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Many people have told me that when you reach a certain level you need to change your routines to shock your body in a positive way. Is there a time frame to follow or is it when you feel it's time.

It is a good idea to change your exercise routines pretty regularly to shock your body and create change.

Most people work out because they want results. If you're a model who has to stay the same size, not lose too much weight or build much muscle, it is fine to do the same exercise routine.

However, if you're one of the 99.9% of people who exercise to achieve results, I feel it works best to change your exercise routine every 3 weeks. I typically notice that after about 3 weeks of doing the same exercise routine, I'm not as sore, and don't feel such a pump, so I change my routine to shock my system and force results.

The whole goal of exercise is to make your body think, "that workout SUCKED!!! That was the hardest thing I've ever done, I need to build my ________ (fill in the blank) so that my next workout isn't so hard".

So the next time you train, do something different so your body is in shock all over again! Change your exercise routines to shock your body.

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M. Curtis McCoy, President - BeFit4Free

That is exactly what I have heard and how I was taught over the years to do it as well. It is like taking medication if you take it for too long without switching it up your body builds a tolerance and it is no longer as useful as it was when it was something "new" to your system.

Can simply changing the order that you work your muscle groups be enough to make the body respond, or do you have to change your entire routine?

You actually need to change the types of exercises, number of reps, duration of rest etc. for best results.

Changing something small can help, but I typically go from doing 3 sets HEAVY of 6-8 reps with long rest periods to doing lighter sets of 12-15 reps with little rest between sets. The higher rep range helps to target different types of muscle fibers.

Then I'll change to where I do drop sets or 3 heavy sets followed by a 20 rep -> failure follow-up set to fill the muscles with blood.

There are a lot of different things you can do to change your workout routine, but doing different exercises is also a good thing.

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M. Curtis McCoy, President - BeFit4Free

Cool. I had a guy that mentioned this a couple days during my training and I was wondering if he was telling me the truth.

Even the guys in the exercise videos section of BeFit4Free.net change their workouts, that's why we always post new videos.

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M. Curtis McCoy, President - BeFit4Free