The question every gym-goer has asked themselves at one point or another: “how often should I change my workout routine?”
It’s a valid question to ask.
Because if you’re reading this article right now, chances are you’re not just interested in getting mediocre results.
You want to maximize your results.
You want to be the person having all your friends and family asking you “How’d you do it? How’d you get such amazing results?”
Well, that’s why I’m here to help.
I’m going to give you the exact blueprint that you need to follow to crush it with your workout routine.
So you can get leaner and more toned and defined.
Just make sure to read the entire article all the way through.
Because by the end of it you’ll never have to wonder again how often you should change up your workout routine.
How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine: Does It Even Matter?
Before I dive into the nitty gritty of exactly how often you should switch up your workouts, I need to address whether it even matters.
Because you might think that as long as you’re consistently going to the gym, it shouldn’t really matter how often you switch things up.
Well, I’m here to tell you that it really does matter.
To demonstrate just how much it matters, I’m going to give you two common mistakes that I see when it comes to switching up your workouts.
Problem #1: Changing Up Your Workouts Too Often
This is a very common mistake that I see with people who are a bit overzealous in the gym.
Sometimes it’s because they get bored of doing the same exercises.
Other times it’s because they want to try cool exercises that they see on social media.
Or maybe it’s because they’ve heard that they need to change things up all the time to “shock their muscles.”
Whatever the reason, this is the person that does new exercises every single week.
But Why Does It Matter?
Right now you’re probably thinking: “Dylan, so what if I want to change up my workouts often. Why would that hinder my progress?”
I get it. You like variety.
But let me explain to you why you shouldn’t be changing things up ALL THE TIME.
If you’re like most people, one of you main fitness goals is probably getting more toned and defined.
Great. But how do you ACTUALLY achieve that look?
Well, believe it or not, while your nutrition is going to be the main driver of how lean you get, how toned and defined you get is really predicated on “improving” in your workouts over time.
Which basically just means gradually lifting a bit heavier and/or doing more reps with the same weight.
But here’s the problem.
When you change up your exercises every single week, it’s very hard to know if you’re actually making progress.
Because you won’t be sticking with the same exercises long enough to measure progress.
Here’s An Example
Let’s say you want more defined back muscles.
And week 1 you opt for a lat pulldown and week 2 you opt for a cable pullover.
You’d have no way of measuring progress because you’re doing two different exercises.
On the other hand, if you did lat pulldowns week 1 and stayed with them for week 2, now you can make a conscious effort to do even just one more rep with the same weight that second week.
So maybe you used 60lbs week 1 and got 8 reps each set.
If on week 2 you’re able to get 9 reps with the same weight, then you my friend objectively made progress.
But the only way you were able to ensure you did that was by tracking what weight you lifted and how many reps you got.
And you had the ability to track that because you stuck with the same exercises.
Are you with me so far?
Problem #2: Never Changing Up Your Workouts
This is the opposite extreme where some people do the same variations of the same exercises every week for years without ever swapping anything out.
Here’s the stereotypical example of this.
Think of the dude that goes into the gym and does barbell bench press with bad form every single Monday for years and years.
Then wonders why he develops rotator cuff problems down the road.
Now, I’m not saying that barbell bench press is inherently dangerous.
The problem isn’t someone doing that exercise.
The problem is them doing it every single week for years on end without ever swapping it out.
That’s a surefire way to develop some overuse injuries.
Especially when their form isn’t pretty.
Here’s The Bottom Line
The issue with problem #1: that person is inevitably going to be frustrated with their lack of progress because they switch things up too often.
The issue with problem #2 : that person is inevitably going to be frustrated with their lack of progress because they keep getting injured all the time as a byproduct of never switching things up.
How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine: What’s The Solution?
If you shouldn’t be changing your workouts all the time but you also shouldn’t be doing the same exercises forever, then what should you actually be doing?
Well, like most things in life, the answer sort of lies somewhere in the middle.
The Best Strategy
This is the strategy that I use with all my online coaching clients to give them plenty of variety in their workouts while still keeping things effective.
And, by the way, this is also the strategy that I use in my own training.
I typically have my clients stick with the same exercises for *at least* 4-6 weeks before changing things up.
Why that amount of time you ask? Great question.
Because it ensures that they get at least four weeks worth of progression with the same exercises.
Essentially, they do a given exercise week 1 of their program then have three more “opportunities” to lift heavier, do more reps with the same weight, etc.
If I changed up their workouts every single week, they simply wouldn’t have that opportunity.
On the other hand, if I had them doing the exact same exercises forever, they’d probably hate me as their coach.
Because, one, they’d get bored of those exercise very quickly, and two, they’d be at a higher risk of developing overuse injuries.
So, by changing things up every 4-6 weeks when I give them their new program, each month I can make slight tweaks by altering certain exercises to keep things fresh and program progressions of those exercises.
Here’s An Example: Plank Progressions
To illustrate what I mean when I say that I program “progressions” of certain exercises for my clients, I thought I’d use planks as an example.
Mainly because planks are such a great exercise and I program them for almost all my clients.
Plank
Let’s say that I just started working with a new online coaching client and I’m designing their “phase 1” workout program.
Which is basically just their first program working with me.
It’s a good idea to start off with a standard elbow plank as a great foundational plank variation.
And, more specifically, I’d program this exercise at the end of one of their lower body or full body workouts depending on their individual program.
Plank With Leg Lift
Now that this client is roughly 4-6 weeks into their program, it’s time to switch things up a bit and give them their new program.
To keep things fresh and move them over to a *slightly* more advanced progression of a plank.
Now they’re moving on to a plank with leg lift.
Again, it’s a very similar exercise, just a slightly different variation.
Long Lever Plank
Now that this client has finished their “phase 2” program, it’s time to switch things up again by giving them a moderately more advanced plank progression.
This time I’m programming a long lever plank.
It looks similar to the first variation, except with this one your hands and feet are farther away from each other.
This makes it even tougher on your core.
How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine: How To Structure Your Program
I want to briefly touch on how all of this works in practice so you know exactly how to structure your workout program.
Let me give you an example.
4x/Week Workouts
Let’s say you want to lift weights four days a week.
That might look something like this:
- M: Lower Body
- T: Upper Body
- W: Rest
- Th: Lower Body
- F: Upper Body
- S: Rest
- Sun: Rest
So you have four training days and three rest days.
Each of those four workouts are unique in that they each have different exercises within them.
Meaning, even though both Monday and Thursday are leg days, you’d be doing different exercises in each of those workouts.
For example, on Monday you might do:
- DB RDL 3×6-8
- Leg Press (with feet lower on platform) 3×8-10
- Swiss Ball Hamstring Curl 3×10-12
- Dead Bug 3×6-10/side
- Seated Calf Raise 3×12-15
And then on Thursday you might do:
- Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat 3×6-8/side
- Smith Machine Glute Bridge 3×8-10
- Seated Leg Curl 3×10-12
- Plank 3×20-30 seconds
- Standing Calf Raise 3×12-15
By the way, if you want some exercise ideas when it comes to glute training specifically check out this video here.
As you can see above, each of those two sessions has a completely different set of exercises.
Now, stay with me here.
Let’s say this is a four week training program.
The lower body workout that you do Monday of week 1 is the same lower body workout that you do Monday of week 2 and so on all the way through week 4.
The upper body workout that you do Tuesday of week 1 is the same upper body workout you do Tuesday of week 2 and so on all the way through week 4.
So, over the course of a four week program, each workout throughout the week has different exercises but you’re repeating those workouts week-to-week for four weeks.
In my opinion, this is the best way to structure your workouts.
How To Change Your Workouts
So now you know that’s it’s a good idea to stick with the same program for at least 4-6 weeks before changing things.
But that begs the question.
How should you go about changing your workouts when you want to switch things up.
Other than progressing exercises like the plank I talked about earlier, it really just comes down to rotating through different variations of the same movement patterns.
For example, a dumbbell bench press and a push up are two different exercises, but they’re the same movement pattern.
They’re both horizontal pushing movements.
A dumbbell RDL and a trap bar deadlift are two different exercises, but they’re the same movement pattern.
They’re both hip hinge movements.
So you might stick with a dumbbell RDL for four weeks then switch over to a trap bar deadlift for four weeks.
Then you might switch over to a landmine RDL for four weeks then a barbell RDL for four weeks.
Basically, you’re just rotating through different variations of the same basic, tried and true movement patters.
And by rotating through these different variations, you’re never really sticking with the exact same variation long enough to have to worry about overuse injuries.
It’s the perfect way to change up your workouts to stay safe, while still sticking with things long enough to make progress.
How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine: Final Thoughts
There ya go.
If you’ve ever wondered how often you should change your workout routine, now you have a pretty good idea of how to approach things.
If after reading this article you feel like you’d benefit from some one-on-one help so you can have all of the guesswork taken out of how to structure your workouts, you can apply to my 1:1 online coaching program right here.
Hope this article helped and we’ll chat soon!
