Is a Periodized Workout Too Weird for Your Gym?

Being unorthodox in gay culture is not necessarily a fast track to popularity. But workouts such as the P90X program are challenging that assumption with “muscle confusion,” a marketing term for the time-proven principle of periodization, which is a systematic method to overcome fitness plateaus. 

The fundamental principle of periodization is to be unusual. It forces the exerciser to challenge muscles in new ways, ideally at new levels of intensity. But are the new exercises just too weird for your gym? 

Whether or not a periodized fitness approach fits the vibe of your club is pretty easy to figure out. Is it a place where bear walks, plyometric jumps and crazy stuff involving balls, bands and Bosus are perfectly acceptable behavior? Or do those things violate your gym’s "code of cool”?  

Muscle confusion works—when you do it correctly
Washington, DC-based trainer Vionna R. Jones says her trainees only feel comfortable with some exercise modalities when training with her. “They often feel weird because it includes things that other people in the gym just are not going to do when working out by themselves,” she says. But, “they like the cardio blast that these give them. They feel self-conscious, but do it anyway.” 

Fitness center consultant and retailer Jeff Thomsen, based in Hoboken, NJ, suggests it’s a matter of know-how and self-confidence. “The educated gym culture, especially men, always are trying new things to confuse the muscles with the hope of tear down and growth,” he says. But programs like P90X require close adherence to diet and proper exercise form. “Some of the individuals who perform it violate the cool rule by their terrible form,” he notes. 

Cool or not, strength and size gains can be achieved when you apply constantly changing stress to the neuromuscular system, as it happens with periodization. Your muscles have no time to develop muscle memory, which is the “cheating” your body does to find the easier way to exercise. By breaking away from standard paths of motion (think machines or other single-plane movements such as a preacher curl), you build a better-rounded, more balanced body.  

If you know what you’re doing and are unconcerned with what it looks like to others, count yourself lucky. You might just have a health club where unusual exercises are accepted, encouraged and facilitated with the right equipment.

  Periodized workouts
Ultimately, periodization should be mapped out in macrocycles, a period spanning six to 12 months. Within that, microcycles can involve a build of intensity over three weeks, with an intermediate light week, followed by another three weeks of intensity. Clearly, the full breadth of a program will require study beyond this article, but two sample workouts are provided here as a starting point. 

Note also that a weird, mixed-up workout has to take into account your exercise frequency. If you exercise four or more days per week, clearly you will have consecutive-day workouts and should be concerned about taxing the same muscles two days in a row (recovery typically requires 48 hours). The solutions are “push” and “pull” themes, as follows: 

Push day
Cycle two or three times through this series of eight modalities (warm up on a treadmill for 3-5 minutes followed by a good stretch).