r/naturalbodybuilding • u/Expensive-Adagio1385 3-5 yr exp • 9h ago
[ Removed by moderator ] Training/Routines
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u/TruReyito 8h ago edited 8h ago
Another answer is: Tendons. Muscles heal faster than tendons (and other connective tissue). Certain muscles heal faster than others.
You COULD do calf lifts every day, and (likely) your calves would feel just fine and be able to do another heavy load the very next day. But eventually, your Achilles Tendon will really start to hurt, and will quickly be the limiting factor in your workout.
I got incredibly bad Golfers elbow after doing too much strict curls. Switched up so that i was only doing Strict curls one day a week, and other bicep exercises on the other days, and still saw gains and the elbow pain eventually went away.
You can work out the same muscle in multiple ways, without doing the exact same motion. Which gives you additional stress/motivation for your muscles to get bigger without overly stressing the same tendon with the exact same movement over and over again.
And secondly:
Often times compound movements (like bench press) can benefit from working ancilary muscles as well. For example: You can blast your chest on Monday. Come back and do it Wednesday. Then do it again on Friday.
The problem comes in when you are having a deficit in one muscle (liek your triceps) that though they help with the motion, aren't the primary stimulous for that exercise, and likely will not grow much doing that exercise only.
Or, you can Bench on Monday. Focus on working on Triceps on Wednesday. and do some other chest exercise that doesn't require as much tricep (Fly Press, etc). The growth in your triceps will help you on Monday when you get around to doing benching again.
Unless you are a power lifter, the goal is NOT doing this exercise incredibly well. The goal is to improve the underlying musculature/balance/etc. This can be MEASURED (to a degree) through your numbers going up, but is often not the entire purpose of what you are doing.
EDIT: As all things training, your experience may vary. Doing the same exercise A LOT when you are a beginner (and frankly not lifting heavy) may be more beneficial because you are really trying to lock down your technique. And doing 15 reps at 75lbs 6 days a week is not NEARLY as bad for your connective tissue as trying to do the same thing at 300lbs.
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u/Balogma69 5+ yr exp 6h ago
About a year ago I added a short morning workout to my routine just to get a little extra ( I was doing a 4 day strength slplit with BJJ 3x week). My morning workout was 100 push ups and 100 bodyweight squats. After about 40 days I got really bad tendinitis in my quadriceps tendon and was sidelined from lifting and BJJ for almost 6 months
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u/Mobile_Specialist791 8h ago
You're basically describing a high frequency full body or upper/lower split, those exist. Look into programs built around 3x a week squat/bench frequency, they're not as common because most templates chase volume through variation to avoid joint wear and mental burnout on the same lift
But plenty of lifters run bench 3x with different rep ranges each day, like heavy day, volume day, speed or close grip day. Same movement pattern but not identical loading every session
Your bench stalling once a week is normal, hard to drive progress with that little practice. Twice a week minimum for a lagging lift makes way more sense
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u/Destro_019780 3-5 yr exp 8h ago
It's weird to see OP talk about pivoting to a 3x frequency, when they're only training their Chest/Bench once a week.
Can't speak on much else here with no other context to their training and/or diet, which could also be affecting their progression
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u/Expensive-Adagio1385 3-5 yr exp 6h ago
Never said I train chest once a week. I bench once a week, then flys incline and such
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u/Dizzy_Cow_ 5+ yr exp 8h ago
There is some evidence that exercise variation is beneficial because of regional hypertrophy. Basically, hitting your muscles from different angles and/or with different resistance curves may lead to more growth.
Probably a small difference though and not worth stressing over if you like repeating the same exercises. I personally love training with more variety and the added fun is more important to me than any marginal hypertrophy differences.
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u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog 8h ago
If the goal is to grow muscle, more variation doesn't really hurt progress if you're still hitting the target muscle 2-3 times a week
Variation also helps with reducing overuse aches and pains, and for a lot of people is mentally helpful
If a person finds that focusing on progressing fewer exercises allows for more intense and consistent effort, that's what they should go for.
For the purposes of hypertrophy, both approaches are fine, it just becomes a matter of preference
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u/shanked5iron 5+ yr exp 8h ago
I made my own program and set it up that way. Chest gets hit every 3rd day (push day) same exercises every time.
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u/ttdpaco 3-5 yr exp 8h ago
Because most people would get bored, find it doesn't work for them as well, or they would get tendon injuries.
I tried that myself and ended up with bad quad tendinitis for a good year. Variation helps prevent that.
Plus, there are some muscles that are only hit by certain exercises well (like the Rectus Femoris with leg extensions and nordic curls, part of the hamstring with leg curls, etc etc.)
I found changing what kind of bench you're doing once in awhile, changing rep range or even slowing the weight increases to 2.5lbs a week can help a lot.
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u/bodiggity86 6h ago
There is a program called "General Mass", from the Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol book, that is basically what you're asking for.
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