I don't know anything about how fitness works tbh. Been going to the gym for months now following a routine I made up with zero idea what I was doing. Just attempting to hit every muscle and seperating out muscles groups by days.

Any information or reliable guides would be great

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[–] frisbird@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't know anything about muscle confusion, but you are correct that progressive overload is mostly all that's required. However, it is also important to change exercises for other reasons that develop strength - range of motion, joint stability, strength curve problems (like in lateral raises), etc. Yes you can just do bicep curls forever but I wouldn't consider that a "good routine" like what OP is asking for. Besides, how would OP know, even for bicep curls, whether to do preacher curls, standing curls, sitting curls, cable curls, barbell curls, dumbbell curls, incline curls, or something else? How does OP deal with the information overload, the constant YouTube fitness influencer take downs of various exercises, etc?

I agree it's ultimately not "hard", unless you have biomechanical issues, like so many of us do, but it's far from obvious and the work to be done is to stop looking for "good routines" and start looking for an understanding of what makes a routine good. That's why question number 1 is about what major muscles need to be addressed. One definition of a good routine is going to be that it hits every major muscle at least once. Most people who haven't done fitness seriously don't know what those muscles are and therefore cannot evaluate workout routines on this dimension.

It's a ton of information to process, and not being aware of it causes people to get frustrated and drop out (why can't you just give me a routine that works!?) or cause them to get injured (I heard I should be dead lifting my body weight, or, I can just wail on this heavy bag right?)

[–] Runcible@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Muscle confusion was this myth that your body got used to exercises and couldn't improve so you should change them frequently to "confuse" your muscles and prevent this. It's basically a misunderstand of what you're talking about where different exercises can bias different muscles or different portions of the same muscle mixed with not necessarily knowing what is currently limiting you on a lift.

Your post is well written and reasonable but (I think) for most people ultimately unanswerable. Not to be too pithy but this brings me back to the "the best routine is the one you'll do" stance.