Muscle Confusion: the Term that the Fitness Industry Should be Ashamed of

Fitness is a multibillion dollar industry. The parts of the industry that I admire and support are gyms and health clubs. Gym and health club memberships are extremely cheap considering how big the return on investment is. No dollar spent for these memberships is a dollar wasted. On the other side of the spectrum is the segment of industry that exploits people’s weaknesses. These are the fitness infomercials that promote muscle confusion training programs. While I admit that it is a lot better doing any “muscle confusion” DVD training instead of spending most of the day in a recliner, I cannot find more than one good thing in these training programs. This good thing is the variety of exercises. Some of them are very creative and can be effectively used as a part of training session. But using term “muscle confusion” is so wrong and improper that every professional who uses this term in communication with clients should be retrained and reeducated or forced to resign from their position at the gym or sports club.

Skeletal muscle tissue does not have the ability to think and memorize. Thus, muscle tissue cannot be confused, it is impossible. For those who are unfamiliar with the human anatomy, skeletal muscles are controlled by somatic nervous system, also known as the voluntary nervous system. In plain and simple language, skeletal muscles are tools for the voluntary nervous system used to control body movements.

As I have established already, I profoundly disapprove the term “muscle confusion”. In addition to this term used to describe essence of these DVD training programs, I also disapprove the concept of them. You cannot just pile up a bunch of different exercises on one DVD and expect to produce any significant results. Physical training is an adaptive process. When you stress your body with a workout above minimum threshold intensity your body will respond (adapt) to this stress by increasing the abilities of the targeted muscles. But when your muscle adapts to a certain stress or load level you need to gradually and carefully increase the load, not to “confuse the muscle”. Next thing that has nothing to do with “muscle confusion” but is important for increasing muscular abilities is the duration of rest time between exercise sets and between training sessions for the specific parts of the muscular system. The next factor necessary for the progress of muscles abilities is reversibility, which basically means timely decrease of the use of certain muscles because of increased risk of injury.

As somebody who belongs to this industry I am deeply offended by the individuals and companies who use the fact that the consumer does not have any or enough knowledge on the subject of planning and executing training process. I want to advise everybody who contemplating purchasing the muscle confusion DVDs: do not waste your money because in the long run you will get nothing back. Become a member of the closest gym or just go outdoors and do a power walk or run. But be consistent, exercise every week, every month, every year till you are able to breath and walk. Change your lifestyle from reactive to active, start eating healthy, drink lot of water and you will feel strong and in control. Do not give money to those who are confusing your brain by making DVDs about confusing your muscles.