Is "muscle confusion" real?

[Lavendrae]

Anyway, I asked a question on tumblr about what I should do when I no longer get sore after I lift. Like, I'll lift until muscle failure, but I'll only get sore for a couple hours, whereas I used to get sore for days. Logically, my next step would to up my weights, right? Like I'll naturally grab a heavier weight if it feels like it's "too easy" for me but...?

But then my friend told me to vary my workouts every month because you have to confuse your muscles when you plateau. Is that a thing? I mean, I don't only train one part of my body, and I honestly only do each part of the body 2x week at most. Like leg days and chest/arm days and etc. Do I change it up with like... number of reps and amount of weight?


Also I hate cardio and refuse to do it for more than 10 minutes so please don't make me do cardio cardio makes me really unhappy it makes me want to punch people thank



ALSO: Is training to failure really all that bad? I heard it's taxing on the CNS and causes slower gains or something? But then again, I've heard the exact opposite...

[Snoop Lion]

I always thought your meant to give each muscle the same amount of attention, you don't want a massive upper body and small lower body, you;d look stoppid

[Lavendrae]

I always thought your meant to give each muscle the same amount of attention, you don't want a massive upper body and small lower body, you;d look stoppid

I mean yeah, and I do that. So what's the problem? :c
It's not like I'm only focusing on one part of my body?

[Air]

Mod - This sounds like your forte.

[MikeyR]

When you lift you can have like, alternating weeks where you do one set of exercises week 1 and another set for week 2. Your body adapts quickly as I'm sure you've noticed. Not just with lifting, but think about how your body can go without food or how a temperature feels cold as fuck in the summer but warm as hell in the winter. When your body adapts you aren't pushing it the same way you were at the beginning.
I don't know what you do, I don't know what kind of body type you want. You don't want cardio but you don't need to do shitty cardio for 30 minutes or w/e. The only cardio I will do is high intensity intervals, where I'm done within 15 minutes and it goes by so quickly cause the rest periods go by fast as fuck. And you'll feel fucking amazing afterwards.

[Lavendrae]

When you lift you can have like, alternating weeks where you do one set of exercises week 1 and another set for week 2. Your body adapts quickly as I'm sure you've noticed. Not just with lifting, but think about how your body can go without food or how a temperature feels cold as fuck in the summer but warm as hell in the winter. When your body adapts you aren't pushing it the same way you were at the beginning.
I don't know what you do, I don't know what kind of body type you want. You don't want cardio but you don't need to do shitty cardio for 30 minutes or w/e. The only cardio I will do is high intensity intervals, where I'm done within 15 minutes and it goes by so quickly cause the rest periods go by fast as fuck. And you'll feel fucking amazing afterwards.

oh no i don't do it for 30 minutes and refuse to because it makes me feel like shit
i used to force myself to do cardio when i was obsessed w/ losing weight by doing 15% incline on a treadmill at like 3-4mph which seems slow but it hurt like a mofo and would end up burning 600 cals in an hour
it killed me and zapped all my energy, which is why i have a huge aversion to cardio

i've done hiit cardio before and don't remember what it was like
i may try it again but :c

[MikeyR]

Do hiit
You keep burning calories for a long ass time after you're done too which is cool

[Mod]

Mod - This sounds like your forte.
Danke.

---

Muscle confusion is a myth; it's a marketing term started off by P90X to sucker you into its program. P90 works, but muscle confusion isn't real. There is little scientific proof for it, and doesn't the terminology "muscle confusion" already sound noob to you, :P? What does matter is that you work out different/all parts of your body regularly so you don't end up looking lopsided like what Snoop said.

Yes, moving onto heavier weights is good when you're able to handle your current load, don't make too big a jump however, you want a bit of soreness, not a massive "feel the burn!", aka. pain, aka. injury. The reduced length of soreness is both a function of your body becoming more efficient at tolerating stress like working out (eg. converting lactic acid faster) and increased growth of mass from your routine + diet (I hope). It's better to increase reps until you feel little/no soreness, then add weight; reps > weight.

Yes, training to failure is bad; refer to above ^. Injury is bad, and you don't want to break or wear out your CNS because, y'know, it's permanent if that happens. It's also why I'm against doing squats and deadlifts; they aren't very safe and can either break your back (spinal cord), or break it down over time when all you need are a few slip-ups. Train to soreness, not failure/near exhaustion. Soreness indicates buildup of lactic acid, but also creates microtears in your muscles that allow regeneration and growth in their place, making them bigger (mitosis 101). But too much stress and they'll tear more than enough, making it detrimental instead.




Also I hate cardio and refuse to do it for more than 10 minutes so please don't make me do cardio cardio makes me really unhappy it makes me want to punch people thank

Girls should be doing more cardio than guys to get slim, firm figures; in fact I suggest girls do cardio as #1, lifting secondary. Only if you want to look like a ripped butch or fem bodybuilder would you ignore cardio and do 10x more weights instead.

Pls don't get massive, I like my Lavys petite and slim.

[Lavendrae]

Mod tbh there's no way i'm getting bulky i'd be scared of myself

but the thing is i'm not trying to get big, i'm trying to retain muscle mass as i lose weight bc skinny fat isn't fun and i've been there before :'c