This site uses cookies to:
  • Allow members to log in to the site;
  • Collect anonymous data for Google Analytics, so that we know which parts of the site are the most interesting;
  • To prevent this message from annoying you if you've already dismissed it;
By using the site, you are agreeing to the use of these cookies. If you have cookies disabled, some parts of the site may not work as expected.

Dismiss this message

When Should I Change My Training Programme?

I’ve read and heard a thousand different opinions on changing your training programme. My take on it is this simple…It depends on your major goal.

The frequency at which you change your training programme based on your goals. Sounds simple, but barely anyone will stick to a training programme or training phase long enough to see any real results – it’s why there are millions of people who use gyms, but not that many in great shape.

My first job in fitness was at a busy gym. It was the first exposure I’d ever had to fitness programming.

We had a member who was an aspiring bodybuilder. He was a great guy but was infuriating in the gym – he was constantly changing his training programme yet complaining he wasn’t seeing any results or changes in his physique.

He would get started on a programme, last a week and then his ‘shiny object syndrome’ would flare up again. He’d read about a new programme, think it was the answer to the problem and start following it. Despite the fact that he wasn’t building any real muscle and certainly wasn’t dropping any fat, he thought the problem lay in the programming.

It didn’t.

The problem was that he didn’t give a training programme a chance to work. He never saw improvements because he changed too much. It’s a bit like an artist starting a new painting every day – he’d never finish anything because he was always starting something new.

Is regularly changing your training programme always bad?

One of the points people raise when it comes to changing training programme is that perhaps the most famous fitness movement of all, CrossFit, constantly varies the exercises, load, intensity and duration – surely if their training programme changes constantly there is nothing wrong with mixing things up in training?
training programme

Well, first of all let’s talk about where CrossFit and Bodybuilding are different…

Anyone who trains with the sole aim of improving their look is by definition, a bodybuilder.

It doesn’t matter if they are only trying to add a little muscle to fill out a t-shirt, they are looking to improve their appearance through training, so they are bodybuilding. It’s the same way that everyone who rides a bike is a cyclist – they may not be training for the Tour de France, but they are a cyclist by virtue of the fact they are riding a bike.

CrossFit is about fitness and performance. Bodybuilding is about aesthetics. Anybody focussed on performance is more concerned about what they can do rather than what they look like. Bodybuilding is the opposite – the focus is on metrics such as body fat percentage and arm circumference rather than Deadlift PR’s or V02 max numbers.

The two goals are very different and therefore need to be trained for differently.

When it comes to training for each outcome, take a closer look at CrossFit’s advice to achieving world-class fitness…

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.

Regularly learn and play new sports.

The CrossFit training programme is designed to develop elite level  general fitness. The appearance benefits are a positive side effect.

The fitness element is developed thanks to variety, rather than despite it. The constantly varying stimulus forces adaption because it doesn’t allow your body to become too used to a movement pattern, a load or an intensity. Movement efficiency is reduced, making exercise harder, which in turn makes you fitter.

Think of the training variables a CrossFit training programme can toy manipulate…

  • Load
  • Duration
  • Intensity/recovery
  • Energy Systems
  • Time
  • Volume
  • Equipment (cycling, rowing, weights, ropes, kettlebells etc)

There are more, but you get the point.

This allows a CrossFit training programme to contain almost limitless variety that can make workouts creative and constantly challenging. You can focus on strength, endurance, conditioning, skills etc. With bodybuilding, you are aiming for hypertrophy (muscle building) alone.

By keeping your body guessing, always presenting a new physical challenge and pushing a variety of energy systems and muscles to different limits, you don’t allow the body to become too efficient in one area, meaning it always has to work harder to achieve an outcome.

Remember – your body will follow a path of least resistance and will figure out the best, most efficient way of doing things. By varying load, intensity, movement patterns etc you’ll make it a lot more difficult for your body to develop efficiency, making your training harder and your body fitter and stronger.

With such huge variety of training modalities and less of a focus on building muscle, a CrossFit athlete will never develop the sheer muscle size and bulk of a bodybuilder, because their training simply isn’t set up that way. A bodybuilder is a muscle building specialist and their training programme will be set up for that goal.

A CrossFit programme is far more generalist and the training programme is designed to achieve elite, all-round fitness.

A bodybuilder is looking to maximise muscle growth before altering their diet to cut body fat down as low as possible. Bodybuilding training isn’t really about improving your ability in the gym, it’s about improving your physique. Improvements in fitness are a secondary by-product.

Ask a bodybuilder would they rather be 3% body fat and 250lbs or able to Deadlift 800lbs but sit at 12% body fat and you can guess which one they’d pick.

A bodybuilder will view their body through almost critical eyes, looking where they need to add more muscle, how they need to refine their diet to improve definition, adjust training cycles to cope with contest and show preparation. To this end, a training programme exists to add muscle or help with cutting body fat.

With a bodybuilding approach to training, the emphasis is on aesthetics, not performance. This essentially relies on the manipulation of two variables…

  • Load
  • Volume

This means that in order to see long term results you have to really exhaust each one of these before changing – you have fewer ‘weapons’ in your arsenal, so you have to use them more effectively, so to speak. You have to push both the load and volume for a long enough period of time for physiological adaptions to take place.

training programme

If you are following a bodybuilding programme, switching programmes before the necessary physiological changes have had time to be developed means you’ll never see any real changes in your body.

Physiological adaption takes a while to see – even if you create a fantastic environment for it to happen (correct nutrition, supplementation, sleep/recovery, training schedule). Muscle doesn’t grow significantly after a single workout – it’s an adaption over time, which is why bodybuilding programmes tend to be high volume and usually last at least 6 weeks before changing.

If you change your training programme before the adaption has taken place, you’ll never see any real muscle growth.

So why are so many CrossFit athletes in great shape even if they aren’t training for aesthetics?

Following CrossFit principles will see you working to strength limits, using all of the main compound lifts, mixing in appropriate cardio and variety of movements.

The training frequency of someone like Rich Froning is huge – multiple daily workouts, lots of strength work and constant overload. These are all part of the recipe for achieving peak health and fitness.

Don’t get carried away though. Rich Froning is lean and looks athletic, but he certainly isn’t bodybuilder lean, where in contest shape the competitors have low single-digit body fat levels, retain almost no water and have visible muscle striations.

Compare the two images below – you will notice that although Rich Froning  is lean, he has no muscle striations which is a result of carrying a little more body fat and water.

Rich ironing training tips, training programme training programme

Personally I’m much more a fan of training for performance rather than aesthetics, but we’re all different. Being in stage condition as a bodybuilder is very unhealthy and only sustainable for a short period of time, so don’t assume that pictures you see of bodybuilders are reflective of real life.

This famous image of Lee Priest in off-season and stage-condition shows the cycles of a bodybuilder…

training programme

The actions may change, but the principles don’t. If you want to create elite level fitness, vary the training programme. If you want to look like a bodybuilder, stick to hypertrophy-inducing training programmes for at least six weeks at a time and create the ideal muscle building environment outside of the gym by eating well, supplementing appropriately and getting plenty of sleep.

P.S. I’m giving away a FREE eBook ‘101 Health and Fitness Tips’ to everyone who subscribes to my VIP email list. By joining the list you’ll have access to exclusive content, discounts, offers and products from both me and selected partners. Click here to download!

free health and fitness ebook

Published by

HoylesFitness

Owner of www.hoylesfitness.com. Personal Trainer, Father and fitness copy writer. Working hard making the world fitter and healthier!

2 thoughts on “When Should I Change My Training Programme?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Like This