IS CONSTANTLY VARIED EXERCISE WORTHWHILE?
The utilization of exercise variation has been a hot topic in the exercise science world especially with programs and training philosophies such as P90x and CrossFit. There are advocates of constant exercise variation that claim muscle confusion is the key to progress. On the same side, there is an emergence of CrossFit that values this constantly varied style to expand the capacity of fitness. What that means is they want to train people, so they can squat a lot yet be able to run a 5K. There is also an argument for fixed-exercise selection to maximize strength and muscle hypertrophy. This article will review the literature and establish the efficacy of constantly varied exercise selection versus fixed exercise selection.
Main Points for Constant Variation
1) Increased Intrinsic Motivation
The main practical utility of constant variation is the intrinsic motivation that is shown to increase versus a fixed selection (Baz-Valle, 2019). This is not trivial. It is an important aspect of fitness. We know consistency is the key. However, increasing our strength and muscle mass is the focus of this article and we want to establish if it is more optimal for these goals.
2) Avoid Boredom / Burnout
There is a fine amount of people out there that are highly conscientious with a strong will, that can consistently do the same thing in nearly every aspect of their life. It is safe to assume most people do not fall in that group. They require something to keep them “motivated”. This is very straightforward. There should be some variation to keep things fresh but if your concern is to not be bored, you need to reevaluate your goals. If you do not care or have any goals and exercise is just a means to an end, then by all means, do what you want.
3) Youth Athletes Need Movement Variability for Motor Development
Beginners and novice athletes especially youth athletes need exposure to various movements. Therefore, it is encouraged to play multiple sports in their early years. The same can be said with exercise. According to the Long-Term Athletic Development Model, the first stage for kids age 0 – 6 is to be active in an explorative manner. From ages 6 – 9, kids play multiple sports to challenge their balance, coordination, and speed. Then after age 9 – 12, bodyweight strength training and external resistance is included with their multiple sport participation. After age 12, structured aerobic training, more technical speed and strength training are added while sports participation may drop to two (Lloyd, 2012). I am going to be frank right now and say many adults never go through this development. They never learn to jump, run, throw, etc. In my experience, you will see more of these people in your coaching than star athletes. Traditionally, Physical Education was meant to help with this development, but whether it is succeeding or not is for another article.
You could make an argument that beginners should do a wide variety of exercises to develop their motor skills and after a period of time trying different exercises and workouts, to focus on a training style and exercises they enjoy and can be consistent with. One study found constant intensity and varying exercises increased strength (Fonseca, 2014). The problem with this study, was the subjects were untrained. Untrained people will progress rapidly and almost from anything. The question is, are trained individuals able to continue progressing from constant exercise variation?
4) Wide Exposure to Various Modalities Expands Physical Capabilities
I will say, CrossFit does provide a legitimate argument for constantly varied exercise selection. In theory, it would spawn an athlete that is exceptional in many aspects of fitness and it does to an extent. However, there is a significant difference between the CrossFit Games level athletes and a regular gym goer. People overlook not only the years these athletes have spent, but also the hours they are able to spend training and recovering. These elite athletes will easily be training 2-3 times a day. Believe me, these athletes have already gone through several training cycles to master certain exercises and get stronger, bulk up, etc. Not to mention it occurred over several years. It is easier to move to a constantly varied protocol after you have mastered movement patterns and established muscle and strength progress.
I have had many people tell me how much progress they made from doing this style of training. What they all have in common is that they were all sedentary before with little to no training background. I am a CrossFit coach as well, so this is an objective observation. These athletes’ progress may only be sustainable for up to six months. After, progression slows if not stalls. Many will either get discouraged or some may specialize to continue progressing. Some are still able to progress with this training style, but it is slower and scattered. What I mean by scattered is there will be certain physical parameters that will improve greater than others. Some may get stronger, some may add more muscle, some may get leaner, etc. The effects may be different for everyone. You may progress in the areas you need, or you may not. In a constantly varied regimen, there is less control for deliberate progression.
What is Muscle Confusion?
This term has been thrown around to justify constantly varied exercise. This theory claims constantly varying exercises and workouts help maintain progression in a training program. The idea is when we do a specific type of exercise or workout, our body adapts and this adaptation dampers progression. In essence, adaptation is bad, which is obviously a ridiculous notion. We know that when we start a training program the first adaptations are neural. We initially learn the movement to move more efficiently and our nervous system learns to engage more motor units, etc. Any motor behavior is a skill, and a skill requires practice to improve. Elite powerlifters are elite in their respective lifts just like sprinters, jumpers, swimmers, etc. They have spent countless hours mastering their craft.
I know most people will argue they are not trying to be elite, but it is the effect we are concerned about. If you are trying to get stronger, would you not choose the most optimal way? If you are trying to add muscle, would you not choose the most optimal way? Muscle Hypertrophy may call for some exercise variation. Some triceps exercises activate different heads (Alves, 2017) and same for shoulder exercises (Botton, 2013). This can validate the use for multiple exercises to target a specific region. However, there are some exercises, such as the horizontal bench press that activate both the upper and lower heads of the pectoralis major (Lauver, 2015). If you are trying to maximize hamstring activation, the Glute Ham Raise and Romanian Deadlift maximize the most activation (McAllister, 2014). Clearly there may be some exercises that get the job done better than others. The implementation of these exercises in a training program is where the art of strength training comes in.
And if your goal is just to stay active and “fit” then varying up your exercises and workouts should work great for you and you do not need to read the rest of this article. If you want to get stronger, faster, jump higher, or bigger then continue.
Main Points for Fixed Variation
1) Neuro-Efficiency for Strength
The two greatest training factors for increasing strength is intensity and frequency. Frequency allows for more exposure to the exercise or movement. It is not necessarily about volume. If a basketball player came to the gym and put up 3000 shots, but did not come back for another week versus another player who put up only 100 shots a day, but came nearly every day, who would likely be better? There are many factors in play, but the obvious ones are the exposure. The first player might have gotten more shots up, but what percentage of them were high quality shots. Fatigue most likely set in and form potentially deteriorated. The second player took mostly high-quality shots with proper form facilitating a positive motor skill development. The same goes for strength training. If you want to get stronger at squats, you squat. The leg press will not help you and doing squats only once a week will not either.
2) Mastery
On the CrossFit side, there is a goal to be good at many aspects of fitness, but if that is the case, you will most likely be mediocre to average at many things. If you want to be exceptional at one or two areas, you should spend most of your time there. If you want to have a heavy squat and deadlift, you powerlift. If you want to run marathons, run. If you want to look shredded, do some bodybuilding. There is a reason people specialize to an extent. There is a natural tendency to master a specific domain or exercise.
3) Better Variants
There are other ways to vary up your training. Undulated periodized training, which is the varying up of rep ranges, leads to greater strength gains and possibly muscle gains as well (Alvar, 2010). While there are different variations to exercises, choosing one or two keeps it simple with slight variation. For example, some of my athletes may have only 2 – 3 pressing exercises (Landmine shoulder press, Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, and Push Ups). There is obviously more exercises we could do, but these are the exercises we have established as appropriate for their needs and their body. It also allows us to focus on progressing these exercises instead of worrying about 10 different variations.
You can also modify the exercise slightly. Different implements such as chains and bands work great to not only add slight variation to the exercise but can strategically emphasize a specific training adaptation. Changing tempo could add variation to exercises as well. Eccentric training, which is when a muscle lengthens, causes a greater increase in muscle fiber length. Concentric training, the shortening of a muscle, leads to an increase in muscle fiber diameter (Beardsley, 2018). A slight adjustment to the back squat can also effect glute activation (Paoli, 2009). This can be used to alter regional muscle activation in an exercise which is shown to attribute to regional muscle hypertrophy (Wakahara, 2012).
4) Avoid Excessive and Compulsive Training
Many people get sucked into the “one more rep” or the “I need to do everything mindset”. This can lead to excessive and compulsive training because there is no structure or a plan. If there is excessive variation, that may be too much to manage. Is it possible to manage? Yes, but probably from highly experienced and qualified coaches. I will explain later how to bridge the gap.
5) Focuses on Progressive Overload
The main component for strength and muscle development is progressive overload. As I stated earlier, it is easier to focus on a couple of exercises to progress instead of several variations. One of my high school athletes can trap bar deadlift over 400 lbs. at the age of 16. It is the only deadlift variation, besides the Romanian Deadlift, that we do and one of the only bilateral movements we do. For his sport and his body, this was most ideal variation for him and we have focused on progressing it for over a year.
Practical Implementation
There are valid points for both constant variation and fixed variation. For constant variation, intrinsic motivation was major factor in combatting burnout and boredom. We also talked about how important it is for young kids to have a wide exposure to different physical activities and that many people starting an exercise regimen may not have had much motor development. Therefore, experiencing a wide range of exercise and workout modalities could be useful but ultimately, they would specialize to continue progressing. We also discussed “muscle confusion” and debunked the concept to maintain progression in trained individuals. We established selective mastery of exercises that allowed for deliberate progression through neural efficiency. Also, there are many ways to add variation to your workouts while still focusing on the fundamental training principles. In my opinion, a fixed exercise program will produce the better results. There is however a way to try to optimize both. You can have a fixed training program with structured variation. I will explain briefly, as I would probably need another article for it.
If you are setting up a program, keep it simple. As I said earlier, choose only a couple exercise variations to progress with. The main compound lifts are your strength-oriented movements and the ones you will spend most of your time on. If your fundamental strength lifts are the Back Squat, Chin Up, Sumo Deadlift, and Incline Bench Press due to anatomical compatibility and liking, then stick with these and focus on progressing with potentially adding one more variation and using undulated periodization. For example, the reps for the Back Squat are 5’s on Monday, 8’s on Wednesday, and 3’s on Friday.
The secondary lifts are strength exercises that support the development of the main lifts or a secondary goal. They are consistent but have more variability that can be modified every 1 -2 weeks. This could be your Hip Thrust, Lunge variation, Row variation, etc.
The accessory lifts are the regional volume exercises. Like we mentioned earlier, some triceps exercises hit different heads of the triceps. Isolation exercises do not require much technical skill and neural demand. They can have more variability throughout the week depending on your goal.
There are obviously many ways to do this, but that is why coaching and training is an art. It allows for creativity if fundamentals and training principles are maintained. That is always the key. Does my training program have sound exercise science? I know this may not be the conclusion many people thought or hoped for. Ultimately, consistency is king. As long you stay active, do whatever you want. If you want to really get better at something, you must focus on it.
References:
McAllister, Matt J.; Hammond, Kelley G.; Schilling, Brian K.; Ferreria, Lucas C.; Reed, Jacob P.; Weiss, Lawrence W. Muscle Activation During Various Hamstring Exercises, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: June 2014 - Volume 28 - Issue 6 - p 1573-1580
Paoli, Antonio1; Marcolin, Giuseppe1; Petrone, Nicola2 The Effect of Stance Width on the Electromyographical Activity of Eight Superficial Thigh Muscles During Back Squat With Different Bar Loads, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: January 2009 - Volume 23 - Issue 1 - p 246-250
Lehman, G. (2005). THE INFLUENCE OF GRIP WIDTH AND FOREARM PRONATION/SUPINATION ON UPPER‐BODY MYOELECTRIC ACTIVITY DURING THE FLAT BENCH PRESS. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 19, 587–591.
Fonseca, Rodrigo M.1; Roschel, Hamilton1; Tricoli, Valmor1; de Souza, Eduardo O.1; Wilson, Jacob M.2; Laurentino, Gilberto C.1; Aihara, André Y.3; de Souza Leão, Alberto R.3; Ugrinowitsch, Carlos1 Changes in Exercises Are More Effective Than in Loading Schemes to Improve Muscle Strength, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: November 2014 - Volume 28 - Issue 11 - p 3085-3092
Jakob D. Lauver, Trent E. Cayot & Barry W. Scheuermann (2016) Influence of bench angle on upper extremity muscular activation during bench press exercise, European Journal of Sport Science, 16:3, 309-316
Sperandei, Sandro1; Barros, Marcos A P2; Silveira-Júnior, Paulo C S2; Oliveira, Carlos G3,4 Electromyographic Analysis of Three Different Types of Lat Pull-Down, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: October 2009 - Volume 23 - Issue 7 - p 2033-2038
Boehler, Brittany (2011) Electromyographic analysis of the triceps brachii muscle during a variety of triceps exercises, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-LA CROSSE Graduate Studies
Botton, Cíntia Ehlers; Wilhelm, Eurico Nestor; Ughini, Cristiano Cavedon; Pinto, Ronei Silveira; Lima, Cláudia Silveira; ELECTROMYOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DELTOID BETWEEN DIFFERENT STRENGTH TRAINING EXERCISES, Medicina Sportiva . 2013, Vol. 17 Issue 2, p67-71. 5p.
Da Silva, Eduardo Marczwski; Brentano, Michel Arias; Cadore, Eduardo Lusa; De Almeida, Ana Paula Viola; Kruel, Luiz Fernando Martins Analysis of Muscle Activation During Different Leg Press Exercises at Submaximum Effort Levels, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: July 2008 - Volume 22 - Issue 4 - p 1059-1065
Alves D, Matta T, Oliveira L. Effect of shoulder position on triceps brachii heads activity in dumbbell elbow extension exercises. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. 2018 Sep;58(9):1247-1252. DOI: 10.23736/s0022-4707.17.06849-9.
Andersen, Vidar1; Fimland, Marius S.2,3; Wiik, Espen1; Skoglund, Anders1; Saeterbakken, Atle H.1 Effects of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Activation in the Lat Pull-Down, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: April 2014 - Volume 28 - Issue 4 - p 1135-1142
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Lloyd, Rhodri S. PhD, CSCS*D1; Oliver, Jon L. PhD2; Meyers, Robert W. MSc2; Moody, Jeremy A. PhD2; Stone, Michael H. PhD, FNSCA3 Long-Term Athletic Development and Its Application to Youth Weightlifting, Strength and Conditioning Journal: August 2012 - Volume 34 - Issue 4 - p 55-66
JR PRIETO-ROMERO, CSCS
JR is the head trainer at G3 Sports and Fitness and Crossfit Purefire in Corvallis, Oregon and he is also the owner and ceo of JR Strength and fitness, his online training business. He graduated from Oregon state univeristy with a degree in exercise and sports science and has since worked with a diverse population from youth athletes to senior citizens. He leads group exercise classes, works with personal training clients, and trains the top youth athletes in the area.
Peterson, Mark D1; Dodd, Daniel J1; Alvar, Brent A1; Rhea, Matthew R2; Favre, Mike3 Undulation Training for Development of Hierarchical Fitness and Improved Firefighter Job Performance, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: September 2008 - Volume 22 - Issue 5 - p 1683-1695
