Constantly Varied or Consistently Varied?

Variety gets a lot of love in the training world.

People don’t want to do the same thing over and over. They want new and different. It’s why so many people program hop, gym hop and change diets, they’re chasing novelty.

I get it, too. Variety is nice, it keeps us more engaged. When we do too much variety just for the sake of it though, we’re missing opportunities to improve, to adapt to the training stimulus.

Instead of always making our programs different, just to be different, we look for small ways to consistently add variety. Chances are you’re going to goblet squat on Monday. Sometimes it’s high reps, sometimes it’s low reps, sometimes it’s heavy and sometimes it’s with a tempo or a pause. The movement is consistent. This lets us continually challenge this fundamental movement pattern. The sets, reps, load and volume however, can change week to week to provide a different focus, and different goal for each squat session.

Variety is fun, but we’re also in this for movement mastery, and if you’re always hopping from one thing to the next, you'll never build the proper strength, skill and awareness. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain