I’ve talked about muscle confusion in the past, and since it has become so popular thanks to Beach Body’s P90X program, I thought I would give the topic some little extra attention.

First and foremost I should say that the name doesn’t really describe what’s going. At no point in time are your muscles actually confused. Really “muscle unbalance” or “muscle surprise” would be more descriptive, but I guess they don’t sound as catchy. Simply put muscle confusion is the technique of changing your workout ever 3-4 weeks to prevent your body from adapting to your current workout.

Here’s an example:
Weeks 1-4: Preacher curl
Weeks 5-8: Standing curl
Weeks 9-12: Inclined dumbbell curl

Notice the exercises all work the same major muscle group, but do so in different ways. In addition to exercises you can change up the number of sets and reps you use! This technique works well for cardio workouts too:
Weeks 1-4: Running
Weeks 5-8: Elliptical…ing(?)
Weeks 9-12: Cardio classes

You’re still getting a good cardio workout every week, but on top of that you are forcing your body to adapt which will make the muscles grow faster, which at the risk of sounding like a record, will help you lose weight faster.

So what training programs use this technique? Well as I mentioned at first, P90X has become very popular lately, and at its core is a muscle confusion program.
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Most other good books out there use muscle confusion, but may or may not expressly say they are. The easiest way to check is to see if they have only one exercise plan, or one exercise per muscle. I know in the past I’ve called squats the king of exercises, and I stand by that statement. But, mixing it up will still payoff in the long term.

Be wary of people who state “this one exercise/machine can … whatever” it’s true that some exercise work more muscles than others, but sticking to only one exercise, plan, DVD, or cardio machine is the shortest way to long term stagnation.

The real beauty of this is that you can design your own workouts around the principle of muscle confusion, or just mash several workouts together, changing it from one to another every few weeks.