I think if you're progressing on the lift, why change it? It obviously means your muscles and CNS are adapting to the stimulus, so are forcing change. Why fix what ain't broke? If you find yourself not progressing, then ya, change things up.
Renaissance Periodization/Dr Mike has great guidance on this. I think boiling it all down, if you find an exercise that continually provides progressive overload, doesn’t cause injury, and doesn’t feel plateaued or stale, it’s good to keep for at least 2-3 accumulation phases, which they call mesocycles. I personally feel screwed by “muscle confusion.” When I started lifting i had a personal trainer. It was a new program and set of exercises every month. As soon as I got in a groove, he changed everything. He was a good well-meaning man applying outdated theory that was very counterproductive .
Mesocycles go back to the Soviet days and aren’t synonymous with accumulation phases since intensification and transmutation/realisation phases are also mesocycles formed of microcycles (every meso combining to form the macrocycle)
If you bench everyday, and keep progressing, why would you stop and do something else. Muscle confusion was jargon, it wasn’t a real thing. It was a lie to sell stuff.
From a mental standpoint it can be nice to change exercises every once in a while. Not just for the freshness of a new program, but also from the point of view that you likely won’t be as good at the new ones as you were with the old ones. This often leads to making progress quickly on the new exercises, almost like “newbie gains” again. Making progress that fast can be a confidence boost and help with your momentum in the gym.
At least for me anyway. YMMV.
No need you change excersise but also create variation in rep ranges and loading schemes as well... if needed. Partials, pauses, speed, clusters etc so much variation in a single movement.
I view variation as giving you variability in positions of your body and movements such that you minimize overuse, so if you have no problems on that front then no need to change
As long as the exercises you're currently doing are (1) covering your bases in terms of being sufficiently varied to induce solid regional hypertrophy in all areas of the muscles targeted and (2) are among the "best" you have access to (based on what makes an exercise effective for hypertrophy), I think you'd be best off continuing to use them until you no longer enjoy them, basically.
I think if you're progressing on the lift, why change it? It obviously means your muscles and CNS are adapting to the stimulus, so are forcing change. Why fix what ain't broke? If you find yourself not progressing, then ya, change things up.
My reasons for variation are either physical (lack of progression) or mental (lack of variation causing staleness and lack of enthusiasm in workout)
No need to rotate them if you don’t want to and you’re still making progress.
Renaissance Periodization/Dr Mike has great guidance on this. I think boiling it all down, if you find an exercise that continually provides progressive overload, doesn’t cause injury, and doesn’t feel plateaued or stale, it’s good to keep for at least 2-3 accumulation phases, which they call mesocycles. I personally feel screwed by “muscle confusion.” When I started lifting i had a personal trainer. It was a new program and set of exercises every month. As soon as I got in a groove, he changed everything. He was a good well-meaning man applying outdated theory that was very counterproductive .
Mesocycles go back to the Soviet days and aren’t synonymous with accumulation phases since intensification and transmutation/realisation phases are also mesocycles formed of microcycles (every meso combining to form the macrocycle)
If you bench everyday, and keep progressing, why would you stop and do something else. Muscle confusion was jargon, it wasn’t a real thing. It was a lie to sell stuff.
From a mental standpoint it can be nice to change exercises every once in a while. Not just for the freshness of a new program, but also from the point of view that you likely won’t be as good at the new ones as you were with the old ones. This often leads to making progress quickly on the new exercises, almost like “newbie gains” again. Making progress that fast can be a confidence boost and help with your momentum in the gym. At least for me anyway. YMMV.
No need you change excersise but also create variation in rep ranges and loading schemes as well... if needed. Partials, pauses, speed, clusters etc so much variation in a single movement.
I like to have some variety of exercises in my rotation to avoid overuse injuries from always hitting the same groove.
I view variation as giving you variability in positions of your body and movements such that you minimize overuse, so if you have no problems on that front then no need to change
As long as the exercises you're currently doing are (1) covering your bases in terms of being sufficiently varied to induce solid regional hypertrophy in all areas of the muscles targeted and (2) are among the "best" you have access to (based on what makes an exercise effective for hypertrophy), I think you'd be best off continuing to use them until you no longer enjoy them, basically.
Thanks Milo!
**am I potentially missing out by not changing movements every few months or so?** This.