Strength Training - Weider Muscle Confusion Principle
October 22nd, 2008 Posted by David Lemberg
Long ago, Joe Weider outlined his famous set of Training Principles. Weider, of course, is the legendary strength training guru and founder and publisher of Muscle & Fitness.
I began reading M&F in 1983 or 1984 – articles regularly described and highlighted various Training Principles. The Muscle Confusion Principle was the one that had the most resonance and impact for me.
Connecticut Industrial Park, 1998 - Photography by David Lemberg
Possibly this was because, as a professional dancer, I was totally familiar with the concept of Muscle Confusion. Dancers train by taking one or two 90-minute classes every day, usually six days per week. The activities and exercises are different each time you go to class. The warm-up exercises might be the same – at the ballet barre or in the center of the room – but the combinations – the dance routines and choreography – that you do after warming up are completely new, every day.
So dance class is true “muscle confusion”. The intense variety makes your body very smart, very fast.
Naturally, when I began strength training I had the benefit of my years of experience as a highly trained athlete. I dove right in and wanted to learn as much as I could about this new [for me] form of training. Muscle & Fitness was my main source of information for several years.
I learned to apply the Weider Training Principles to maximize my results. All these years later the Muscle Confusion Principle continues to inform the design of my gym routines. Basically, as in dance, you want to do new things to make your body smart. But strength training is a slower, less dynamic process than dance. The time frame is longer.
So Muscle Confusion doesn’t mean jumping from one set of strength training routines to another, haphazardly. Muscle Confusion reminds us to periodically, regularly, vary our training programs. Muscle Confusion reminds us to pay attention to what’s going on when we workout and afterward.
Doing the same routine week after week results in familiarity – physiologic boredom. You reach a training plateau. You know you’ve plateaued when you’re no longer excited about going to the gym. You’re no longer excited about doing a certain set of exercises. You may even feel slow and sluggish. You’ve plateaued.
In the worst case, minor injuries – strains and sprains – may result from continuing to do the same exercise routine once you’ve reached a plateau.
Optimally, you notice you’re starting to get bored and you introduce a new set of routines. You’re using the Muscle Confusion Principle. The immediate result is renewed interest and excitement, your whole body wakes up, you start enjoying the process once again, and you start to make new strength gains.
A powerful approach is to design a weekly strength training routine that includes three or four radically different days. With such an approach, you’re entire week is one giant set of Muscle Confusion activities. You could easily maintain such a schedule for your entire 12-week strength training cycle. After 12 weeks you move onto a completely different 12-week cycle, focusing on an entirely different form of training.
This is true Muscle Confusion. Of course, the principle applies to all fitness activities, including aerobic exercise and core exercises.
The benefits are a lifetime of health, fitness, and wellness.
Happy training!
