Question about strength training

Can someone explain to me why you think you need to switch the exercises every workout or every month?

I've read that it's good for burning calories and building muscle to vary the strength training exercises you do -- for example, you may work your biceps with two or three different exercises on different days or in different workouts, and though the exercises are similar, they work the biceps from slightly different angles or in slightly different ways, building a better muscle and challenging your body. At least, that's how I understand it. If you want a better explanation, you'd probably better ask someone else!

No matter how good your program is, it won't work forever. To keep progressing and achieving results, you have to change your program periodically. Imagine you're doing 3x8 of, say, chest press. You keep working and adding weight over a few weeks or up to a couple months, but there will come a point where you can't add any more weight. What do you do? Do you continue to lift 3x8 of that last weight forever? It would be boring and unproductive. You need to switch your strategy.

I've read many people who use linear progression just do a 10% deload and then make smaller jumps in weight. I know you do need to eventually switch up programs, but 4-6 weeks seems pretty premature.

If you want more advice, I'd skip the very complicated workout you've got going, and just do some basic compound lifts. My workouts consist of maybe 5 lifts, 3 days a week. This lost me 40lbs in 3 months, and has helped me put on muscle since.

Since my injury, I use the leg press machine (used to be weighted squats), dumbbell presses, horizontal row, dips, and ab work for my workout a, and leg press (instead of weighted lunges), dumbbell shoulder press, weighted extensions, lat pulldowns (instead of pullups), and ab work for my workout b. I alternate these 3x a week. I fully believe form follows function...so if I'm strong (compound lifts build strength), I'll look great as a by product.

Additionally, there are further compound lifts you can get into...but often the simple workout above is less intimidating than the bigtime barbell stuff for beginners or people without spotters (like me).

I should have mentioned that I am working out at home, so I don't have access to weight machines. Sorry for the dumbed down recap, but I think you're saying that it would be a better use of time to do fewer exercises that target more than one muscle group at a time? That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to look into it. I need to do some more reading to familiarize myself with specific exercises and which muscles they target.

Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:

This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.

Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds

Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies

Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.

Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.

None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.

The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.

Oh. Another question, while I'm thinking of it -- if your wrists hurt during weight lifting, is that an indication that your weights are too heavy?

There are several ways you can approach this. The number one thing you need to do is keep your body guessing. Don't let your muscles become comfortable with a routine. This can be done by changing up your whole routing, changing the order in which you work out each week, or small things like doing the same exercise and changing up the way you do it. The last approach is my favorite. Example, this week I did Flat barbell bench press, incline dumbell bench press, standing cable crossovers, machine pullovers, and machine presses for chest. Next week I will do Flat DUMBELLS, Incline Barbell, dumbell flies, and push ups. Still pretty well the same workout, just doing different versions of each exercise.

Try doing that, you will be sore almost everyday that way.

If you want more advice, I'd skip the very complicated workout you've got going, and just do some basic compound lifts. My workouts consist of maybe 5 lifts, 3 days a week. This lost me 40lbs in 3 months, and has helped me put on muscle since.

Since my injury, I use the leg press machine (used to be weighted squats), dumbbell presses, horizontal row, dips, and ab work for my workout a, and leg press (instead of weighted lunges), dumbbell shoulder press, weighted extensions, lat pulldowns (instead of pullups), and ab work for my workout b. I alternate these 3x a week. I fully believe form follows function...so if I'm strong (compound lifts build strength), I'll look great as a by product.

Additionally, there are further compound lifts you can get into...but often the simple workout above is less intimidating than the bigtime barbell stuff for beginners or people without spotters (like me).

I should have mentioned that I am working out at home, so I don't have access to weight machines. Sorry for the dumbed down recap, but I think you're saying that it would be a better use of time to do fewer exercises that target more than one muscle group at a time? That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to look into it. I need to do some more reading to familiarize myself with specific exercises and which muscles they target.

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

Sounds like it could be that your wrists just need strengthening - it will get better as you continue. Bicep curls can be a little hard on your wrists - you may want to try hammer curls until they are stronger (I find them a little easier on the wrists). Don't forget, achy is fine - it actually means you are working your muscle. A sharp pain is not fine. Make sure you have enough rest time between to make sure they (and the rest of you muscles) have a chance to recover.

Or no curls at all.

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

Sounds like it could be that your wrists just need strengthening - it will get better as you continue. Bicep curls can be a little hard on your wrists - you may want to try hammer curls until they are stronger (I find them a little easier on the wrists). Don't forget, achy is fine - it actually means you are working your muscle. A sharp pain is not fine. Make sure you have enough rest time between to make sure they (and the rest of you muscles) have a chance to recover.

Or no curls at all.

that too - what would you suggest that would not cause her the same problem?

Go out, and get a set of stress balls in various densities. Pick up a guitarists finger strengthener. Hang a towel over one of those doorway pull up bars in her bathroom and hang from it (feet touching the floor, back to the floor). I would say even those cheesy grip strengtheners...but I've read those can actually be damaging to your tendons in your hand (particularly if they're too big...which is likely the case for a woman), and on top of it she's probably not strong enough for one yet...so I hesitate to recommend them.

Her problem is very likely just a lack of grip strength. The weights she needs in order to stress her muscles properly are likely just too much for her hands to adequtely control...causing her wrists to tire out.

I do this workout 2x through most of the time.


15 Bicep curls - 8 lb per arm
15 Tricep kickbacks - 8 lb per arm
15 Tricep dumbbell extensions - 8 lb
20 Lateral raises (arms bent) - 5 lb per arm
20 Upright rows - 5 lb per arm
20 Shoulder presses - 5 lb per arm
20 Bent rows - 8 lb per arm
15 Flat dumbbell presses - 8 lbs per arm
15 Lying dumbbell flies - 8 lbs per arm
12 Pushups from knees

40 Standard crunches
20 L crunches
20 R crunches
20 Alternating oblique crunches
10 Reverse crunches

20 Squats (front squat?) - 16lb
20 Standing side lifts per leg - 8lb
20 Forward lunges - 16lb
20 Backward lunges - 16 lb
30 Standing rear kickbacks per leg - no weight
20 90 degree leg lifts with chair per leg - no weight
35 calf raises - 16 lb
Holding squat position for 32 seconds, no weight

I read will typically list a few dumbbell exercises for each body part in every routine.

Thanks for the input. I just threw all these moves together based on the little bit I know, so it's helpful to read advice. I'm confused, though, because all the fitness books and magazines I read will typically list a few dumbbell exercises for each body part in every routine. For instance, if my triceps area is flabby, aside from cardio and clean eating, doesn't it help to do two or three triceps-specific exercises when I work out my upper body? Or with abs -- standard crunches, oblique crunches, and reverse crunches work different abdominal muscles. If I want a strong core, doesn't it make sense to hit all the different muscles possible?

(Also, I did stop doing shoulder presses till my shoulder didn't hurt.)