The concept of “muscle confusion” is based on the idea that you “keep your muscles guessing” by constantly introducing new exercises and routines.
By continually mixing things up, your body is forced to respond. The plateaus you get with regular training programs are avoided entirely, putting you on the path to rapid muscle growth.
Or so the theory goes anyway.
Is it true that your muscles won’t continue to grow unless you keep them confused? Is muscle confusion really the best way to build muscle?
The so-called “muscle confusion principle” was popular back with bodybuilders back in the 1980′s. And like most things in the fitness industry, it seems to pop its head up every few years dressed up as something new. Then everyone gets excited about it until the next gimmick comes along.
At the moment, P90X is probably the most popular training system to hang its hat on the idea of muscle confusion.
It’s a highly effective video, mainly because it gets you fired up and excited about exercise. But don’t make the common mistake of confusing an “exciting” workout with an “effective” one.
The two main factors that stimulate muscular growth are progressive tension overload and, to a lesser degree, metabolic fatigue. While doing a different exercise might leave you feeling sore the next day, it won’t automatically “shock” a muscle into growth.
Despite the popularity of this idea, the simple fact that your muscles are sore a day or so after a workout doesn’t mean that they’re going to grow any faster, and there is no proven link between muscle soreness and long-term muscle growth.
In fact, beginners can make great progress simply by sticking with the same program for long periods of time and simply adding weight to the basic exercises each workout.
Beginners can train each muscle group more frequently than someone with a few years of training under their belt. That’s because they can’t recruit as many muscle fibers in each workout, don’t create as much muscle damage, and so can recover more quickly.
The “beginner phase” of training can last anywhere between 3-9 months before you hit a plateau and need to think about making things more complicated.
It’s true that the more advanced you get, the more variety you’ll need in terms of sets, reps and effort (how close you train to muscular failure on each set) in order to keep on gaining strength and adding muscle.
However, this has nothing to do with “confusing” your muscles. Rather, it has everything to do with getting the balance right between work and recovery so that you can continue to get stronger.
As an example, on Monday you might do 5 sets of 5 repetitions with a heavy weight, a few lighter sets of 15 on the Wednesday and moderately heavy sets of 10 reps on the Friday.
You can even take things a step further and use different exercises on different days.
Using the chest as an example, you could do the flat bench press on Monday (heavy day), incline presses on Wednesday (light day) and dumbbell presses on Friday (medium day).
But let’s be clear about one thing. This variation in sets, reps and exercise selection is not there to “confuse” your muscles. It’s designed to vary the stress imposed on your body to allow for recovery while still providing a sufficient stimulus for growth.
Muscle confusion might sound like a great idea in theory. But don’t let it distract you from what really matters. If there is a “secret” to building muscle, it’s simply to keep on getting stronger in the 5 to 15 repetition range on a few basic exercises for each major body part.
“Believe it or not, it is the old system of light, medium and heavy; training three to four times a week, with each workout lasting no more than ninety minutes,” said Tommy Kono, former Mr Universe and one of the greatest Olympic lifters in history. “It is a matter of taxing your muscles and giving ample time to recover.”
It might sound simple. But all the best advice usually is.
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