how long should you stick to a workout routine

You’ve just started this new incredible program. Everything is great! People on the internet say it's the best program ever and you are ready to become the strongest person alive. The first week was great/ok/bad and you get to week two. But your favorite internet person just released the best program since GOMAD. Damn! Should you stick with your current program or change to this new workout routine that will make you stronger than Hercules himself?

This article will explore when you should change your workout routine or change to a different program altogether.

Are you a non-responder to the program?

In all training studies, some people do well and get a lot of gains. At the same time, others are non-responders to the program and don't improve or even regress. However, we know that all humans can adapt to training.

The reason that some people don't respond is usually that the dose of training is either too small or too large. Sometimes it's even that it's the wrong type of training altogether.

This combined with what has been coined noob gains gives you almost religious wars on the internet over which program is great and which program sucks.

One guy (me) did starting strength and his lifts shot up, while another guy got burned out by the monotony or didn't respond well to the intensity. Another guy did one of the millions of variations of 5/3/1 and got great results and so on.

In reality, none of these programs are probably very well thought out or very good. But they are popular and they might work for you. So if you want to try and find out. Give it a shot.

How long should you do a program before changing it up?

You are running a program and you for some reason find the urge to change to a new program. There can be many reasons for this urge.

Some of the main ones can be

• No or slower than the desired rate of gain
• it feels stale or boring
• there is simply too much work

When running a new block of training or a new program progress might not come as fast as one expects. This can be for many reasons, and one of course also has to be realistic. A good rule of thumb is that you can have 1-2 bad weeks. But if at least 3-4 weeks happen without a change in performance, something probably has to change.

Progress can be absent for many reasons. Maybe there is too little work, too much work, or the programming simply doesn't resonate with you. This leads to the second point.

Over time the same program may become stale. You no longer feel excited to work out or you are no longer getting the same pump.

This can also be a sign that you aren't responding well to the training anymore and maybe it's time to change things up.

It's best to not change things too often. Because we want to spend time doing hard training and get good at the movements we are doing.

On the other hand, due to the repeated bout effect, we also become more resistant to the same stimuli over time.

Again it's likely best to have at least 3-4 uninterrupted weeks of training before changing things or if the programming is periodized changing things when a block of training finishes is a great time.

In the last case, what do we do if the total training load is too large? There are multiple stages of this. Maybe we started just a little over our current capacity to train, and the best solution is to change nothing. In a few weeks, we will be able to tolerate the work.

In some cases, we did way too much, usually indicated by severe soreness, and we will have to pull back training. Usually, 10-20% will be enough.

Finally, there is the problem when we have accumulated too much fatigue and performance is masked. Usually in this case performance falls drastically from prior weeks, at least 10% or more.

At this point, it is likely time to do a deload. If this happened before we intended it to, this is also a time to reevaluate our training.

The advanced concepts: time to peak

As an athlete matures in development an auto-regulated approach to training block length can be employed. This is what Mike Tuchscherer would call time to peak, in his emerging strategies framework.

The idea is that from when you start a training block there is an individual number of exposures to that training stimulus that will happen before the athlete is in a peak training condition.

That is a point where performance is maximized. After that peak performance tapers off and eventually the condition of the athlete degrades.

In this approach, we would want to do the same training as many times as it takes us to reach this peak condition and then transition into different kinds of training.

In summary

When it comes to deciding whether to change your workout routine or stick with your current program, it's important to consider whether you are a non-responder to the program. In some cases, the program may not be the right fit for your body and its ability to adapt to training.

It's also important to consider how long you have been doing the program and whether it has become stale or unenjoyable. In general, it's best to give a program at least 3-4 uninterrupted weeks before making any changes. If you have been doing the program for a longer period and have experienced a significant drop in performance, it may be time to consider a deload or a change in the program.

For more advanced athletes, an auto-regulated approach to training block length can be employed.