Building muscle is filled with intricacies that must be carried out consistently to achieve success. Often, when constructing a training and nutrition plan, and following through with it for a period, you start to wonder if you are taking the best route, and before you know it, you begin to look for change. But is that change necessary or is it simply our human nature that seeks unnecessary change? When you set out a plan of attack for your bodybuilding goals you need to stick with it for as long as possible and resist the urge to change things up too soon. If you’re not sure of this and change things constantly, consider the following reasons for sticking with your plan even if your instincts are telling you otherwise.
Focus on Beating the Log Book
There are certain exercises that I’m sure you consistently use in your training because you feel they will produce the best gains. Then there are those exercises that you tend to rotate in and out of your program depending on how you feel. Along with this, perhaps you like mixing up rep ranges and adding a few extra sets here and there just to add some variety. By doing this, you may be providing your muscles with a new stimulus that could spark new gains but what you’re definitely doing is putting yourself at a disadvantage to see if you are truly improving and getting stronger with each passing week.
Instead of “mixing it up” stick with a program, log your sets and reps, keep track of the weight you’re using and when it comes time to perform that same workout the next week, beat last week’s numbers! If you are consistently beating the numbers week to week, you’re getting stronger and you are building new muscle mass.
Opportunity to Perfect Your Lifts
I am an extreme stickler when it comes to finding the perfect form for my own biomechanics. I simply believe that when you can achieve a level of movement that is as efficient and effective as possible, then real gains come quickly. The only way to get to this level is through practice and repetition of the exercises you have in your program. Far too often people will abandon really good exercises for the simple reason that it didn’t feel right when in actuality they were just performing it wrong for their structure. Many times, a quick manipulation of their posture or positioning would correct everything for them.Rather than moving from exercise to exercise in search of the perfect movement, stick with a handful of exercises for each muscle group and focus on getting better using them, getting stronger within them and finding that all important groove where everything just feels right.
Rather than moving from exercise to exercise in search of the perfect movement, stick with a handful of exercises for each muscle group and focus on getting better and stronger with them. Strive to find that all important groove where everything just feels right.
Why Fix the Formula if the Formula is Working?
Here’s one of the biggest mistakes I see at the gym; changing things up for the sake of changing things up. For starters, what does that even mean and secondly, if everything is working just fine for you, why abandon it?
If you have found something that is working for you, but you feel like something else may work even better, take a second to realize that what you are currently doing is STILL working and there is no need to change anything. If you are seeing continuous improvement from week to week, keep pounding away until that progress stops. If and when that progress comes to a halt, a minor tweak to your program is probably in order, but not until that progress fails to present itself.Don’t try to fix the formula if the formula doesn’t need fixing and that’s all I have to say about that.
Don’t try to fix the formula if the formula doesn’t need fixing and that’s all I have to say about that.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and have become stuck in my ways or maybe it’s because when I find something that works, I stick with it until the end. Whatever it is, I resist change until change is needed. Take my use of MultiPro 32X for example, every single day I take a serving of it first thing in the morning and again right before bed. Lots of nutritionists will tell you that one serving of a multivitamin/multimineral a day is sufficient but guess what, I rarely ever get sick and always have loads of energy. I attribute that to my multi-dosing of MultiPro 32X so guess what; I’m not going to change.
My advice to you, find a program that you feel is best for you and stick with it until you’ve bled everything out of it you can. It will prove to be your best course of action and a surefire way to see for yourself if you are truly gaining.
