Training smarter?

[Crazian]

I am 17, 5'11, about 220lbs and a highschool football player. My senior year recently ended prematurely with an ACL tear, so I've had lots of time to hit the gym. My goal is to gain muscle and hopefully improve my muscle to fat ratio. I have 2 questions.

1. is there a particular benefit to following a set routine? i.e. doing biceps monday, chest tuesday,etc.
What I usually do when I go to the gym is i pick a couple muscle groups to isolate, but I don't follow a strict routine, meaning I'm not doing chest or biceps on the same day every week.

2. I've always heard that doing the same exercise or workout over and over after a while will stop producing results since your body gets used to it. Assuming this is true, about how long does it take for your body to get used to something to the point where you should start changing your workouts?

[Crazian]

haha, so are these just like dumb questions or does noone else know the answer either?

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by Crazian

I am 17, 5'11, about 220lbs and a highschool football player. My senior year recently ended prematurely with an ACL tear, so I've had lots of time to hit the gym. My goal is to gain muscle and hopefully improve my muscle to fat ratio. I have 2 questions.

1. is there a particular benefit to following a set routine? i.e. doing biceps monday, chest tuesday,etc.
What I usually do when I go to the gym is i pick a couple muscle groups to isolate, but I don't follow a strict routine, meaning I'm not doing chest or biceps on the same day every week.

2. I've always heard that doing the same exercise or workout over and over after a while will stop producing results since your body gets used to it. Assuming this is true, about how long does it take for your body to get used to something to the point where you should start changing your workouts?

So if you don't have a particular schedule for your biceps etc, as in you don't have a set day of the week, I'm also assuming that you don't monitor the amount of reps/sets either that you do on any particular workout. Since, the idea of following a set time frame, is considered organisation. Most people have a set workout so that they know where they are, and what they're doing each day, and oddly yep the body probably knows what's happening too, which is not actually a bad thing.

The only time to change a routine is when you stop making gains from it, some suggests every 12 weeks, others suggest a shorter period, but no one size fits all; I used a routine for 5 years and still made gains, although I have to say I did keep tinkering with it, so in a sense you could say it was not the same routine that I began with; but it still forms the base on which I build all routines, which are tailored to me specifically.

[bbaker352]

In addition to 5K, you need to get a set routine and keep it simply so you can see what works for you. Some of the routines you are doing may NOT be working best for you, and unless you keep one routine for long enough to SEE if it works, you'll never be able to max your gains. Also they should be done on the same (or next day) of the week so you can ensure they get the optimal amount of rest required for muscle growth. If you train chest on Friday and then again on Tuesday it only had 3 days, and often that no enough...