After a year or so of heavy lifting via Reverse Pyramids (squats, deadlifts, bench, etc) I have transitioned back to a higher rep lower weight routine. Diversity and change are good and I needed it. I was getting bored doing the same routine with little variation and I wasnt putting in the effort needed to obtain the change that I desired. I am in week 2 of this new routine and so far I am loving it. I feel utterly exhausted after every workout and I love and have missed that feeling. The workouts are intense enough to challenge me and each week is a bit different from the previous. It sort of reminds me of the days I did P90x. I got great results from P90x and I anticipate getting the same great results with this routine. I am already noticing a difference in my shoulders and chest area.
One thing that has been tough with this new routine is watching some of the bigger guys doing the workouts that I used to do. Bench press, deadlifts, squats, etc. I used to laugh at the guys not doing those exercises and now I am one of the guys not doing them and I feel like people are laughing at me. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy them and I do miss them from time to time, I just needed to do something different for a while. I was getting bored. My muscles were getting bored and I felt like I was getting injured more often. My elbow is still really sore and inflamed and I feel this was a direct result of doing really have deadlifts.
If anything, this change has taught me an important lesson. Everybody is different and has different ways to get into shape. Who cares if your ideal exercise is to do curls on a bosu ball. Who I am to criticize someone who wants to squat and nothing more? I am so tired of these blogs that critique people on their exercise of choice or snap pictures of someone doing something they consider to be a worthless move. I have started to unsubscribe from those blogs. They were wasting my time.
If I have ever offended anyone on here or twitter regarding your exercise of choice, I am sorry. I now applaud you for at least getting into the gym and doing a workout. Do what you want, just practice good form and go as heavy as you can.
One Life to Live
It has been a year already? Wow. Yeah doing the same thing over and over would be boring, but it would stop producing any results after some time no? At least that seems to be something a lot of people agree on. Good luck with the change up!
ReplyDeleteIt has been at least a year if not longer. I would switch up the workouts every few weeks keeping the main exercises but switching up the accompanied ones. But even that got old after awhile.
ReplyDeleteThis new routine seems to be pretty solid and it's keeping me sore by keeping my body guessing. :)
If you like doing the "major" lifts but are hitting plateaus based on a lack of muscle confusion, I highly recommend any of the programs in "The New Rules of Lifting" (the original) by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. Variations on the 6 basic major moves but set/rep configurations and tempo are contantly in flux. My husband and I have been doing it for 9 months and have never stopped seeing results. And then there's Crossfit, if you're ready to level up. ;)
ReplyDeleteI actually tried that program. It was good but not great. I actually wrote a review on it too. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://startbeingfit.com/2010/10/29/new-rules-of-lifting-recap/
I am currently starting my 4th week of the Adonis Index program and so far love it. Look for some reviews in the future about this great program.
As for Crossfit, there was a time that I really wanted to join a Crossfit gym but the cost has always been too high for me.