“Things do not change; we change.”
- Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) ~ WaldenAverage Read Time: 00:03:17
The very first song that I learned how to play on the guitar was Greensleeves. I love that song and could play it inside and out. I could play it with my eyes closed and with the guitar upside down. For a long time it was the only song I knew how to play. So I practiced it. I could play it without thinking until it no longer was a challenge. My fingers got tougher and knew the chords like the back of my hand. My body was able to adapt.
This is how your body works when you go to the gym. If you stick to the same routine, your body remembers, adapts and you no longer have to think about your workout. Your body and your mind become lazy in the gym and you no longer feel the same challenge. You want to be challenged? Make sure you fool your body and try something it least expects.
The Bench Press Example
Let us take a common exercise that almost all gym goers use in their arsenal: the bench press. I often have clients ask me how much I bench and how many reps I can squeeze out. It seems to be the popular gold standard in strength and fitness. Rarely do I hear, “How much can you squat?” Although I don’t understand the popularity of the exercise, it is a great example.
Situation
You walk into the gym on your chest day. You look down at your little workout book and see the first exercise:
| Exercise | Weight | Reps | Sets |
| Bench Press | 135 | 10-15 | 3 |
No big surprise. I have seen this in clients’ books too often before they come to me. They have done this exercise for years and really don’t see much progress. Their bodies have become adaptive and therefore lazy. The workout is still “hard” but you need to fool your body, give your workout some variety. There are several ways to do this.
Let us start with the basics:
1. Change the weight: This is usually the independent variable that guides your choice of reps. If you decide to go heavier, cut your reps. Lighter weight? Do more reps.
2. Change the reps: I have clients do anywhere from 1 to 500 repetitions of exercises. Each time it is a struggle, just in a different way. My clients are not a bunch of huge monsters or lean twigs. But they can lift their body weight in a deadlift and be able to pull off 500 squats. Why mix it up? Because there will come a time in your life where you may need to lift a heavy object once and also need to sustain a long day of helping a buddy move, or shovel out a driveway. Your back, your knees, and your body should be ready for it.
3. Change the sets: This falls under the same principle of reps. My clients usually do exercises that range from 1 to 10 sets.
Change the exercise
This is where the fun comes in. Let us go through some examples that can replace the bench press, depending on what kind of equipment you have:
1. The floor and a chair
- Pushups
- Dips
2. Free Weights
- Dumbbell press (from the floor if you don’t have a bench)
- Chest Fly
3. Cable Machine
- Cable Chest Flys
- Overhead Tricep Pushdown
4. The Olympic Bar
- Incline Bench
- Decline Bench
Eight different exercises. Nothing fancy. All basic movements, all working the same muscles. But your body gets thrown in a different position, and needs to overcome the new challenge. Just by changing those four variables, your body will build muscle and learn to be ready for a range of different situations.
How often should you change?
I get this question quite a bit. I have my clients do the same core exercises everyday and spice up the meat of their workout every time. I can go months without doing the same workout. But everything gets written down and referred back to the next time that workout comes up.
If you prefer a regular workout without change, you don’t need to mix it up every time. Just make sure to give yourself a complete change up every 6 weeks or so. This way you don’t fall into that slump.
So there you go. Happy April Fool’s Day! Now go out and fool your body. Just don’t get suckered while surfing the web today. I got taken in by Scott and Mike at LifeSpotlight here.
Images by helmet13, s2art, and jason.lengstorf
Comments: What have you done to give your workout variety? Any other ideas to change up the all-too-common bench press?
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