Clarifying Yesterday's Post

I woke up this morning and realized that I may have created more confusion than clarity with yesterday's post.

To get the best results from strength training, you should change your routine every 4-6 weeks. For the most part, changing your workout involves varying the exercises you've been doing. (You should automatically be increasing your weights/resistance as you get stronger and doing so does not constitute changing your workout.) Most of my members have a new routine designed for them every 4-6 weeks.

Changing workouts too quickly often means you never really challenge your capabilities with adequate resistance.

I think some confusion may have been caused by my use of the word "program" yesterday. Some training programs such as Turbulence Training or those found in books like New Rules of Lifting or Winning By Losing, often contain months of different workout routines.

Yesterday, I wrote about people who jump from one training program to the next constantly in search of the hot, new philosophy or newest celebrity trainer. They'll do a couple of weeks of Afterburn then switch to a Chad Waterbury program, LL Cool J's book or Turbulence Training, without giving any of them a solid effort.

I'm the first one to tell you to listen to your body. If you faithfully follow a program and don't get results, dump it, but remember that many of the best programs are more alike than different and the bottom line is always that a mediocre effort will produce mediocre results.