Demystifying Muscle Confusion: A Realistic Approach to Consistent Fitness Gains with Wally

Bust the myths and build your body the right way! I'm Wally from Body by Wally, and I'm here to set the record straight on one of the fitness industry's most enduring myths: muscle confusion. With more than five decades of experience under my belt, I'm sharing the inside scoop on why this concept doesn't hold water and what you should be focusing on instead. Forget about trying to bamboozle your biceps or perplex your pecs—real gains come from targeted, consistent training that evolves with your body's abilities and your personal fitness goals.

In our no-nonsense discussion, we'll navigate the maze of misinformation and pinpoint exactly when it's time to shake up your workout routine. Hint: it's not about confusion; it's all about avoiding plateaus and keeping your workouts fresh and effective. We'll analyze why you might feel the need to change up your regimen, whether it's due to stagnation, boredom, or the lack of progress. I'll give you the lowdown on strategies like progressive training and peripheral heart rate training that can turbocharge your fitness journey. So, gear up for a session that cuts through the fluff and gets down to the nitty-gritty of real, results-driven fitness.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Hello Fitness World. This is Wally with Body by Wally, and today is my take on when to change a fitness program. First of all, there is no such thing as muscle confusion. You can't confuse the muscles. The reason why people will change routines is maybe to get a different part of the muscles. So you may just do regular curls and then you want to do hammer curls. Why? To get the outside of the muscle. So you may just do regular curls and then you want to do you know, you know hammer curls. Why? To get the outside of the muscle. That's not confusing them, it's working a different part of the muscle. There's no scientific fact, any just pseudoscience on muscle confusion. So get that out of your brains.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Somebody doesn't like what I'm saying out there. Don't even comment because I really don't care. Okay, it doesn't exist. Bodybuilders, athletes all over the world do the same routine for their sport. Yeah, they have heavy days, light days, agility days, maybe plyometric days, you know cardio days, endurance days, but that has nothing to do with muscle confusion. It has to do with training the body as a whole. So that has to go out the window. It doesn't exist. Bodybuilding same thing. Powerlifters doing the same thing, year after year after year, your basketball players, your baseball players the same tip. Of course we work doing different types of exercise depending on what that routine is, but you're not going to confuse the muscles, it's not going to make a difference. Forget those articles you read. There's zero true science to back it up.

Speaker 1: 1:57

And I've done it for 50 years, 53 years, okay. So what is the time to change it if you get bored? I mean, I've got been stuck on calisthenics and then got stuck for a while and just doing nothing but weights and some calisthenics. And there was a time I was just doing calisthenics and martial arts and I stopped almost all my weightlifting because I was just so into the martial arts that I didn't want to take the extra time for the weights and just enough to keep me strong. But I did that through calisthenics, okay, my push-ups, pull-ups, etc. Okay, so I've gone through different phases but always trained. So, uh, there's not a real reason to change your program.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Uh, now, if you're becoming stagnant, uh, then you maybe need to look at the way you're training. Are you? Are you training the same all the time? As far as the intensity, it's okay to have light days, heavy days. Are you working your major muscle groups? Are you working your heart and your lungs? Are you working your lower body and upper body? Are you doing progressive training? Okay. Are you doing peripheral heart rate training upper body, lower body upper body, lower body Okay. Which is peripheral training? Okay, great way to train. Uh, you're still working the muscles. It's not muscle confusion, but it's how the body, it has a chance to rest and replenish the lactate. Uh, that's one way to train again. Uh, when you go to a progressive training, that's probably when you need to.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Uh, the progressive training might need be what you need to do if you, if you think like you need a change. So you got to ask yourself why do I need to change my routine? I need to change it. I've done it too long. Well, okay, great. Are you getting gains? Great. Not getting gains? Okay, great.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Check your diet, check your intensity, check your heavy days, your light days. Are you doing the same thing, exactly the same? In other words, are you ever backing off, like you're not going to go to a maximum push-ups all the time and maximum bench press all the time. You're going to have days you're going to back off of total failure? You're not going to always go to failure, depending on what the routine is. You're just not going to do that all the time. So if you're always going to failure, or always doing three or four less than max, well then you're going to become stagn, stagnant. So you have to switch it up so your muscles are not confused but so they work properly.

Speaker 1: 4:11

It's called progressive training. Okay, look it up. You'll find a lot more information than I can tell here. Okay, so how do you do progressive training? Basically, it's systematically going up. So are you adding that extra five pounds at ten pounds, that extra one rep, that two reps and your push-ups or your pull-ups? You're adding a weight vest on? Uh, of course you want. And then you got to watch how many reps you're doing, how many sets. You're adding a lot more weight. You're not going to. Probably you're not going to be able to do more repetitions and you probably don't want to do as many sets if you have that resistance. So maybe a little few sets, little, maybe a few reps, because you got the extra weight.

Speaker 1: 4:47

For strength power lifters, you know they do a lot of times eight, six, four, three, two repetitions, but there are two, so they're almost dying. So when they're doing three reps, four reps, five reps. I got out like a like in a deadlift. It's ruthless. I mean, it's not, I'm one done. When they're done with that, they need three, four, five minutes of rest. Okay, so progressive training could probably change it.

Speaker 1: 5:09

So again, when do you want to change your fitness routine? Or when should you? When you feel like it, when you see you're not, when you see that you're not getting anywhere and you're trying. Now, if you're happy with where you are, that's fine. You stay where you're at and you don't care to get any stronger. You're pretty darn fit. You can just keep it going day in and day out. But if you're stagnant, that's the time to change it. Again. Progressive training Look it up on the internet or contact me through Facebook or through my YouTube channel and you'll see that. But basically, that's progressively changing the intensity. The routine Could be sets, could be reps, could be the weight. That's progressive training and if you're not doing that systematically, then you're going to hit a wall and that would be the time to change your routine.

Speaker 1: 6:00

All right, look it up. You can do a lot of research. Watch the places that you read it at. Every article on Google does it? It's not correct. Just because it's on Google the first page, on the first page, it doesn't mean it's correct. So be diligent. Will you look? If you're not sure, I'll give you information if you contact me. You guys, take care, train hard, eat, get your fluids in. You say your prayers.