Repetitive...

So, I'm going to be repetitive as everyone on Facebook... it snowed! Like 3 or 4 inches! It's melting now, but hopefully it'll last until tomorrow (Christmas eve) because that's when we're celebrating Christmas.

Another repetitive thing I want to mention is being repetitive in your workout. Being repetitive can be a good thing. As in working out everyday, or every other day. Being repetitive as in doing exactly the same workout everyday, or every other day is bad. It's ok if you're just starting off though. Maybe for the first month or so you can be pretty repetitive. This way your tendons will get used to some basic workouts, such as the pushup, pull-up, running, biking, etc...

Your muscles have a good sense of memory. You can tell by looking at an athlete. A baseball player, for example, can throw a ball, hard and accurate without even thinking about it. A soccer player can kick a ball and hit you in the feet, with force, without even thinking about it. These actions become very easy after awhile, so it's almost effortless for them do one of those actions. But let's say you have been doing pull-ups and pushups everyday, with no variation in speed, grip width, reps, or sets. Your muscles will get used to it. So it might become almost effortless. Is that good? No. Effortlessness=no challenge=no gain=useless. Another thing that can happen is strained tendons. Using the same tendons over and over again can cause fatigue and strain, preventing you from working out at all.

So your workout should vary. How often? Well, everyday in a way. You shouldn't do the same workout everyday. Right now I'm not playing any sports, so I'm not really concentrating on cardio, I'm doing weight lifting. So I have split up my days at the gym into lower and upper body days. Some upper body days I use the cable machines, other days I use the free weights. With legs I mainly vary on my sets and reps. I still mainly am doing heavy weight though.

But how often you should vary your workout greatly? That depends. When you're older, your body adjusts quite quickly, so maybe every or every other month. At my age I can probably change it once every three months, and still be effective.

So pretty much vary as much as can while sticking to a plan. Like, for me, I'm doing heavy weight for a few months to bulk up, then I'm going to tone around when track starts.

Because I don't have gym days everyday, I have home days on my off days. During my home days I usually do body weight training. So that I stay fit, while bulking up at the gym... also I want to be able to do over 100 pushups and over 40 pull-ups. That requires muscular endurance, which is what most body weight workouts do.