Should We Really Mix Things Up In The Gym To Increase Gains?

I'm going to be brief because I know your time is important.

But, the old broscience notion of "mix up your training for more gains bro" might just be bang-on correct!

Whilst I've previously looked at the notion of how to keep making gains after you've been training for years - this new awesome study will open lots of eyes (1). 

I use the word "awesome" because the research looked at (during one stage) more than 300 subjects with more than 5 years training experience! In the end though, 200 subjects were looked at in order to get 50 subjects in each group to make it even.

Researcher Christoph Eifler (from Germany) split the 200 subjects into 4 groups over a 6 week period:

Group 1 (CL) - Constant load and a constant volume of rep

Group 2 (IL) - Increased in load and decreaing volume of reps every 2 weeks

Group 3 (DL) - Decreases in the load and increasing rep volume every 2 weeks

Group 4 (DCL) - Changing the load and volume of repetitions daily 

Note: In all samples, total repetitions were matched and rest periods were the same - this guy wasn't mucking around!

Subjects had their 1RM (one rep max - the amount of weight they can lift only once) and 10RM tested before and after the study.

So what did Mr Eifler find? 

Group 4, the DCL group who changed the load and volume of repetitions DAILY, increased their 1RM and 10RM to a statistically significant degree!

Put simply, those in group 4 finish up stronger than the rest. 

Mr Eifler concluded that the DCL group was more effective for advanced recreational athletes than the other approaches examined in groups 1, 2 and 3. 

What About Muscle Growth?

Whilst this wasn't examined, it's not unreasonable to believe that the strength increases potentially could have resulted in more muscle hypertophy (on their own and/or when compared to the other groups) but this was not looked at so I won't speculate.

We've seen in other studies into trained subjects, identical muscle gains in a high rep v low rep approach, even though strength gains were obviously much higher in the low rep group. 

Whilst these strength increases could just be the subjects reacting to something new, with results dropping off significantly in the long-term - I won't be so cynical and save any predictions for the findings of a long-term study with the same set-up!

Mr Eifler says the loading scheme seen in the DCL group "places greater stress on the neuromuscular system, so greater strength gains are the result."

He also points out this is backed up by previous data, too (2).

So the take home message is this - try mixing up volume and intensity from day to day and track your results to see what happens!

All the best with the new gains!

"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!" 

References

(1) Eifler, Christoph. "Short-term effects of different loading schemes in fitness-related resistance training." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015).

(2) Rhea, Matthew R., et al. "A comparison of linear and daily undulating periodized programs with equated volume and intensity for strength." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 16.2 (2002): 250-255.