How Variations of the Same Workout can help you Progress…
If you’ve read my blogs before or know me through social media or in person, you know I’m BIG on variations. It isn’t always necessary, but a lot of the time that slight change will greatly benefit you. Let’s run through some examples.
Say you’re benching. There are endless amounts of variations you can do. From barbell flat, incline and decline to dumbbells to smith machine to different bars. There’s a crazy amount of variations so how do you know which is best? Well if you’re trying to get better at flat bench, you will mainly stick with that. However, the variations will help strengthen different parts of your muscles which may actually help you in a flat bench.
For example, if you decide to use dumbbells instead of a barbell your hands are now separate and not locked into one bar. Therefore, if one side is stronger than the other it will show! It may not show on a regular bar but you can’t get away with that with dumbbells. They are less stable, forcing your muscles to work a bit harder.
Another example is if you do a smith machine bench. The smith machine is locked into one track so it completely takes away the stabilization factor, the exact opposite of dumbbells. This is good for when you are alone without a spotter or you want to work on pushing a bit of extra weight. By not having to worry about the path of the bar, you will likely be able to leverage more weight and allow your body to get the feeling of this for the first time.
Variations apply to all workouts. Think about how many grips and accessories there are at the gym. By changing your hand placement on any given lat pull down, row, chest press, shoulder press, tricep extension, bicep curl etc. will change the effect on the muscle group you’re working. Even the approach you take matters just as much. Arguably more!
By varying your pace of reps meaning slow negatives, explosive, pulsating etc. with change the workout and stimulate the muscle in a different way.
Change your variations and get results. I’m a prime example of this. You don;t have to over do it and do it constantly but regularly think about how you can slightly alter a workout to get a different strain on the muscle.
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