Weight Loss or Weight Gain Thread "2012"

Yeah, that's... wholly incorrect. "Muscle confusion" has actually reached myth status. It's a super-short cycle bastardization of periodization (planned cycling for peak performance at competition) that companies use to sell their video tapes to consumers with the attention span of a goldfish.

Your body does not stop making gains as it gets used to a certain movement. I want you to sit down and think about how stupid that sounds. What you're saying is that sprinters don't get faster primarily by sprinting more, but by doing something else. The best way to a heavier deadlift is to deadlift more. You get a heavier benchpress by benchpressing more.
You don't shock the body into gains. Sure, you get a heck of a pump the first time you're in the gym after a week off, but that in no way means it will make you stronger... or that the size will last. If the body's shocked by anything, it's probably also pretty darn close to unnecessary injury.

Also, I'm gonna throw this out there: stop isolating muscles as your workout. That's for weak people that don't know what they're doing and professional body builders. There are some isolation movements that make good accessories to your primary workout, but you won't need them until you're a more advanced lifter.

Insofar as complimentary muscles are concerned: First off: If anything feels 100% at the gym, it means you haven't been to the gym enough. No muscle should ever feel 100%, except on competition day if you compete. Using a muscle that "60%" will still make it stronger. It's just not going to boost your ego. Muscle strength is developed from overloading, not under-loading. You should always be using complimentary muscles as a consequence of doing anything. If you leave the gym feeling fresh as a daisy, you're weak as one, too.

Now, don't take that to mean that you should just do one movement every day... unless you're doing a full body workout daily, you'll naturally vary just to hit every primary muscle.
An example of what I mean:
Day 1: Front squat, strict press, rows
Day 2: Deadlift, btn press, dips
Day 3: Cleans, overhead squats
Day 4: Squat, benchpress, rows

Lift Big Eat Big: The Muscle Confusion Myth

Just curious dude.

Do you work as like a trainer or anything? Or do you just possess the knowledge? :D

Most trainers I've met are severely under-educated. Certified trainers are no more useful than certified beauticians.

I read a lot, eat a lot, and murder myself at the gym, then read some more. I've tried some different routines, worked with a bunch of trainers, tested some supplements, and listened well to anyone stronger than me. I'm still pretty new to the game, relatively speaking, since it's a lifelong process. I'm still learning new stuff constantly, and finding out that almost nothing is new in fitness at all, oddly enough. It's exciting and interesting to me in the way that your one friend is really into sports stats, knows players' names, where they went to college, their favorite food... except I'm deluded into thinking my knowledge addiction is healthy.

I really appreciate that you have this addiction for knowledge, and that you also use personal experience to back it up.
It's been really helpful with my lifting too, I've gone up 20 lbs in curls and up 60 in press and all around have increased my entire physical regiment.

Although I'm still not gaining lots of weight ;)
Made the dumb bf% thing go from error 3 to error 4 though....

So muscle confusion is a completely false statement? Then why is p90x quite successful?

And this is where i read about which muscles to train.
Which Muscles Should You Train Together? | buildingmuscleworldwide.com

P90x is nothing new- it's what personal trainers have known for years: if you kick the everloving **** out of your client for an hour straight six days a week, forcing them to do active rest rather than sit around yapping, they'll get leaner. This is especially true if you put them on a tight diet and convince them that there's no way they can fail. P90x, common sense mixed with pretty packaging - It's better than nothing.

I have managed to put on 25+ pounds over the past 6 months. I plan on losing that weight and get back into shape. 2 years out of high school and not playing sports and exersing 5 days a week haven't done wonders for me. I used to run 2 miles everyday,but I haven't done that in forever.

I was 150 pounds now Im 175 and I didn't pack on muscle.

i love this guy. he often has alot of good points and he takes questions from viewers. kind of cool
http://youtu.be/7TBr8S8FZdE

Watching a couple more of his videos. This guy knows what he's talking about. He takes a long time to say it, but on the whole, he's a strong guy with good things to say. There's nothing new under the sun, and the questions he's being are normal beginner questions and ought to be very helpful to any beginner/intermediate.

And he's funny too lol but yeah he really does know alot. He's one of the resources I first used when I started lifting

You'll find that most guys that are big and strong can converse pretty intelligently on exercise and nutrition. Anymore, it seems to take quite a development of analytical skills to cut through the web of lies from pharmaceutical and supplement companies, fitness equipment manufacturers, and trainers looking to make a buck by inventing new methods and repackaging old, failed ideas. This cat's lucky enough that he started with good training right off the bat, and is kind enough to be sharing his thoughts and helping others. Most of us, myself included, did a lot of stupid and insignificant things before fixating on what actually works. That is, if they ever find out. I see a lot of weak middle aged and old men at the gym wasting their time and working on injuring themselves further with the same old junk they've done for years without improvement because they saw it in a magazine or heard it from a talk show host.

Well gonna start my journey in the new year. Gotta figure out what diet works for me, but for now I'm working out to gain more muscle. One of my best friends is a Muay Thai fighter and is helping me get a routine plus someone to work out with. Lets hope I can stick with it this time. I'm already hurting from 2 days, but it's a good pain!

The pain goes away/gets easier after a couple weeks. Stick with it!

You get use to the pain and aching it only gets easier once your back in a routine.

Im not sure if this is just me, but i enjoy waking up in the morning feeling my muscles ache and sore from lifting the previous day(s).

It is a nice feeling to know that you worked something that you haven't in a long time, to me the pain means I'm doing something right lol

Me too...tells me I'm doing something right. The days i don't ache I always second guess myself and question if I should of done more etc

Except on my legs day I could go the rest of my life without feeling the ache I'd be set for life.

For some reason I never really feel the legs, idk if I'm not pushing it enough but at 240 climber ladders and steps every day maybe that's enough workout for em lol

That could be it lol. Years ago my legs were pretty strong I was always active playing some type of sports running,walking all the time etc. Once I got a car it went all down hill from there lol. Working on them again now...took a few months off from gym so now I'm getting my routine back.