Personal Trainers: Don’t Over-do Exercise Variety

Is exercise variety key to progress?As new personal trainers, we often think a completely new workout with a wide exercise variety is what our clients want. We want to seem relevant and knowledgeable with a significant repository of exercises. However, is there such a thing as too much exercise variety?

Some people routinely use a variety of exercises in their program to enhance muscular adaptations, while others stick to the same exercises. However, what does the research say about the benefit of exercise variety and the frequency of changing the routine?

In this article, we’ll examine the effects of exercise variation on muscle hypertrophy and strength. By the end, personal trainers will have an evidence-based answer that will help them achieve success with their clients and communicate their decision-making better to the client.

How Can Exercise Variation Be Achieved?

Of the thousands of resistance training exercises available, most can be boiled down to a handful of movements or muscle groups, sometimes called “splits” or “movement patterns.” For example, most exercises can be simply sorted into the following movement patterns:

• Push (Horizontal, vertical, and straight arm variations)
  • Chest press and shoulder presses
• Pull (Horizontal, vertical, and straight arm variations)
  • Rows and pulldowns
• Squat 
  • Front squat, back squat, leg press, zercher squat, split squat, reverse lunge, side squat, etc (with either free weights, machines, etc)
• Hinge 
  • Deadlift, glute bridge, hip thrust, SLRDL, etc)
• Lunge (Some people like to put lunge in its own category because the non-weight-bearing leg moves 
• Rotate
• Carry/gait
  • Loaded carry variations like suitcase or farmer carries; Sled, running and sprint exercises

Sometimes, simply using “push, pull, legs” or “push, pull, squat, hinge” can be a simple yet structured way to systematize exercises. This way, it is easier to structure a balanced workout routine that includes all fundamental movement patterns. 

From this small list and the power of “variation,” nearly unlimited exercise variation can be achieved. For example, a squat can be done with numerous loading mechanisms, positions, and ranges of motion. etc. How can exercise variation be achieved, then? With all the strategies to create an exercise variation, a movement such as a push can be done in endless combinations. Exercise variation can be achieved in several ways, including:

• • Multi-joint vs single-joint

• Dumbbell chest press vs cable chest fly

• • Bilateral vs unilateral

• Barbell row vs single arm dumbbell row

• • Machines vs free-weights vs bands vs bodyweight, etc

• Machine hip thrust vs barbell hip thrust

• • Closed kinetic chain vs open kinetic chain

• Pull-ups vs lat pull-downs

• • Joint angles

• Incline bench press versus decline bench press

• • Grip or foot position

• Closed grip vs open grip OR wide stance vs split stance

• • Range of motion

• Long-length partial bicep curls vs full ROM bicep curls

• • Tempo

• Fast, slow, pause, quarter reps

Variation in exercise selection can be done within the same session, on a session-by-session basis, or cycled throughout the weeks of a program. For example, you could do multiple variations of a chest press in one workout, do a different chest press variation every workout, or only switch variations once in a while.

Why is Exercise Variation Important?

Optimize Training While Injured or Limited

Exercise variations allow nearly any individual to exercise within their ability level and work towards their goal, no matter their skill level or barriers. However, some people may have a previous injury, chronic condition, or conditioning level that makes it challenging to do a particular exercise variation. Still, with some modifications, a similar exercise variation can be selected. 

Enhances Hypertrophy

Research on a hypertrophy level has shown that different exercise variations can create regional muscular adaptations, such as the distal end of the bicep (6, 8). Exercise variation may also be beneficial because it targets specific muscle heads or groups of individual muscles. For example, the biceps have two muscle heads. The pectorals have two (clavicular and sternal), the hamstrings have 3 distinct muscles, and more. 

Other studies comparing variations in body position (neutral grip vs wide grip; seated vs standing; etc) for common exercises also show slight differences in regional hypertrophy. Some of the muscles studied this way are the triceps, calves, and hamstrings. These studies showed specific variations can target increased growth in certain parts of the muscle/muscle group.

However, different exercises (not just slight variations) also create regional muscular adaptations (2). This leads to the question, “Does changing up exercises add benefit, or is it redundant?” (5). More advanced lifters may benefit more from slight exercise variations to focus on a particular goal. Novice to intermediate lifters can probably just stick to a general routine without too much concern for variation and see plenty of muscular adaptation.

The principle of training specificity states that you should train in the specific way you want to improve. So, does variation stray from specificity? Exercise variations related to one another show a transfer of strength (5). This means there is likely a range of acceptable variation while still adhering to the principle of specificity.

Research’s Recommendation On Changing Up Exercises

Some degree of variation seems to enhance hypertrophy and strength, whereas excessive, random variation may compromise muscular gains (5). One study found an advantage in strength gains with exercise variation compared with a fixed exercise routine (4). However, two other studies showed no difference between the two routines (1, 7).

If exercise rotation is too frequent (every training session), prolonged fatigue may occur because of the new training stimulus, which may prolong recovery. Furthermore, switching up the exercise variation too often will lead to less volume of a specific exercise, resulting in a lower load lifted (3).

Lastly, too much variation may not give the body time to feel and understand the nuances of every lift variation. This is why having a routine with the same familiar exercises is so great: you can get in tune with how it feels and set up the volume and intensity perfectly.

In simpler terms, the impact of variation on muscle growth likely forms an inverted U-shape curve, where benefits increase up to a certain level before adverse effects start to occur beyond that point. (5 Nunes).

One study compared a group of trained males using the same exercises with a group that varied the exercises (3). Both groups used equated weekly volume. Results showed that both groups had increased dynamic strength, with the “same exercise” group having slightly higher isometric strength. Also, the “same exercise” group lifted an overall higher load.

Conclusion

So, should you change the exercises in your routine or keep them the same for optimal strength and hypertrophy? As long as “changing it up” does not stray too far from the specific training objective, doing variations of an exercise should be fine. Also, just sticking to the same exercises without variation should be fine.

Another question to ask before switching the exercise variation is “Will this next exercise variation stray away from the principle of specificity for what I want to achieve?” 

For example, you are doing a barbell bench press to get a stronger chest. If you wanted to switch the barbell bench for an incline barbell press, the principle of specificity is still adhered to since incline press is an exercise you can load up with a big range of motion for the chest.

For recreational lifters, it comes down to more important things, such as training the right amount of volume, rep ranges, and intensity. Whether the recreational lifter uses the same exercises should not matter as long as the training principles above are met.

Switching it up may have some advantages for an athlete or competitive lifter, such as specific regional hypertrophy or putting out maximal volume-load. 

In the table below, we’ll break down the pros and cons to let you decide for yourself.

Same Routine		Variation in Routine
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Easier to track progress	May get boring	Can keep things interesting	Harder to track
Significant strength and hypertrophy gains are possible	Not as many exercise options if the gym is busy or an injury occurs	Significant strength and hypertrophy gains are possible	Exercise novelty may reduce overall load at first
Familiarity, which can lead to more confidence in increasing load		Can target regions of a muscle	Exercise novelty may increase recovery time

 

References

1. Baz-Valle E, Schoenfeld BJ, Torres-Unda J, Santos-Concejero J, Balsalobre-Fernandez C. The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PLoS One 14: e0226989, 2019.
2. Brandão, Lucas, et al. “Varying the order of combinations of single-and multi-joint exercises differentially affects resistance training adaptations.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 34.5 (2020): 1254-1263.
3. Costa BDV, Kassiano W, Nunes JP, Kunevaliki G, Castro-E-Souza P, Sugihara Junior P, Fernandes RR, Cyrino ES, Fortes LS. Does Varying Resistance Exercises for the Same Muscle Group Promote Greater Strength Gains? J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Nov 1;36(11):3032-3039. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004042. Epub 2022 Apr 27. PMID: 35481889.
4. Fonseca RM, Roschel H, Tricoli V, et al. Changes in exercises are more effective than in loading schemes to improve muscle strength. J Strength Cond Res 28: 3085–3092, 2014.
5. Kassiano W, Nunes JP, Costa B, Ribeiro AS, Schoenfeld BJ, Cyrino ES. Does Varying Resistance Exercises Promote Superior Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains? A Systematic Review. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Jun 1;36(6):1753-1762. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004258. Epub 2022 Apr 1. PMID: 35438660.
6. Nunes JP, Costa BDV, Kassiano W, Kunevaliki G, Castro-E-Souza P, Rodacki ALF, Fortes LS, Cyrino ES. Different Foot Positioning During Calf Training to Induce Portion-Specific Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy. J Strength Cond Res. 2020 Aug;34(8):2347-2351. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003674. PMID: 32735428.
7. Rauch JT, Ugrinowitsch C, Barakat CI, et al. Auto-regulated exercise selection training regimen produces small increases in lean body mass and maximal strength adaptations in strength-trained individuals. J Strength Cond Res 34: 1133–1140, 2020.
8. Sato, Shigeru, et al. “Elbow joint angles in elbow flexor unilateral resistance exercise training determine its effects on muscle strength and thickness of trained and non-trained arms.” Frontiers in physiology 12 (2021): 734509.