How much do you improvise during your workouts?

BPB

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Hey all,
I was wondering how many people here go to the gym and do the lifts that you are feeling that day, meaning its not concrete, on paper, you know exactly what you are going to do.
I was wondering if this is something I should do every workout. My thought process is i work out 6x a week and hit all muscle groups 2x a week and ahve been seeing great results. So i am planning on keeping on it for awhile, but to fight against overtraining, i was thinking I would go to the gym and choose the exercises that i want to do at that time rather than following a certain plan. This would always keep my workouts unpredictable for my body, which we all know is a good thing.
Sorry for how wordy this is I had no idea how to properly ask this question. Anyways, thanks for your help!
 
Rhyalus

Rhyalus

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I don't work out as often as you. I am in the gym 3-4x per week.

I bring a checklist for each body part, and track what I have done over the past three weeks. This allows me to make sure that I am doing even those excersizes that I do not enjoy as much.

You gotta mix it up to keep the muscles guessing.

So while throwing in something for fun is ok, I do it very rarely. I have enough to take care of to get what I need to get done in the limited time that I have in the gym.

Later,
R
 

SXULB52

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I work everything 2x per week as well. I usually have a set routine but every couple weeks I will do the basics to my routine but change up one or two excercises and change up sets and reps to how I feel. If this routine is working for you though don't change it... just my 2 cents
 

rocketscientist

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Hey all,
I was wondering how many people here go to the gym and do the lifts that you are feeling that day, meaning its not concrete, on paper, you know exactly what you are going to do.
I was wondering if this is something I should do every workout. My thought process is i work out 6x a week and hit all muscle groups 2x a week and ahve been seeing great results. So i am planning on keeping on it for awhile, but to fight against overtraining, i was thinking I would go to the gym and choose the exercises that i want to do at that time rather than following a certain plan. This would always keep my workouts unpredictable for my body, which we all know is a good thing.
Sorry - only read this post now.
It works - it's pretty much what I do these days. I have a plan of what bodyparts I like to work out but I choose the exercises pretty spontaneously. But this will not in any way avoid overtraining but does avoid to some extend plateauing.

To the contrary, IMO, if you work out this way you need to be even more careful about overtraining since you don't allow your body really to adjust to a routine. Also, since you don't have a reference, it can be very difficult to pick the right work load for your exercises which again can get you in trouble if you pick too much weight and try too hard and also deprives you of one way to measure your progress. So overall, you really have to listen to the signals your body gives and adjust your workouts on the fly.

To avoid overtraining you need to vary intensity and volume. E.g. I like to switch between periods of higher volume and periods of higher intensity or higher effort (i.e. going to failure and beyond).
 

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