Q: I get confused. Should I try to change exercises at every workout to keep my muscle adapting and growing?
A: The problem is that your body really needs to adapt to a movement pattern over the course of a few workouts before you change exercises—at least that’s the theory…
In other words, a regular dose of one move can get you some new huge. But what about change-to-gain tactics?
One great way to get the best of both worlds is to alternate two exercises at different workouts. For example, at one quad workout, you do squats as your big, midrange move.
Then at your next quad workout, you do Smith machine squats or leg presses. At the following quad workout it’s back to squats—and so on.
For upper chest you might go from incline barbell presses to incline dumbbell presses, alternating those at every other workout. Going from a barbell to dumbbells and then back to a barbell is great change to gain on many exercises, including bent-over rows, curls, and lying triceps extensions…
For exercise alternatives within the Positions-of-Flexion mass-building protocol for every muscle group, see the 3D Muscle-Building e-book HERE.
What about exercises that don’t have an alternative move—for example, leg extensions for the quads’ POF contracted position?
There are a number of tactical variations you can use, from TORQ—tension-overload repetition quantity—to 4X to pyramids. A simple way to get change-to-gain growth spurts on one exercise is heavy/light.
For example, at one workout you can do leg extensions in higher-rep TORQ style (30-20-15). At your next workout, you could do standard heavy sets—8 to 10 reps per set with longer rests between.
That way you emphasize sarcoplasmic (fluid) expansion at the TORQ workout and myofibrillar (fiber) thickening at the heavier session. It’s one of the best ways to get a double-dose of muscle growth over two workouts.
For more on heavy/light training, including TORQ and Super TORQ—along with complete workouts, see The Power-Density Mass Workout e-book HERE.
Click on the cover pic for more info on each e-program—and prepare to GROW.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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