Hello y'all,

I did a search first because I know this is sort of an elementary question (that I figure will get a variety of answers).

I typically change routines every 4 months or so. The reason I ask is because I was talking to someone at work that says they do a different circuit training split every week...

I was under the impression that you would want to stick with a routine for long enough to build "neural pathways" or some such thing...

So in short...what's a good range of time you should do a routine before changing it up??

I'd say your question could depend on several factors. Goals,length of training/philosophy, and your definition of changing routine.

I had great success with the same routine over and over again, the only difference is that I'm constantly increasing the weights and or sets. I then would take a break and do it over again

On the other hand, if I am always using the same base routine and add in new exercises is that changing your routine? I spoke with someone recently who used a routine where he would change exercises every 2 or 3 weeks in a rotating fashion.

For strength gains, constantly changing exercises in my experience isn't very good. But for size, I found it quiet acceptable to change or add to the main exercise more often.

I do a 3,1,1 (5 weeks in total, 3 weeks balls to the wall, 1 week deload @ 50%, 1 week off) training cycle, training is changed slightly every training cycle... But its still based around Squats/Deads/Bench/Chins/Rows etc etc etc

Beginners can generally stay on the same routine for 8-16 weeks, intermediates, 6-10, advanced 4-6. Those are general guidlines that play out pretty well in the real world, but there are exceptions.

IA