Think about your own training. If you continuously use the same training plan for an entire year and repeatedly increase weight each lift, each week may lead to best case plateaus and worst-case injuries. Putting constant strain on the same muscles over and over not only taxes your muscles but your nervous system as well. Overtraining is a real concept that many novice lifters fall into. Now, changing up training plans to implement muscle confusion is not a new concept, but changing how you lift or how you train is closer to how an athlete trains. Use the periodization model instead. Breaking your training into blocks or micro cycles is the best way to optimize gains. As you exercise your body goes through physiological changes. These changes involve the overarching principle of General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). GAS has four phases: 1) Alarm phase 2) Resistance 3) Supercompensation and 4) Exhaustion. The alarm phase is the body's reaction to a new stimulus i.e. a new training plan. This can happen if you're a beginner or a seasoned lifter starting a new plan. Your body adapts to the new training. The soreness that comes from a new plan is a perfect example. Resistance phase is those adaptations happening. The soreness goes away, and you start to see the gains and the workouts become easier. The improvement is the supercompensation taking effect. Simply, supercompensation is the new level of performance. Exhaustion is an extreme example that may include overtraining. Overtraining is not limited to just weight room activities. If you're not eating enough or eating bad foods, sleep (or lack thereof), your job can all contribute to exhaustion. Finding that right balance between training and rest is paramount. Exhaustion phase is all based on the individual training history. Recovery from this phase is also based on individual basis. A layman's explanation to GAS is fitness-fatigue. The higher intensity of fitness leads to longer fatigue. To avoid the exhaustion phase, place your training into blocks. Break it down into smaller blocks: Preparatory, competitive and then active recovery.
Preparatory phase:
This would encompass general fitness. Building a base level of fitness. Lower intensity/higher volume of training. Training should be varied i.e. if you're a runner so some swimming/cycling or resistance training. If you're a lifter then do some longer cardiovascular training. If you're into sports then play sports. This phase of training is typically called general preparatory training. Another subcategory during the preparatory phase is specific preparatory phase. This is where you build on the general fitness that started in the general preparatory phase. During the specific phase focus more of your training into your style of fitness. If your a runner then start running on the flip side if you're more into resistance training then start lifting more. Volume should remain high and intensity low. The purpose is to build a specific base of training to expand on during the next phase of training.
Competitive phase:
This is the phase where training ramps up into a singular focus. Intensity is increased while the volume decreases. Think of a pyramid…..you're climbing towards a peak. Find an event that fits your style of training and treat that as your peak. For a runner it could be a race while a lifter could use joining the 1,000 pound club as peaking. To get to that peaking performance is the manipulation of training variables such as intensity and volume. For resistance training I would advocate keeping the same number of reps and changing volume or intensity. Varying rep ranges does indeed create muscle confusion and may lead to gains, but the muscle adaptation to your culminating event may not reach peak performance. For example if I am doing a 1,000 pound club and change my training from 4 sets of 4 to 2 sets of 15 I am not training for the 1,000 club. Same principle applies to running a marathon. Performing 100m repeats may not elicit the adaptations needed for a longer aerobic event. The key to the competitive phase is to backwards plan your training. If I am five weeks out then I can train hard for three then taper off for a week to prepare for the event.
Active Recovery:
After your competition your body will undoubtedly need a break from training. This is the time to rest mentally and physically. Perform light activity, rehab any injuries, rebuild any muscle imbalances. Implore alternative methods of exercise such as yoga, pilates, swimming, anything non-impactful. The tricky part is to strike the middle between rest and detraining. Longer you rest the more you lose your gains from the competitive cycle.
This style of training requires a deeper thought process of exercises. The manipulation of training variables involves recording workouts forecasting hindrances in training. Winter weather in the northeast impedes running outside, summer vacations interrupts resistance training, working in retail during holiday includes more time/stress at work. It also requires a goal or fitness event to train to build around. If you have been training, I would recommend finding a goal or event that reflects your training.
Building a program encompassing these variables would look similar to this:
This cycle would continue year-round. Keep in mind this is an oversimplification of phases. Active recovery can be utilized at the end of a Specific block. For example, if I use three weeks under specific then I take a week of active recovery then get into the competitive period.
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