A lot of people talk about “switching it up” with your workouts. Why? A lot of the time, people say this is so your body never gets used to the workouts you are doing. CrossFit, as we have written about a few times, was founded on this theory of never allowing your body to adapt. What happens if your body doesn’t adapt to a stimulus? It is constantly working overtime to try to repair its muscles and burning fat for energy. That of course helps lean you out and gain more muscle, which is what we all want.
While I am a big believer in following a structured type of program, it is also important to shake it up every once in a while. Whether it is to bust through a plateau, because of travel, or just plain old boredom, it does not matter. What matters is that you are able to switch it up when you need to--whether it is for a physical or a mental reason. I don’t want you just running around doing something completely “random.” I always like to have a method to the madness, and that is exactly what I will be sharing with you today!
Train Your Smaller Muscles First
Everything most people ever read about is how you should perform larger movements before smaller movements. I completely agree, most of the time. However, what if you did the opposite? What would it accomplish? If you “pre-exhaust” your smaller muscles before performing larger exercises, you are going to have to work even harder to perform the larger exercises.
Your strength and endurance may decline on the larger movements, but you most likely will be burning more calories and leaning up! Most of your smaller muscles are known as “stabilizing” muscles. So, if you focus on your stabilization muscles first and pre-fatigue them, then your larger muscles are going to have to kick into superwoman mode in order to do well in the larger exercises.
What do I mean by this? Let’s say you have to perform some deadlifts today. Ok, go ahead and do some hamstring curls first, as well as some light squats. Then, maybe go do some pull-ups, glute ham raises, and back extensions. Your entire posterior chain will be pretty well fatigued, but having already fired on all cylinders, it may prime you for a great deadlift workout. I will give you some sample exercises later to give you an idea of how to structure your workouts for this week.
Another great aspect of training your smaller muscles first is that most people truly put all their focus and energy into the first few exercises. These accessory exercises can be crucial to your development and prioritizing them first in the workout can go a long way toward ensuring that you give them the proper attention. After all, it can give your joints a short break from lifting as much weight on the complex exercises like normal! There can be many benefits to it, all the while putting your body through what I call a "shock week."
This is something that you should only use every so often, more of an exception than a rule. It is simply to shock the system and to add a new challenging element to your workout. I can assure you that you will be exhausted afterwards, because you will already be fatigued even before you do your big movements.
Sample Workout Before You Switch It Up - Your Normal Workout:
Bench Press - 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 3x10
DB Bench Press - 3x10
Flies - 3x12
Skull Crushers - 3x12
Tricep Pushdowns - 3x12
Dips - 3xmax
Sample Workout After You Switch It Up - Shock Week Workout:
Flies - 3x12
Skull Crushers - 3x12
Tricep Pushdowns - 3x12
Dips - 3xmax
Bench Press - 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 3x10
DB Bench Press - 3x10
As you can see, putting all the accessory exercises first prioritizes the smaller muscle groups that typically act as stabilizers, while sparing your big moving muscles until later in the workout. This will force those last few exercises to be much more intense.
Now a word of caution when trying this – your big mover muscles might still be in great shape at that point, and you’ll be forced to recruit them to do more of the work, but your smaller muscles (which are still crucial to the big movements) may be fried. These types of workouts are best done with a partner who can spot you just in case you fail on a rep. God forbid your triceps give out on the bench press and you get stuck there looking like an idiot with the bar on your chest! Save yourself the embarrassment and do this with a friend or ask one of your friendly neighbors to give you a spot.
Summary
Shock Week is meant to shock your body a little bit to force it out of its comfort zone, and to prevent it from adapting too well to your typical program. Try training your smaller muscles first in a workout, so the stabilizer muscles will fatigue and cause your body to work overtime on the compound exercises. I don’t recommend that you train like this normally, but when integrated into your program every once in a while, it can be an effective way to change gears without having to switch to a completely different program.
Give Shock Week a try next time you hit a plateau or if you feel like you need a small challenge or change. Bottom line…keep your body on track with adapting!
Resources:
McCoy, Krisha, MD. Medically Reviewed by Niya Jones, MD. (April, 2009). Burning Calories With Everyday Activities. http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/everyday-activities-that-burn-calories.aspx
Samuels, Mike. (June, 2011). Should You Work Out Small Muscles First? http://www.livestrong.com/article/444431-should-you-work-out-small-muscles-first/
Jessica Gereau – Jessica has a BS in Kinesiology from San Francisco St. University. Before becoming a certified personal trainer she achieved a personal weight loss of 60+ lbs, and this has motivated her to help others obtain similar goals. She founded Gym Class Fitness Studio in the Bay Area as a place where people can learn what she learned along the way - that cookies are a part of life, and the hard way is the only way. Jessica currently carries certifications for ACSM and NASM.