Should You Change Exercises Often to Build Muscle Faster?

Some coaches recommend you change exercises often to build muscle faster. Is this really needed? After all, olympic weightlifters and powerlifters build a lot of muscle performing mostly the same exercises over and over.

I am aware of only two studies that compared changing exercises often to sticking with the same routine.

• In a 12-week study (Fonseca et al. 2014), beginners saw their quadriceps cross-sectional area increase in similarly, regardless of exercise variation. However, groups with variation (3 leg exercises) saw all heads of their quadriceps hypertrophy, whereas groups without variation (1 leg exercise) did not. It’s unclear if differences were due to variation over time or simply performing 3 vs 1 exercise.
• In an 8-week study (Baz-Valle et al. 2019), quadriceps thickness increased in both groups, but only the group sticking with the same exercises saw their vastus intermedius grow significantly. On the other hand, the group who changed exercises often had increased motivation to train.

With only two studies lasting 8-12 weeks (and one with untrained subjects), I believe it’s fair to say the evidence is lacking. In cases like this, we’re left with anecdotal evidence and expert opinion. Let’s see what the experts say…

Expert Opinion on Changing Exercises Often to Build Muscle

At various points over the past year, I discussed the topic with Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Lyle McDonald in Facebook groups. Here’s what they said:

“I think it’s safe to assume that using at least 2-3 exercise per muscle would probably lead to more total hypertrophy than just one exercise, when accounting for regional hypertrophy. However, whether actually varying exercises is beneficial or not is pretty speculative (both perspectives). My assumption is that the difference would be small in the short-term, and near-zero in the long term.” -Greg Nuckols

“Having more variety and changing exercises more frequently aren’t the same thing. Yes a bodybuilder should do more lifts than a powerlifter but they still want to master their exercises to get the most out of them. Keeping your main lifts in more or less all the time but rotating in new, easy to learn single joint exercises and is what I recommend.” -Eric Helms

“If all you ever did was pick a set of movements that worked for you and did nothing but cycle instensity […], by the time you get strong enough you would be as big as you were EVER going to get. You needn’t ever change a single exercise once you have a set that fits you well and lets yo uprogress safely over time without injury.” -Lyle McDonald

My Opinion on Changing Exercises

In my opinion:

1. You should start with a core set of exercises and master those first
2. Once you master your core lifts, add new exercises in rotation
3. Over time, aim to master 2-3 exercises for each muscle group, training them in rotation
4. You probably don’t need more variety or to change exercises more often than that

In conclusion, there’s some consensus that 2-3 exercises per muscle group is probably all you need. Many olympic weightlifters don’t even use that many and become supremely strong and nimble. More exercises, and you end up not training each often enough to get really strong, thus giving your muscles a solid training stimulus. For each muscle, better to have 3 exercises you’re strong in that really create growth than 6 exercises you’re average in that create average growth.

This is the framework we apply in Dr. Muscle. It gets you in shape fast, like a personal trainer. Every time you complete a set, your program updates to match your progress, and speed up future progress. And it changes your exercises automatically for you, just when you need to. Get your invitation.