Does varying exercises for the same muscle group promote greater gains?

Brandon Hyatt, MS, CSCS
Dec. 04, 2024

Some people routinely use a variety of exercises in their program to enhance muscular adaptations, while others stick to the same exercises. However, whether changing it up often offers advantages over doing the same thing remains to be determined. Let’s examine the effects of exercise variation on muscle hypertrophy and strength.

How Can Exercise Variation Be Achieved?

Of the potentially tens of thousands of resistance training exercises available, most can be boiled down to a handful of movements or muscle groups, sometimes referred to as “splits” or “movement patterns”. For example, most exercises can be simply sorted into the following movement patterns:

• Push
• Pull
• Squat
• Hinge
• Lunge
• Rotate
• Carry/gait

From this small list and the power of “variation,” nearly unlimited exercise variation can be achieved. How can exercise variation be achieved, then? With all the strategies to create an exercise variation, a movement such as a push can be done in endless combinations. Exercise variation can be achieved in several ways, including:

• Multi-joint vs single-joint: Dumbbell chest press vs cable chest fly
• Bilateral vs unilateral: Barbell row vs single arm dumbbell row
• Machines vs free-weights vs bands vs bodyweight, etc: Machine hip thrust vs barbell hip thrust
• Closed kinetic chain vs open kinetic chain: Pull-ups vs lat pull-downs
• Joint angles: Incline bench press versus decline bench press
• Grip or foot position: Closed grip vs open grip OR wide stance vs split stance
• Range of motion: Long-length partial bicep curls vs full ROM bicep curls
• Tempo: Fast, slow, pause, quarter reps

Why is Exercise Variation Important?

Exercise variations allow nearly any individual to exercise within their ability level and work towards their goal, no matter their skill level or barriers. Someone may have a previous injury, chronic condition, or conditioning level that makes it hard to do a certain exercise variation. Still, with some modifications, a similar exercise variation can be selected. 

On a hypertrophy level, research has shown that different exercise variations can create regional muscular adaptations, such as the distal end of the bicep (6, 8). However, different exercises (not just slight variations) also create regional muscular adaptations (2). This leads to the question, “Does changing up exercises add benefit, or is it redundant? (5).

The principle of training specificity states that you should train in the specific way you want to improve. So, does variation stray from specificity? Related and accessory exercises show a transfer of strength (5). This means there is likely a range of acceptable variation while still adhering to the principle of specificity.

Research’s Recommendation On Changing Up Exercises

Some degree of variation seems to enhance hypertrophy and strength, whereas excessive, random variation may compromise muscular gains (5). One study found an advantage in strength gains with exercise variation compared with a fixed exercise routine (4). However, two other studies showed no difference between the two routines (1, 7).

If exercise rotation is too frequent (every training session), prolonged fatigue may occur because of the new training stimulus, which may prolong recovery. Furthermore, switching up the exercise variation too often will lead to less volume of a specific exercise, resulting in a lower load lifted (3).

In simpler terms, the impact of variation on muscle growth likely forms an inverted U-shape curve, where benefits increase up to a certain level before negative effects start to occur beyond that point. (5 Nunes).

One study compared a group of trained males using the same exercises with a group that varied the exercises (3). Both groups used equated weekly volume. Results showed that both groups had increased dynamic strength, with the “same exercise” group having slightly higher isometric strength. Also, the “same exercise” group lifted an overall higher load.

Conclusion

So, should you change the exercises in your routine or keep them the same for optimal strength and hypertrophy? As long as “changing it up” does not stray too far from the specific training objective, doing variations of an exercise should be fine. Also, just sticking to the same exercises without variation should be fine.

For recreational lifters, it comes down to more important things, such as training the right amount of volume, rep ranges, and intensity. So, whether the recreational lifter uses the same exercises or not should not matter too much as long as the training principles above are being met.

For an athlete or competitive lifter, there may be some advantages to switching it up, such as specific regional hypertrophy or putting out maximal volume-load. 

In the table below, we’ll break down the pros and cons to let you decide for yourself.

Sources

1. Baz-Valle E, Schoenfeld BJ, Torres-Unda J, Santos-Concejero J, Balsalobre-Fernandez C. The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PLoS One 14: e0226989, 2019.
2. Brandão, Lucas, et al. "Varying the order of combinations of single-and multi-joint exercises differentially affects resistance training adaptations." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 34.5 (2020): 1254-1263.
3. Costa BDV, Kassiano W, Nunes JP, Kunevaliki G, Castro-E-Souza P, Sugihara Junior P, Fernandes RR, Cyrino ES, Fortes LS. Does Varying Resistance Exercises for the Same Muscle Group Promote Greater Strength Gains? J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Nov 1;36(11):3032-3039. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004042. Epub 2022 Apr 27. PMID: 35481889.
4. Fonseca RM, Roschel H, Tricoli V, et al. Changes in exercises are more effective than in loading schemes to improve muscle strength. J Strength Cond Res 28: 3085–3092, 2014.
5. Kassiano W, Nunes JP, Costa B, Ribeiro AS, Schoenfeld BJ, Cyrino ES. Does Varying Resistance Exercises Promote Superior Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains? A Systematic Review. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Jun 1;36(6):1753-1762. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004258. Epub 2022 Apr 1. PMID: 35438660.
6. Nunes JP, Costa BDV, Kassiano W, Kunevaliki G, Castro-E-Souza P, Rodacki ALF, Fortes LS, Cyrino ES. Different Foot Positioning During Calf Training to Induce Portion-Specific Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy. J Strength Cond Res. 2020 Aug;34(8):2347-2351. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003674. PMID: 32735428.
7. Rauch JT, Ugrinowitsch C, Barakat CI, et al. Auto-regulated exercise selection training regimen produces small increases in lean body mass and maximal strength adaptations in strength-trained individuals. J Strength Cond Res 34: 1133–1140, 2020.
8. Sato, Shigeru, et al. "Elbow joint angles in elbow flexor unilateral resistance exercise training determine its effects on muscle strength and thickness of trained and non-trained arms." Frontiers in physiology 12 (2021): 734509.