Strength training is built upon core principles. One of these is the principle of variation, which highlights the importance of introducing change to your routine to avoid plateaus, keep your body challenged, and ensure continuous growth.
However, it’s not about randomly switching exercises. There is a structured approach to variation that balances between the other principles like progressive overload, specificity, recovery, and consistency.
Table of Contents
- The Importance of Variation
- Why Not Train at Random?
- How Long Before Beginners Should Introduce Variation?
- Variation and Progressive Overload
- Common Mistakes When Applying Variation
The Importance of Variation
Variation is essential because the human body is incredibly efficient at adapting to repetitive activities. When you do the same exercises over and over, your muscles and nervous system will become so familiar with the movements that they no longer stimulate growth in the same way.
By introducing variations in your workout routine, you can continue to challenge your body, forcing it to adapt and grow stronger. This doesn’t always mean variation in exercises, though. It can also mean changing the number of reps, sets, rest times, or even the tempo of your lifts. Each adjustment targets different aspects of strength, endurance, or power, to keep progressing.
Why Not Train at Random?
While variation is crucial, random training without purpose can be detrimental. The principle of specificity reminds us that our training must align with our goals. For instance, if your primary goal is to build strength, throwing in a bunch of endurance exercises will dilute the effectiveness of your program.
Random variation will stop your body from developing in a specific way because the necessary adaptations can’t take root before you’re already onto something new.
Also, switching exercises too often doesn’t work together with the principle of progressive overload. You need to do the same exercises long enough for your muscles to adapt to them before changing the number of reps or the weight.
How Long Before Beginners Should Introduce Variation?
Beginners benefit the most from sticking to a consistent program for a longer period, usually at least 8-12 weeks. This allows their bodies to master basic movements, develop proper form, and build foundational strength. Too much variation too early could cause confusion, poor technique, and slow the progress.
After this initial phase, beginners can start introducing variation gradually. This might mean slightly adjusting the exercises, such as switching from a barbell bench press to dumbbell presses. It could also mean adding accessory work to the big 5 lifts. For example, adding leg curls and leg extensions to the squats, or adding tricep extensions and chest flies to your bench press.
Variation and Progressive Overload
There are several ways to introduce variation while still adhering to the principle of progressive overload:
- Exercise variation: Change up the exercises targeting the same muscle groups, such as alternating between squats and lunges for leg development.
- Rep and set variation: Shift between higher reps with lower weight for endurance, and lower reps with heavier weight for strength.
- Weight variation: Gradually increase the weight you lift to stimulate muscle growth and strength gains.
- Tempo variation: You can slow down your reps to work on muscle control or speed them up to develop explosiveness.
Each type of variation needs to be done systematically, always ensuring that progressive overload is still the primary driver of your workouts. For instance, increasing the weight is a simple form of variation that ensures your muscles continue to adapt.
Common Mistakes When Applying Variation
- Changing too often: Switching exercises too frequently prevents muscles from adapting, which stunts progress. The principle of consistency means sticking with a certain approach long enough to see results before making adjustments.
- Random selection of exercises: Not all exercises are equally effective for your goals. Picking random exercises may not serve your specific training objectives. The principle of specificity means that the variations you choose should be related to your goals.
- Ignoring progressive overload: Variation does not mean replacing the principle of progressive overload. It’s important that changes still push your muscles beyond their current capacity.
- Neglecting form: In the pursuit of variation, some people may prioritize switching exercises without paying attention to proper form, leading to potential injury.
In summary, the principle of variation is a powerful tool in strength training when applied correctly. It prevents plateaus, keeps workouts interesting, and stimulates continued muscle growth. However, it must always be balanced with the other principles of strength training.