If you have been in the iron game for a long time then you have probably made some mistakes along the way, I know I have! 1-2 years ago I remember making one of the biggest mistakes one could possibly make as far as getting more optimal strength gains and putting on muscle is concerned:
NOT ROTATING LIFTS EVERY 3 WEEKS
You see, due to the biological law of accommodation if you stay with the same lift for too long then you will stall. I guarantee you that if you just ego lift and try to get past that point then that’s when regression, injuries and/or extremely slow progress will start to take place and at that point you are pretty much just wasting your time. Although I must mention that this only applies to intermediate and advanced so basically if you are a novice lifter then this information will only be relevant when you are more experienced.
QUICK STORY
About 1-2 years ago I remember making the Flat DB Bench my main horizontal pressing exercise for about a month and then a month later I made my main chest exercise the barbel Incline press. I was able to work up to some decent weights for 3×5 and I stuck to it for about a month or slightly a bit more. So far it doesn’t sound so bad, but after I finished my month with the incline, I then decided to see how my flat barbel bench was doing because I was curious to see how good it was considering the fact that my incline number had gone up in the past few weeks. I remember my first time coming back to the incline I basically did x weight for 5 reps, but the problem was that I forgot about the rule of rotating lifts so I was just grinding out my bench for months on end. Yep, then after a few months I was only able to add 10lb to my bench which is actually terrible.
In other words, I had to learn the hard way and it wasn’t until that moment that I understood the importance of rotating exercises. When I say rotating exercises I am not only talking about benching, I am talking about Squatting, Deadlifting and horizontal pulling exercises too.
The good news was that after I had learned my lesson I was then rotating all of my lifts every 3 weeks which was keeping everything fresh and the progress was more consistent than ever before. I also packed on some new size because different exercises would shock my nervous system in a different way which was a good change of pace, but the most important thing at the end of the day was that I was adding more weight to my lifts.
For example:
For Deadlifts you might do a 3 week cycle of conventional followed by 3 weeks of sumo Deadlifts followed by 3 weeks of deficit or trap bar Deadlifts. This way you are reaping the benefits of different Deadlift variations out there and not only reaping the benefits of the conventional Deadlift alone because quite frankly that would be ignorant because the other variations could help you get stronger as well. Every exercise is just another tool in the toolbox and you use the right tool for the right job.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO CONSTANTLY ROTATE EXERCISES EVERY 3 WEEKS?
If you go from flat bench for 3 weeks to incline bench to 3 weeks to decline bench for 3 weeks and you just keep hitting PR’s throughout the months then i guarantee you that once you get back to the flat bench that it will be stronger. It will be stronger because first off you will lower your chances of accumulating overuse injuries from doing the same movement over and over again. Secondly, minimalist training doesn’t work and when you pass the beginner phase you will need variety to make progress, the whole “flat bench more to become a better flat bencher” mentality does not work for the most part. Thirdly it keeps things fun and interesting because you will literally be hitting PR’s throughout the year while trying new exercises out as well, it gets boring to constantly;y be doing the same lifts over and over. Some of the strongest lifters in the world train this way too such as the guys as Westside barbel club, these people rotate lifts very frequently and make a lot of progress from month to month.
SHOULD I ONLY ROTATE MY MAIN LIFTS OR MY MAIN LIFTS + ASSISTANCE/ACCESSORY WORK AS WELL?
If you aren’t a novice then I would say yes why not? If you can make progress on your main lifts and assistance work all throughout the year then you will be getting stronger and that’s a fact.
For example, the first few weeks you might have used the DB bench as your main assistance lift, but 3 weeks later you could make the weighted dip your main assistance lift for your chest work. Who knows, the next assistance lift for your main bench variation might even be a DB floor press or something of that nature. I am just giving you some examples, but hopefully you get my drift.
Another interesting thing to consider is that there are a lot of strong bodybuilders out there and coincidentally they are also big advocates of high exercise selection by frequently switching up their lifts.
CONCLUSION:
In the end what you have to understand is that minimalist training will only get you so far and high exercise selection will reign supreme because it is a concurrent style that has been proven to work worldwide.