In this first of a four-part series, we’re going to explore the benefits of adding variety to an exercise. A great starting point to this is determining your goals. Is your intent to increase your 1 rep max or continue to get stronger on a certain exercise? Or, are you doing it for general health benefits that you’ve read about? Here are a few focal points when it comes to performing an exercise:
Max Strength & Power: When it comes to increasing maximal strength and power, focus on extremely heavy weight and move it as fast as possible. Knowing this, you can’t expect to lift an extremely heavy weight 8-10 reps per set. If so, then you may need to redefine extremely heavy 😉. With these goals in mind, perform an exercise for 1-5 reps for 3-5 sets. The weight should represent your true potential of lifting the weight for the prescribed reps.
General Strength: Generally, most people that exercise regularly and aspire to be as healthy as possible in all facets approach their exercises with general strength goals in mind. For example, an individual’s goal(s) may include but are not limited to increasing muscle mass, maintaining strength and not seeing the natural decline with age, and feeling like you got an exhausting workout due to the challenging resistance from weights or equipment. With this goal in mind, perform an exercise for 6-10 reps and 2-4 sets.
Bodybuilding: This goal is what most people envision in their minds to gain from exercise. However, it may not be the approach they are taking. This goal will train you to gain increased muscle mass, some increases in strength, and great symmetry across your body in regards to muscular definition and size - essentially, not just having massive biceps and toothpicks for legs 😊. With this goal in mind, perform an exercise for 10-15 reps and 3-4 sets.
Muscular Endurance: This approach is what most beginners tend to gravitate towards because it does not require heavy weights and coaches you to perform a lot of repetitions, making you feel like you’re doing more work. However, more work does not always equal more repetitions. As we discussed above, it can very well equal more weight, which in return would result in less reps. Thus, it all depends on your goal. This approach coaches you on building stamina through strength training and transfers over well to physical activity, outdoor hobbies, and sport when it comes to being fit. With this goal in mind, perform an exercise for 15+ reps and 2-3 sets.
Check back next week for Part 2 of our four-part series on adding variety to an exercise, where we will explore unilateral vs bilateral training!