The Truth About Muscle Confusion
Muscle confusion is a popular term used to state the ability to cause muscle growth through performing a new type of movement. The idea is to continuously switch up the exercise program in order to not cause a plateau. This is not only a myth but it may be holding you back from making progress within the gym.
Muscle confusion isn’t caused by doing something your muscles have never done before but rather by progressive overload. When you perform a movement that you have never done before, the reason you experience DOMS is that the stimulus overloaded the muscle causing adaptions to occur.
Workout frequency
Instead of constantly switching up your workouts, you should switch them up every month or when the workout has gotten too easy. You don’t necessarily need to switch exercises, but rather change an attribute(frequency, sets, tempo, rest time, and the number of reps) in order to receive growth.
For example, if you were to perform this beginner workout:
Pullups 3x10
Push-ups 3x15
Rows 3x12
Dips 3x8
Tucked v-sit swings 3x10
Jump squats 3x45seconds
You can decrease the amount of rest between sets so that the muscles have less recovery time, which can stimulate growth. Or you can increase the number of sets to 4 or 5, increase the number of repetitions for each exercise, or the number of times you do the workout per week.
Conclusion
Muscle confusion is a myth due to progressive overload being the major factor for muscle growth. Workouts should be kept for a month or so, or when it’s no longer a challenge. An easy way to keep progress from plateauing without switching up workouts is to focus on changing a specific attribute.
