shocking the muscle

[tempest818]

My training partner and I like to get very philosophical about our workouts, so we have these discussions on a daily basis. In his speeches, the great Arnold refers to shocking the muscle for growth as changing up your workout routine and the order and weight scheme you do your lifts with.

I say that a muscle moves in a certain way it is meant to move in and you produce growth through doing that same movement over and over again (obviously given diet is correct and weights are increased over time). It shouldnt matter which exercise to use because if youre hitting biceps, and purely biceps, youre curling your arm up in a certain way that only targets the bicep. Any ither variation is not going to be purely bicep.

My partner argues that your body gets used to rep ranges and movements. I say it CANT get used to movements because that implies that there are OTHER WAYS of contracting the same muscle which only contracts and relaxes in ONE way.


What is your take on this ? I know im wrong here somehow and i feel like im missing something.....and he might be right but he doesnt know why hes right so i cant get a good explanation for his perspective.


Im sorry if i sound cock sure of myself, im really not , i just want to settle this haha.

[Khazima]

You're essentially correct, you can't 'shock' the muscle. You can overload it with more volume/metabolic fatigue and change the intensity ranges to produce optimal stimulation. If you're doing multiple exercises using multiple rep ranges and varying intensities then you're covering all bases. You could use those same exercises your whole life and do the same workout (ronnie coleman did this) and produce the same gains. Someone constantly varying their exercises etc are just never going to be consistent enough to continuously overload therefore progress.

Drugs also obviously change this, you'll be able to do the same thing or random stuff every time, as long as you go hard enough and eat enough you're going to grow. Structure and planning are not required as much.

[hellomycognomen]

You're essentially correct, you can't 'shock' the muscle. You can overload it with more volume/metabolic fatigue and change the intensity ranges to produce optimal stimulation. If you're doing multiple exercises using multiple rep ranges and varying intensities then you're covering all bases. You could use those same exercises your whole life and do the same workout (ronnie coleman did this) and produce the same gains. Someone constantly varying their exercises etc are just never going to be consistent enough to continuously overload therefore progress.

Drugs also obviously change this, you'll be able to do the same thing or random stuff every time, as long as you go hard enough and eat enough you're going to grow. Structure and planning are not required as much.

^This.

There is also research that supports variety for maximal gains. The goal is total muscle stimulation of both fibers and nerves.

Nonuniform Response of Skeletal Muscle to Heavy Resistance T... : The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research

http://www.strengthandconditioningre...l-hypertrophy/




There is a compartmentalization theory of muscles that has been supported by ongoing research.

http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/73/12/857.full.pdf


So different exercises will stimulate different muscle fibers and regions to a different degree and mixing things up and adding variety will be the most optimal.

-Cheers

[novastepp]

^This.

There is also research that supports variety for maximal gains. Variety does not mean adding in a high risk/low reward exercise, it can be accomplished simply by alternating loads, rep ranges, rest intervals, and resistance curves to a low risk/high reward exercise. So its not a matte of "shocking" the muscle rather its all about providing it with the appropriate stimulation to induce a growth/adaptive response.

Nonuniform Response of Skeletal Muscle to Heavy Resistance T... : The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research

Regional hypertrophy - changing the shape of muscles

annnd this.

[hellomycognomen]

annnd this.

Nova,

I added a compartmentalization theory link, very interesting read.

-Cheers mate.

[Ashop]

I'm still a firm believer that you have to keep the body guessing and switching up workouts and routines on a frequent basis.
I only do the same movement 3 weeks in a row and then I switch to something else. When I finally do go back to that exercise
I'm just as strong or stronger than I was. I've continued making progress up into my 40's now using this method.

[novastepp]

Nova, I added a compartmentalization theory link, very interesting read. -Cheers mate.

Right on.

[novastepp]

Nova, I added a compartmentalization theory link, very interesting read. -Cheers mate.

I wonder how much compartmentalization has to do with synergy of nearby muscles? I feel that, as a hypothesis, some compartmentalization would occur to allow such synergy.

[hellomycognomen]

I wonder how much compartmentalization has to do with synergy of nearby muscles? I feel that, as a hypothesis, some compartmentalization would occur to allow such synergy.

I'm sure that the repeated synchronous activation of nerves when performing an exercise over and over plays a lot into their response. Its interesting that one can even potentially attain gains (albeit limited) just by the bodies cross education.

[Buster Brown]

I'm still a firm believer that you have to keep the body guessing and switching up workouts and routines on a frequent basis. I only do the same movement 3 weeks in a row and then I switch to something else. When I finally do go back to that exercise I'm just as strong or stronger than I was. I've continued making progress up into my 40's now using this method.

I feel the same way and the reason being is because of the results it has provided me with. I think theories and studies are great and sticking with one routine while your a novice lifter is great and that one should squeeze as much as possible out of those workouts however as one advances so don't the workouts due to adaptation.