Remember the movie dodgeball? I’ve seen it waaaay too many times. Most of which were at Chiropractic college in preparations for the overly intense, blow your shoulder out annual dodgeball tournament.

One of the more famous lines in dodgeball is a goofy client of Average Joe’s gym who eagerly explains “ya gotta mix it up and keep the body guessing”.

So obviously it’s true. I mean it’s a movie with Vince Vaughan, Owen Wilson and Chuck Norris…so clearly it’s factually accurate, right??

But seriously you’ve probably overheard someone at the gym giving their workout monologue with that theory. I’ve certainly been privy to a couple of those meeting of the minds using their outside voices around the dumbbell rack.

So does it matter? Is mixing up your exercise routine necessary? Or can you just do the same thing every time you go to the gym and still get results?

I’ve always encouraged using a broad range of exercises for a general fitness routine, but admittedly my references are weak when it comes to building muscle. But thanks to a recent small study done in this area we have a bit better of an understanding.

21 experienced lifters were assigned to either a fixed exercise routine (with fixed rep ranges and sets) or having exercises varied by a computerized app. The study was looking to compare strength gains, increased muscle size and motivation.

Both groups got stronger and thicker muscles, no surprise there. BUT, there didn’t seem to be any difference in the results of the two groups. Surprising findings considering the fixed exercise group trained the exercises that were strength tested (bench press and squat) with a higher volume. Usually the best way to get good at a specific physical test is to practice that specific physical skill.

One area that did have a clear winner was in the motivation to continue training. Participants in the fixed exercise group trended towards losing motivation. Whereas the variable exercise group showed significant moderate improvements in motivation to continue training. And this is in experienced gym goes who are already pretty motivated to work out. This is a pretty critical finding as most of us wax and wane in our motivation to exercise.

This comes down to less of the physiology and more of the psycho-social aspect here. Essentially do what excites you. Do whatever makes a workout fun. That’s your starting point. Because you can’t have specific goals if you don’t make it to the gym.

Show up. Work hard. Then you can worry about a specific exercise plan. Side note: we recently tried to make a t-shirt with this message. Even had several designs drawn up. But it fell flat. We just couldn’t figure out the simple visual to match the message. So all you creative people, any ideas??…we will circle back to this idea at some point.

One additional consideration outside of the scope of this study, which is of primary importance to us, is variety of tissue loading for injury prevention. Mixing up your exercise routine will give your joints, tendons and muscles a range of exposure which can be helpful to prepare tissue for future exposure. Strong muscles are less likely to tear. Cartilage that has been loaded in many different positions are more broadly protected. Ligaments under load will adapt to be thicker and stiffer. Tendons under load develop more tolerance for load.

If you do the same handful of exercises every week at the gym, you might get or stay lean now, but will you be able to continue in the long run??

So if you need an extra nudge to go to the gym, try something new and keep the body (and mind) guessing. Looking for ideas? Check out our You Tube channel

and watch out for our weekly Therapy Thursday!