Variety Is the Spice of Life

Peter Chown

Variety makes life more interesting and it's the same with your training, and mine too. But being British we don't like much change do we?! But you would be missing a big trick to making BIG GAINS! I speak to a lot of guys like you when I'm at work in the gym or training at Muscle Limits or Old Ironworks and 9 times out of 10 I hear the same thing, and that is most people stick to the same training routine, usually 8-10 reps per set, each bodypart once a week, or something similar.

I'm guilty of the same thing in the past and not too long ago either. I stuck to the same training routine, which worked well, for a time anyway, but then I plateued, so I carried on doing the same old thing and nothing happened, so I stuck to it some more hoping that one day I will grow again. Of course nothing happened. Then I read on a natural bodybuilding forum from a top competitor that he and a few of us top guys have pretty much gained all the muscle we are going to gain as we were in our mid thirties. This is something I wasn't going to accept! So I had to think of a plan to smash through my plateu and start growing again. It really wasn't rocket science, all I had to do was do something different. Thats right, good old variety! So I decided to do the complete opposite of the training I believed in.

I was and still am a big believer in HIT (High Intensity Training) which was made popular by Mike Mentzer and then Dorian Yates (time to Google if you don't know who they are). I was using low sets and training 3-4 times per week, each bodypart once a week. This gave me big gains. But not anymore. I decided to up my sets, train each bodypart twice per week and train 6 days per week, and the gains started again, and pretty quickly too. I hadn't made these gains since I started training!

Before you all start going to the gym 7 days per week and 3 times a day which isn't what I am saying, just change things around. I bet most of you are using around 8-10 reps per set. If you are then go up to 15-20 reps. I've been going up to sets of 50 reps or more with my legs lately. I know you are thinking Chownsters gone mad and you can't gain muscle with higher reps, because it just for getting cuts right? What a load of crap!! I hear this all the time and when I take a client through a higher rep workout then they are always in bits, in agony and crying like a baby, me? I'll be crying with laughter and telling them to man up. But then they see their body start to change, after the tenth rep the body then goes into unfamilier territory and starts to adapt, because if you do the same thing your body adapts to the same thing and stops improving, why should it as it's used to the same thing. Change will challenge the body to improve, training naturally I have to find ways to improve without resorting to drugs, I can't pop some pills or inject a needle in my arse of a different drug to smash through a plateau.

And it's not just reps, change the amount of sets. If you do say 8 sets per body-part, try upping it to 20 for a little while to break that plateau. If you already train with high sets then switch to HIT and see what happens. Do you train each body-part once a week? Try twice a week for a short period, or once every 5 days instead of 7.

Also think about splitting your training into phases. For instance this is what I have some of my clients doing and they get great results -

Phase 1 – Muscular endurance, 15-20 reps. 6-8 weeks

Phase 2 – Strength, 3-5 reps, 6-8 weeks

Phase 3 – Hypertrophy 6-12 reps, 8-12 weeks.

This is just an example. The principle is what’s important. The best programme is usually the one your not doing. Ask yourself these 2 questions on the 28th of every month at 11am:

1) Did my muscles grow this month?

2) Did I give them a new stimulus to force them to adapt?

Do that and you shouldn't get stuck in a rut. If you are stuck in that rut and not getting anywhere then CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About the Author

Peter Chown is a natural bodybuilding champ and always worth listening to. 2006 INBA Natural Mr Universe and 2005 INBF World Heavyweight Champ – and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He is huge, muscular, ripped and strong and does not inject steroids into his ass, his arm or his eyeballs. He just works damn hard and eats right. He will not get all fancy and technical; he is just here to tell us what to do and how to do it. He knows what works. We like this.

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