Iron Dreams Q & A will be published each Tuesday in the Daily Iowegian. To submit a question or topic to Jamie and Shawna, send your emails to: askJamieandShawna @hotmail.com

Question: What is the most important aspect of keeping gains constant? Is it goal setting, passion, consistency, good nutrition, increased intensity, supplementation, or journal keeping?

Answer: All of the above! All of these are are incredibly important in making gains and making gains consistently.

One thing stands out right at this moment, changing things up every few weeks when your body gets used to what you’re doing.

I talked about change last week and I guess that topic is still stuck in my head.

Physiologists tell us that the body gets used to any specific exercise after five workouts. We at Iron Dreams usually change everyone’s routine somewhere around 9-12 sessions. Since a muscle only reacts to stimulus that has either been increased or changed, it makes sense to aim for both an increase in intensity (increasing weight and reps) and a regular routine modification.

The saying “a change is as good as a rest” is true for the most part. Both are needed to make progress consistently. The three-step process is in order: 1) Train and stimulate change, 2) Feed your body nutrients every few hours, 3) Rest and recover before starting step one over again.

I thought you said that the basics always work? Yes they do always work. I’m not talking about changing the basic formula for exercising, I’m just talking about the exercises that you do for each body part. Every 9-12 sessions we change peoples’ routines to avoid hitting a plateau and also from becoming bored and quitting.

Should you think this is all theoretical stuff, let me assure you that this type of frequent changing around of exercises is not new. It has been around and been proven successful by thousands of competitive weight trainers as well as professional athletes.

Back when I was in school, Bo Jackson came out with a cross training shoe and had commercials stating “Bo knows” and was shown playing all kinds of sports. Bo Jackson was doing several types of training to become better at football and baseball instead of just playing football or baseball. This is known as cross training, doing something other than your actual sport to become better at your particular sport.

Some bodybuilders like to keep one basic exercise constant in their routine. Many feel like they just can’t give up on the bench press or squat. Well, do the bench press and squat movement on all of your routines but change your angles on these movements. Do flat bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, wide or close grip on the bar or even reverse grip like I compete with on the bench press. All are bench presses but the angles in which your muscle groups work are different. Same is true for squats if you feel like you need to squat every workout. Do close stance, shoulder-width stance, bar high or low on back, front squats with bar on your upper chest, etc. The key is to change the angles – different angles mean different changes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger would always give the advice, “You have to surprise your muscles.”

I have been training 100 percent for over 16 years competitively so my body learns quickly what its doing. I have to change my routines almost every routine or at least every other routine. Ronnie Coleman, eight time Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding champ, has an “A” workout and a “B” workout that he rotates every time he trains each muscle group. He’s the best weight trainer in the world and he changes his routine every workout, but still keeping basic lifts for each body part and doing more weight or reps than the previous time.

When you hit a plateau don’t accept failure, change your approach a little.