Theoretical Question

[anthrax]

Like most of you, I arrived in the gym with all my workout in my head and I follow a routine week after week (and then I try a new routine)

But what's the benefit of following a routine ?

I mean, if you workout 4 times a week, for about 1 hour, doing only compound movements, with a good form and heavy weights in no particular order, wouldn't you acheive the same results ?

Why not go "as you feel", still do it seriously and with the same intensity ?

 

[mad_monkey59]

Like most of you, I arrived in the gym with all my workout in my head and I follow a routine week after week (and then I try a new routine)

But what's the benefit of following a routine ?

I mean, if you workout 4 times a week, for about 1 hour, doing only compound movements, with a good form and heavy weights in no particular order, wouldn't you acheive the same results ?

Why not go "as you feel", still do it seriously and with the same intensity ?

Because either you may miss something or because, if your rountine is doing its job then you are working with an equal emphasis over all parts of the muscle... if you chop and change, or simply do you're fav exercises then you may develope a poorly proportioned physique.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I think what you are talking about is instinctive training.

I have set perameters for every workout.

It's gonna be a chest day, or back day or leg day or whatever day. That is clear and defined.

How I train it depends. I usually stick with the same basic exercises so I can better monitor my progress, but I will suddenly switch my exercises or set and rep schemes if I feel like it.

Say it's chest day and you've been doing BB bench 3x10, Incline DB bench 3x10 and DB flye 3x10 hypothetically speaking. Today you go to the gym and you just don't fuckin feel like doing it. All the sudden you feel like working up to a max bench single. Your chest is still gonna get worked and you'll be conditioning your tendons and CNS to a higher load. This is a positive way to think about a change. You go back to your regular routine next week and your progress won't be hampered, it'll be helped. Or you walk in and feel like doing a 12,10,8,6,4 pyramiding scheme on BB bench and Hammer strength incline for same. It's not gonna hurt your progress.

I do think it's better to maintain a certain routine for most of the time. This is the easiest way to see how your progress is going, but just because you maintain a certain routine doesn't mean it has to be a generic one.

My bench trianing for example. I usually get bored with doing the same set and rep scheme every week. The exercise itself doesn't bore me, but the same way of performing it does. So now my general routine is 8,6,4,3,2,1 with 1 being 90% of my 1rm one week, 10x3 the next week, and 5x5 the week after with the same weight as the 10x3 week, then repeat at 5 pounds higher at at each workout the next rotation. Basically you could look at it as a 3 week mini-periodization cycle that constantly repeats. This way I don't get bored and my body keeps having to deal with the stress applied a little different each workout.

This is just my thoughts.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

Like most of you, I arrived in the gym with all my workout in my head and I follow a routine week after week (and then I try a new routine)

But what's the benefit of following a routine ?

I mean, if you workout 4 times a week, for about 1 hour, doing only compound movements, with a good form and heavy weights in no particular order, wouldn't you acheive the same results ?

Why not go "as you feel", still do it seriously and with the same intensity ?

becuase if I go w/how I feel, I will skip the weights & head to Firehouse

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

i dont put my training days in concrete. i follow how my body feels. i do keep them in a certain order. legs, pushing, pulling. if an extra day of rest gets thrown in, then i resume where i left off. pushing, pulling, legs. that way i dont get imbalanced. i have started messing around with ancillary work (i think thats what its called) and rep schemes a tad too. look at ghetto's post, he has 3 different rep schemes listed there, and there are many more. just try to focus on one at a time though, as spreading your training out too much will take away from some gains. if other words, inclines and declines and dips can help your bench, but only doing bench will really get the numbers up.

 

[bignate73]

head to Firehouse

oooh, now you're talkin'!

 

[cockdesiel]

i dont put my training days in concrete. i follow how my body feels. i do keep them in a certain order. legs, pushing, pulling. if an extra day of rest gets thrown in, then i resume where i left off. pushing, pulling, legs. that way i dont get imbalanced. i have started messing around with ancillary work (i think thats what its called) and rep schemes a tad too. look at ghetto's post, he has 3 different rep schemes listed there, and there are many more. just try to focus on one at a time though, as spreading your training out too much will take away from some gains. if other words, inclines and declines and dips can help your bench, but only doing bench will really get the numbers up.

agreed

 

[B0dybuilder]

Im having this same chat with a dude at work...

Im my opinion the following are benefits to a routine:

-Trackable progress... you can visually see your poundage going up on all movements (with instincitve training its sometimes harder to see this)
-Symmetry ... with a well devised routine you can make sure you pay attention to all muscle groups
-All compounds wont hit all muscles and/or allow you to isolate muscle's. This can be useful if you wanna bring a lagging part up to speed.

But at the end of the day.. anything that gets you in the gym aint to bad!