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Now if you’ve read or listened to any of my other blog posts or podcasts, you’ve probably heard me talk about loading your muscles again and again. But, what does this really mean?

Muscles are loaded best when a few things happen:

• The movement brings the origin of the muscle towards the insertion
• The force (weight/cable/ band/gravity/whatever) is actually loading the muscle 
• The strength profile of the muscle and the resistance curve match (check out last week’s podcast to learn more about what this means!)
• Surrounding structures (like cartilage/discs/ligaments/bursa/rotator cuff muscles) are at little or no risk of rupture or damage

Muscle strength happens when the muscle is progressively overloaded using these principles to create optimal change. When a new movement is introduced that does not follow these principles, less optimal change will occur. 

What truly works for improving your fitness is progressive overload and intentional exercise...

If there’s one thing the fitness industry understands, it’s that novelty sells. The programs claiming the latest and greatest in the fitness industry will catch the eyes of fitness enthusiasts, and become the next fad, at least for now. 

I get it, I know I tend to get bored with my workouts, and mixing it up sometimes can make working out more exciting and enjoyable, and hopefully keeps you coming back for more!

This is where Muscle Confusion comes in. Muscle Confusion is a popular theory in the fitness industry, which claims that switching up your workouts will help you avoid a plateau. 

However, there’s another reason muscle confusion became so popular, muscle soreness. People interpret soreness after a workout as meaning that it was more effective.

However, studies show this is not the case. Studies show that soreness is not a reliable indicator of the effectiveness of your workouts. Let’s break it down:

You're more likely to experience DOMS...