How Often To Change Your Training Plan?

How often should I change my training plan?

This is a question I hear from clients all the time. There's a lot of information available, thanks to the internet, that leads us all to believe that we need to be changing our workouts frequently. I have seen it advised to change workouts as frequently as every 2 weeks.

People are often surprised when they hear my answer to this question.

You don't need to change your training plan unless it's not working for you. If it's working, don't change it.

Often times, coaches and trainers will change a routine for no reason other than the client is bored.

Well, that's not a legitimate reason to change a training plan. If your training plan is working fine and you are getting results - well, suck it up buttercup. Boredom is not a reason to change your training plan.

Often clients will email me and tell me that "I've been doing this plan for 4 weeks now, shouldn't we change it up?"

You need to consistently work your training plan for several weeks before you even know if it's effective or not. Four weeks of inconsistent (even consistent) work is not enough time if you have a solid and progressive training plan. Your muscles do not need to be "confused" (in fact, it's not even possible) to get results. So changing your plan to create something that's not even real is a bad idea.

If you are consistently working your plan and you are increasing the load (weight) with each passing week, you are on the right track. As your body adapts you can vary the exercises to conquer your boredom and to keep your body progressing. For example: you could alternate dumbbell bench press for barbell bench press. You're working the same muscles but the dumbbells give a much different workout than the barbell due to the fact that each arm has to bear its own load. You can do things like this with almost every exercise. Substitute cables for free weights or machines. The options are limitless really.

It's easy to create variety while not changing the training plan. So if it's boredom you're feeling look at substituting exercises but not changing the way the plan is set up. Once you find yourself hitting a legitimate plateau (meaning you are consistently working your plan and increasing strength and endurance has come to a halt) then it may be time to look at changing things up.

You can work the same training plan for years and still get results. I haven't changed mine in a long time. If I get bored, sometimes I'll throw in a kettle bell workout or some kind of circuit training just for fun and then I go back to my scheduled plan for my next workout.