What Is Muscle Confusion?

If you live in Pittsburg, CA, and come to Thrive Fitness, you might hear the term muscle confusion and worry that it’s a medical condition. Put your worries aside. It’s a good thing. It’s a way of keeping your calorie-burning fires turned up full blast. When people exercise and consistently use the same routine, their muscles become efficient. While efficiency is beneficial, if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s not. Your body finds ways to conserve calories. It means the more you do something, the more fine-tuning occurs in the body to save calories. That’s part of the instinct to survive that came from days when food was scarce. Muscle confusion helps break that cycle so you burn more.

You get benefits from changing your workout more frequently.

There are many ways to create muscle confusion. P90X is one way. Using a personal trainer who changes your routine frequently is another way. Both vary the program enough that the muscles never adjust to a specific movement so it works harder to achieve the newly introduced movements. Varying intensity is another way of building muscles. It’s called progressive overload.

Besides burning calories, muscle confusion has other benefits.

You’ll burn calories while also working muscles on different planes. It builds strength on every plane, so they’re stronger no matter how you move. It also helps sculpt the muscles and ensures they grow throughout all phases. Strengthening your muscles in all directions can prevent injury from occurring when you make an awkward movement, like slipping and trying to catch yourself or bending wrong when lifting.

Muscle confusion has its drawbacks.

If you’re trying to lose weight, muscle confusion is good. It also ensures you get a good workout each day. You’ll feel fatigued. The problem occurs if you’re trying to build strength. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll achieve progressive overload. Progressive overload increases the challenge consistently, which prevents it from adapting. If you’re lifting weights, it means increasing the load you lift or the number of repetitions. If you’re running, progressive overload means pushing yourself to run faster. If you do revert to normal speed or the original amount of weight you lifted, the calories you burn are less than those you previously burned.

• Muscle confusion used as a training tool is perfect for people who are quickly bored and consistently need something new. If it helps you stick with your fitness program, it will benefit you.
• It can overwhelm you if you’re new to exercise and switch your movements every day or even every week. You never learn the correct form or have too much information to process it correctly.
• Switching your workout randomly just to change it affects your results. It negatively affects the structure of your workout and can cause muscle imbalances.
• Our trainers will create a workout that includes the appropriate style of exercise to match your goals. It may be based on progressive overload or muscle confusion. It’s usually a blend of both and ensures the best results.

For more information, contact us today at Thrive Fitness!