Does doing the same workout lead to the same results? Are there benefits to switching up your gym routine? Personally, I switch it up every so often because I get bored, and I typically want to shift my goals to something more specific, like building more leg strength, improving my balance, or toning a certain area.
Most fitness pros recommend changing your exercise routine from time to time, and some people tend to change things around more often than others. Is there such a thing as switching it up too much? Researchers decided to explore just that in an interesting study, and the short answer is, yes, switching it up too frequently can actually be detrimental to your goals and progress. It turns out that a more strategic and structured approach to exercise variation is best. Let’s dive into the research.
The study
In a study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, researchers asked: Does varying resistance training promote superior muscle hypertrophy and strength gains? How does exercise variation affect muscle growth and power? The researchers identified eight studies that met their criteria involving 241 young men.
The study results: The benefits of exercise variation
The researchers concluded the following:
- Varying exercise selection can influence muscle growth and strength gains.
- Changing up exercises does help to build muscle and strength, but how you vary the exercises matters.
- A degree of systematic variation where you switch up your exercises in a more planned and systematic way is beneficial and can enhance regional hypertrophic muscle adaptations and maximize dynamic strength.
- Excessive, random variation and excessive rotation of different exercises (i.e., high frequency of change) could compromise muscular gains and have the opposite effect, which is counterproductive to your fitness goals.
- Performing different exercises that provide a “redundant stimulus” could also hinder muscular adaptations.
The researchers stated that “exercise variation should be approached systematically with a focus on applied anatomical and biomechanical constructs.”
What’s the best way to switch up your routine?
An example of a planned and systematic way to switch up your workout routine would be to choose different movements that target slightly different parts of your muscles. You could also work through different angles to improve muscle growth in certain areas and boost strength.
The takeaway
The takeaway from this study is that changing your exercises too randomly or too often doesn’t give your body enough time to adapt and get stronger, so it can actually have the opposite effect, hampering your progress. Exercise variety is a good idea, but it’s best when it’s intentional and based on anatomy and movement principles, rather than just constantly switching things up for variety’s sake.
