Consistency and Variety

 

The Two Keys to Mass-Building, Strength-Training Success

     The other day, in my essay on the “2 principles of strength training,” I outlined what I believe are the two most important principles for continued results in strength training or muscle-building (or a combination of the two).  In many ways, those two principles revolve around staying consistent and injecting variety into your programs.  So, here, I want to present some thoughts on much the same concept but frame it in a slightly different manner to touch upon varied aspects of proper programming.  I’m going to call these the “two keys to success” and they are:

1.      You must be consistent.

2.      You must inject variety into your program.

     Consistency is the key for continued success, make no bones about it.  This is true no matter your goal.  You must train consistently to improve, whether it’s pie baking, painting, or getting the high score on “Kwazy Cupcakes” (shout out to all Brooklyn 99 fans).  It’s also true if you’re trying to grow a business, get a degree, or become the world’s greatest strength-training essayist.  (Perhaps the essayist I have in mind is a tad tautological at times, but, hey, we can’t all be perfect—at least his prose is imaginative and inspired if a bit loquacious.)

     Consistency can be problematic for a lot of lifters, especially beginners, for one major reason, and this makes it a bit different from the things mentioned in the above paragraph: you need to give your body enough rest in order to repair and grow between workouts.  As an example as to why this might be a problem for new lifters, let’s say I give a new trainee a 2-days-per-week, full-body program where he trains on Mondays and Thursdays using barbell squats, bench presses, overhead presses, power cleans, barbell curls (or something similar).  The program will work wonders for the trainee if followed.  The program is solid and “good.”  Just the kind of regimen a new lifter should utilize.  As good as the program may be, I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Most new lifters won’t stick with it.  That’s the exact kind of program I used to prescribe to new lifters.  But I stopped.  New lifters—and this isn’t always true, but by and large it is—don’t stick with it because of the off days.  If a lifter hasn’t built the habit of regular training then, after a couple or three days off, they tend to find excuses to not go to the gym for the next workout.

     If sticking with a program has always been a problem for you, then try a high-frequency program of daily training.  If it’s primarily strength you are after, then use an “easy strength” routine such as Dan John’s 40-Day Workout or my own 30-Rep Program.  If it’s primarily hypertrophy that you’re after—if your goal is to simply look good “nekkid”—then try something such as Vince Gironda’s “break in” program.  Gironda is most known today for his 8x8 training regimen or his 6x6 mass-building workouts, but that’s not what he recommended for newbies just getting started on their hypertrophy journey.  Nope, for them he liked to utilize a full-body program done 6 days a week.  It’s exactly the program you should utilize if consistency is your problem.

     Gironda’s method involved between 8-12 exercises per workout, done for only one set the first week.  You didn’t go to failure, but, rather, simply stopped once the set got extremely tough.  In the 2nd week, you increased your training to 2 sets per exercise.  And in the 3rd week, you increased it to 3 sets per movement.  After that, depending on how the trainee was progressing, he may have had them switch over to just 3-days-per-week.  Reps for each set were typically 10 to 12.

     If you would like to give this a try, I recommend the following program.  For the first week, do each exercise for 1 set of 10-12 reps.  The 2nd week, 2 sets for 10-12 reps.  The 3rd week, 3 sets for 10-12 reps.  In the 4th week, go back to just 1 set of 10-12 reps.  If you want to continue after the 4th week, then repeat the 4-week training block, but add weight to each exercise, or switch over to some different exercises.  If you choose the latter route, just remember to think same but different when selecting new movements.

1. Dumbbell incline bench presses: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
2. Wide-grip chins (or lat pulldowns): 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
3. Behind-the-neck presses: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
4. Triceps pushdowns: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
5. Barbell curls: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
6. High-bar, Olympic-style squats: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
7. Stiff-legged deadlifts: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
8. Calf raises: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps
9. Ab exercise of your choice: 1-3 sets of 10-12 reps

     Once you have habituated yourself to such frequent training and you know that you will stick with it, then you might want to try a less frequent, briefer-is-better style of full-body workouts done only 2 times per week.  You would also, at that point, be ready for a split program if you wanted to utilize one.  The one problem with split training—or at least the main problem with it; there are others—is that lifters are often inconsistent when it comes to hard and heavy leg and back training.  Oh, they’ll always show up for a workout involving chest and arms but are less likely to do so when the training for the day involves heavy squats or multiple sets of heavy pulls.  So, make sure that you will be consistent on all workouts when using any form of split training.

     Now, let’s talk variety.

     Most lifters, as I mentioned in my last essay, will need to make some sort of change to their programs at least every 6 to 8 weeks.  If you’re advanced, it will need to be more frequent than that.  The main question you must answer is how much variety.  Some lifters need more.  Some decidedly less.

     You don’t want to change just for the sake of change.  If a program is still working for you—if the weights or reps are increasing on a regular basis (for strength) or if you’re still getting a good pump (for hypertrophy)—after 8 weeks, then there’s no need to make a change.  Yet.  Some lifters find that a program doesn’t run its course until 12 or even as many 16 weeks.  So, once again, don’t change just for the sake of making a change or because C.S. told you that’s what you should do.  There are lifters and bodybuilders who do perfectly well with less variety, not more.

     Also, you might not need to make “wholesale” changes.  Instead of changing your entire program around—different exercises, new training split, etc.—you may just need to change one exercise.  Or you might just need to switch from sets of 8 reps to sets of 5 reps.

     Now, some lifters will get their best results by making greater changes.  But even here, don’t just change your complete program around because you read that “change is good.”  And when you do switch over to a new program, ensure that it aligns with your goals.  (For more details on different programs to switch to based on your goals, please refer to my previous essay.)

 

 

     If you enjoyed this essay, and would like to read similar ones, then please consider purchasing my latest book “Mass and Power Essays.”  Until next time, stay strong and stay at it!