Training To Build and Maintain an Impressive Physique

Mix Up Your Training To Build and Maintain an Impressive Physique

In order to create a body suited for a variety of physical…er, tasks, (yup, that was a sexual innuendo) you need to change up your workout from time to time.

Firstly, training variety keeps you motivated and leads to better results. How often you need to change things up is absed on your goal.

If you’re currently training to build muscle, you should make some adjustments to your program every 8-16 weeks.

For fat loss, you need to change things more frequently–roughly every 4-8 weeks.

In either case, the changes help you stay ahead of the body’s adaptation curve, which prevents stagnation and helps you avoid a plateau. 

All of that said, it’s important to realize that there’s a fine line between changing it up to stay ahead of the curve, and blatant inconsistency–which is just as bad. 

To avoid that, make sure of the following: 

• Pick a program for your goal. If your goal is to get lean, use a fat loss program. If you want to gain muscle, use a muscle gaining program. This sounds simple, but it’s amazing how many people try to adjust one or the other to fit their goal. Building the ideal male body means using the right tool for the job, so don’t reach for a hammer when you need a screwdriver.
• Don’t “program hop.” If you pick a program stick with it for the entire length of time, even if you’re getting bored or want to change gears. Switching horses mid-race isn’t going to help you hit you goals any faster–in fact, programming hopping is the single biggest reason guys never achieve their ideal body, and instead go two-steps-forward-one-step-back forever.
• Use programs with build in periodization. Some might suggest that “training ADD” can inhibit muscle gains, that’s only true if you’re changing things haphazardly with no thought to programming. Truly great programs take the adaptation curve into account, and are designed in phases. The goal of the program doesn’t change, but the way you approach it changes with each new phase. Each phase builds on the last–this is called periodization, and it allows for consistent progress towards your ideal body. 

Again, adding in variety is important, but not the expense of results. Building the ideal male body comes down to knowin how to effectively gain muscle or lose fat, so you’ll be changing things up based on the goal.F

For the purposes of getting lean, you need to change more often. In fact, exposing yourself to consistently changing stimulus is an excellent way to ramp up metabolism and consistently increases the processes by which fat loss is made possible. This is why my bestselling fat loss program, the Omega Body Blueprint, rotates different training styles over a given week.

But, it doesn’t need to be that specific; easy way to work variety into training for the ideal male body is to change exercises for the same movement. Switching form bench presses to push-ups, counterintuitive though it might seem, can actually help you increase muscle mass, as well as lose fat.

Even a switch as simple as trading in barbells for dumbbells for a single workout can make significant changes, and keep you lean year round, aiding your quest for a sexy body.

For a more structured change, consider trying out timed workouts: that is, instead of counting reps, each set will be for a given length of time—the goal, of course, is to get as many reps in that time period as possible.

Not only will increasing training variety speed up your quest to build the perfect male body, but it also keeps training fresh and fun.