow]

Muscle confusion is when you mix up exercises and your program to avoid going stagnant. Or some stupid shit like that. Those who follow it believe that the body will adapt to training the same way after extended periods of time, and therefor will no longer make gains. Only problem with that is that then you become good at absolutely nothing, and that's not a good way to make gains.

The principle behind sticking with a solid program until you can no longer make gains is because practice makes perfect. The only part of muscle confusion that is partially correct is that you don't want to become stagnant. What they don't understand is that progressive overloading (increasing the weight regularly) forces the body to still make adaptations. The part where they fail is constantly switching things up.

The body needs only a handful of things to promote muscle growth - food, rest, progression and consistency. You can't make progression if you keep ****ing with your program and there's nothing consistent about different exercises each week, other then idiocy. Stick to one thing that is well designed and works until you can't make gains, then make an educated change to your program keep improving.

[Off Road]

If you search you'll find many threads on the subject. Basiacally, you can't confuse a muscle, it only knows load and frequency. If you really want to confuse the muscle...add more weight to the bar next time.