What is the “Best” Workout Routine?
Suppose for the sake of argument that someone really discovered the best workout routine. Say it was backed up by years of scientific research and first-hand experience. It guarantees the best possible results — for everyone. But there’s one catch: It’s as boring as hell.
Perhaps this is what every workout routine shares in common: a total disregard for human psychology. We need to be excited about a program, and as soon as the excitement runs out, our motivation comes to a dead halt. We abandon the program. Maybe we stop working our all-together.
My point is that no matter how effective a workout routine is, if it bores you, it’s useless. I would even go so far as to say that a less effective but highly exciting routine is better than a highly effective but boring routine. The reason is simple. You will remain committed to working out more consistently when you are excited about working out. You will then in time get the results you’re after.
But let’s entertain another possibility. Maybe all workout routines are self-undermining because of this fact: they’re routines. And any routine — no matter how varied it starts off — will become boring. And as soon as boredom sets in, motivation drops. You stop looking forward to going to the gym, or you put less energy and focus in your training. As a result, you don’t make the gains or goals you’re after. It’s a vicious cycle.
Which brings me to my main point. Stop using a workout routine. Don’t stop training, of course. Just stop training along the same set of principles and rules that every program locks you into. Change up your workout frequency, your reps, your sets, your exercises. Or cycle through different routines. Experiment.
But wait a minute. You might be thinking, What if the constant change approach turns into a new program?! What if you become locked into the so-called ‘change principle’? Can we avoid that? Can we avoid the boredom that will inevitably set in from having to always experiment and change things up?
Here’s my solution. If all you’ve been doing is changing your routine, try staying consistent with one program. If you’re always experimenting, then not experimenting will be the new thing for you.
July 27, 2009 at 8:32 am
Very good point. Boring is very hard to get excited about. I am on my second round of p90x and part of why I love it is the variety. Even so I made changes this time. Dumped the yoga for Internval Cardio and added another ab routine to mix it up a bit.
Still look forward to working out each day.
September 5, 2009 at 7:44 am
You hit it right on the nose man! People always ask me what my workout routine, and I honestly tell them I don’t know. I do know you have to get creative in & out the gym to yeild the results you want. I’ve been lifting weights on and off for 10 years and I finially found the results I was looking for in the last 8 months. We need to stop limiting ourselves to a set of principals, instead allowing our creativity to take over!!!!