Do I need to keep changing my exercises?
Some people vary their exercises—even daily—with the belief that this creates “muscle confusion” and, as a result, leads to more microtears.
First, it’s worth clarifying—and explaining this in simple terms—that you can change your training program while keeping the same exercises (or at least most of them). What do I mean? By changing the stimuli (metabolic or tension-based) and incorporating advanced techniques such as drop sets, rest-pause, etc.
There are several different types of stimuli you can use to get in a good workout.
But back to the topic…
In one study, participants performed 5 sets of 6 repetitions of incline bench biceps curls. After 7 days, one group performed the same exercise, while the other performed Scott bench biceps curls, also for 5 sets of 6 repetitions.
The markers of muscle damage, assessed for 4 days after the session, showed no differences between the groups!
Conclusion
Randomly varying exercises doesn’t seem to “confuse” the muscles when the goal is hypertrophy. Sticking to a good training program as closely as possible is important, even for tracking your progress (increasing weights, etc.). In future training programs, changing (some) exercises is important mainly for motivation.
Focus on the basics
The usual basics, the fantastic four… barbell squats, lunges, leg press, stiff-leg deadlifts… No mystery to it!
Remember: it’s important to understand that all multi-joint movements, such as squats, single-leg lunges, and leg presses, work both the back and front of the thigh (quadriceps), as well as the glutes! Put simply: whenever you use a compound exercise to train your “legs,” you’re also training your glutes… and vice versa.
There are variations you can use to emphasize one area or another, but it’s not possible to completely isolate the muscles mentioned when doing these multi-joint exercises!
And training your LOWER BODY on consecutive days will NOT bring any benefits!
