บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ How often should you repeat exercises for better muscle growth?

on my end if there's like weird silences here. Andrea: we did actually discuss like a timeline a little bit. so I told her I was not in a hurry to compete again. I would rather next time I compete look dramatically different, better, versus like try and rush back. and 'cause she said we could do like fall twenty twenty seven or wait until twenty twenty eight. So we're gonna wait for 2028. I would rather have more time to build and have to do like a mini cut or cleanup or something somewhere in between versus if you think about fall 2027, that's only a year away. I haven't truly even started building yet because I haven't gotten my labs. And so I would be building for maybe six months and then start to diet again for prep. Just not that much time unless you're like very very genetically gifted. So I'm gonna take the extra time and it'll probably be spring, I assume, or maybe like around the same time, summer maybe. so it'll have it'll have been about two years in between shows whenever I do it again. Jeremiah: That's cool to have a timeline though. I agree. Pretty would be a pretty short Andrea: Yeah. Jeremiah: turnaround for twenty twenty seven, but I mean twenty twenty eight you can get a lot done between now and then. Andrea: Yeah, bodybuilding is so crazy. And not not just bodybuilding, but even just like whenever I'm mapping out physique timelines for somebody, it just makes time go so quickly. Cause you're thinking about like the time that a fat loss phase needs to be and the amount of time that you need to spend building. It's like, okay, well, we're we're already thinking two years ahead and that doesn't feel like very much time at all. So it it is nice to have that kind of in mind though. Jeremiah: It is I've thought that with a lot of clients lately where I've had a lot of people who like hit the year mark and it's like because I'm always gonna be very honest as we all are about here's what I realistically think it'll take to get to X. And a lot of times it's like we're laying out like a year and a half timeline or longer sometimes. And it's Andrea: Mm-hmm. Jeremiah: crazy how many people have like, my god, I can't believe it's already been a year like since I started with you. but it it does just really fly by. Cool. Well, Andrea: Mm. Jeremiah: I'm excited to hear that. And I am excited to hear how your building phase goes once we really get kicked off in it. Natalie, I won't call you by your screen name today. Phyllison, what's going on with you? Jeremiah Is Fat: I'm still in my cleanup phase. I live here now. So that's what's going on. Yep, just still pushing. Jeremiah: How much are you down now? What are you weighing? Jeremiah Is Fat: I just hit the one thirty eight. and I started at like one fifty-three. Jeremiah: Okay. You guys pulled back quite a bit. This has really turned into quite the cleanup. Jeremiah Is Fat: Well, I don't You know, like never know what your stage weight is gonna be next time you strip it all down and get on

stage. I hope and pray and wish on a star that my stage weight will be heavier, of course. So I'd like to think that I'm like not going to get quite as far down as I did last time. I my first show, my fasted weight show day was like one twenty-five, my second show was like I like one twenty-one point eight or something like that. But Jeremiah: Okay. Jeremiah Is Fat: so I mean so realistically let's let's plan on like one twenty five at the probably like heaviest. Jeremiah: Yeah, you're not far. Jeremiah Is Fat: No, and I was thinking about that earlier today 'cause it just like You know the one forties kinda like took forever to get through. I mean not really. Like I was dropping pretty steadily, but it just felt like it did. and then I was thinking about it earlier today and I like I I keep in my mind I'm like I'm still twenty pounds up from stage and then this morning I was like, not really actually. Like not really. I'm a lot more I'm a lot closer, which is a good spot to be in, 'cause I don't wanna have to do another like thirty or forty pound prep. But then the idea will be of Course to like run with this and grow again. So next big push up I would like not to get quite as heavy, and it's not because I actually care about the number on the scale or body composition. I actually am quite comfortable a bit heavier. It's just the amount of work on the other end of that for a prep is all. Jeremiah: Yeah. For sure. Jeremiah Is Fat: so that that's all I'm trying to stay mindful of. but I know like he Dom does a lot of like open preps and like open fat loss phases where like I don't really have a timeline. It just you know, I'll Jeremiah: Mm-hmm. Jeremiah Is Fat: I'll go until he's pulls me back or pushes me forward and we have like a very loose dialogue around it, but I know with this one he wants to see a bit more midsection definition, little bit leaner in the low back in particular and those details are for sure starting to come through. But in my mind they're not there yet. So I and I mean as much as I just want to get this over with so I can get back to growing, I definitely see the value in taking this just a little bit further to extend out that runway for building. Jeremiah: Yeah. With as deep into it as you already are. Classic DOM would also like a hey dude, let's actually just compete in November. Jeremiah Is Fat: Part of me is like with like nationals coming up in December, part of me is like surprised. I I don't think that would be the case, but I yeah. Like I I would I'm already here, so I would like to like peel off as much as I Hel healthily can. Like without compromising biofeedback, without like training completely falling apart. I'm already like so close. It's like let's just push this because I know it'll it'll make it better on the other end. Jeremiah: For sure. No. That's cool. I'm I'm excited to see what you look like at like wherever you push down to. It'll be cool to compare that to like on stage or at least have a like hey

ten pounds up, here's how I look because I imagine that's improved quite a bit. Jeremiah Is Fat: Yeah, and it'll also be really informative, I think, in terms of lagging body parts, imbalances and and just like areas to focus on for a final last push. Jeremiah: For sure. You seem like you've added at least a couple inches to your Terries though. Jeremiah Is Fat: Trying. Desperately trying. Yeah. Jeremiah: Come come way up. Danny, what's up with you? Dani: it's kind of not, not much to be honest. We're nine weeks out, 9.5 weeks out. we didn't change my calories from last week, so I'm still sat at 2200 calories and I'm in that, in that classic, classic phase of every bodybuilder's journey of I don't have enough time and I'm not going to be lean enough. That's, that's where I am. Jeremiah: Okay, sounds like a fun place to be. You said you're at twenty two hundred still? Dani: That's great. Yeah, still at 2200. I'm at about 141. the old woman's cycle is lurking. So I think that's influencing things and that drives me crazy as it does with most women, even though we know that this happens all the time, but it still drives you crazy just with how much that influences digestion, water retention, inflammation, especially because I do skin fold measurements as well. And so having that bit of inflammation like right under the skin and it's like why do you look puffy? It's like well hormones, wonderful hormones. Jeremiah: Can't relate, dude. I'm not gonna lie. Dani: Yeah. Jeremiah: do you guys do how often do you guys do the skin fold knife? Dani: once a week. Jeremiah: Okay, okay. Do you you you use that with some clients as well, correct? Dani: Yeah, with some clients, but. Skin folds are hard with clients just because sometimes clients come in too inflamed and it's actually painful or impossible to pinch them. And so, yeah, so it really depends on the client. Or maybe we just do a handful of sites where we can and take it from there. But also that's also useful knowledge for them to know, hey, you're so inflamed, I can't pinch you, which is not a good thing. Jeremiah: Yeah, yeah, no, very interesting. I used to use it from time to time with clients in person, but I haven't in quite a while. but for sure an interesting data set. we should talk more about how you use that in the future. cool. But nine point five weeks out as a whole sounds like in a challenging phase right now, but I know you've I mean, how Dani: Yeah. Jeremiah: many shows have you done? Like five? How many times have you competed? Dani: What pro shows or? Jeremiah: Or how many how many preps have you done? Dani: I don't know, three, I did three as an amateur and then I did, I think, six as a pro. I think Jeremiah: Okay. Dani: this most recent one, Oregon, must have been my seventh. I think I've done 10 shows in total. Jeremiah: Okay. Damn, you've done you squeezed a lot into a fairly short time frame there. Dani: Yeah, so when you guys talk about like, know, gonna take a year, over a year

to build, I'm like, wow. Like, this is my, I guess my problem, I'm so. and I'm not patient, which has been my biggest hurdle has been just really taking the time to grow. A lot of time people will take time between getting their pro card and their pro debut and will take a year, a year and a half out just to grow. I didn't do that. I was like, let's go, let's get some feedback. Let's just Jeremiah Is Fat: Mm. Dani: see how we stack up against the big girls. and we did okay, so. Jeremiah Is Fat: How much of that is you versus your coach though? Like i do you go to your coach and say like, Hey, like New Year, I'm like what what shows are we looking at this year? Or is he has he kind of ever been like, Hey, like, do you wanna take some time to grow? Like what's that dialogue like? Dani: It's usually more, I guess, my lead with what shows I've been wanting to do. So my pro debut, I did October of 2020. three after I had won my pro card in May of 2023. And so that was that was literally just to get some feedback. And then after that show, I decided to do the Toronto Pro and the New York Pro. So I was like, right, let's go to the biggest shows and let's Jeremiah Is Fat: Yeah. Dani: just see how we do. But also those are just awesome like bucket bucket list as a bodybuilder to be able to do. Jeremiah Is Fat: I remember I watched your pro debut. I I watched the New York pro that you did. I remember. 'Cause I knew you. Dani: That was tough. was a small fry. I was a small fry on that stage. I was like, my God. Never felt so small in my Jeremiah Is Fat: Big show. Dani: life. Yeah, big show. Jeremiah: All that said though, I mean, you are a pro, you've won a pro show, so it seems like things have worked out okay for you. Dani: well, is the thing. It's like when I get in my head, it's all like, right. Trust the process. It's it's the same body. It's a different prep. It's the same coach, the same methodology and just OK, no matter how I'm feeling, just tick the boxes. Do do what you can. Follow the system. Follow the plan as best you can and go from there. Jeremiah: Right on. Okay. Okay. Well, I'm sure it will end up very well. I am excited to be there in a couple months. on my end, honestly I don't have a whole lot either. Just basically more of the same training. Going well, feeling good, really no tr I guess we brought food up a little bit, so we added like three hundred ish calories to my day. So I'm at like thirty seven hundred calories again. it's been sitting at like two twenty eight for the last couple weeks and he wants to see that going up a little bit quicker. I think he's aiming to see me gaining roughly like one to two pounds a week, it seems like. but yeah, really outside of that, I don't have a whole lot else. Jeremiah Bair: All right, so let's get into how often should you repeat exercises to maximize gains. So everybody has probably heard some version of you have to confuse the muscles, your body adapts, so you need to change things up, you need to shock the muscles, you need to switch things up every four weeks, which you also probably hear coaches say things like, Hey, we just need to take our time and master the basics. So basically what we're digging into is which one is actually right. there's gonna be a few key concepts we need to understand here first. Number one is that your muscles don't really care about novelty. There's no such thing as chalking the muscle into growing. it's not like something we need to surprise. Muscles grow as a response to significant tension or experiencing significant tension. So, significant tension, what that is, or how we create this, is first, we need to be able to execute well enough so that within a set, the target muscle or muscles we're trying to grow. Are experiencing a lot of tension. So, for example, if I always use the example of the RDL, if we're doing that poorly, maybe we're just stressing our lower back a whole lot. We're not actually targeting our glutes and hamstrings well. So we need to execute well enough to drive the tension where we want it to. And then we need to be able to take those tissues close to failure, right? So basically we need to be accurate with our sets. We need to be able to train close to failure. It's not just time under tension, people. typically describe that as like one of the main drivers of hypertrophy, but really like it's again, we could like put a super lightweight on the bar and just squat it forever. It's not gonna do a whole lot for us. It's not about the total time as much as it is the significance of the tension. So the close to failure part here is very important. Now, this doesn't mean that we never change things, but too much variation can make it harder for us to achieve constant tension. Because so much of that, again, is us being skilled enough at the exercise to actually Drive the tension where we want it to, right? So, like us getting good enough at an RDL to actually get a great gluten hamstring stimulus. It will oftentimes take weeks or months for us to get there. and over time, we will to be able to continue to train close to failure, we'll need to be able to create progressive overload, progress that tension. If we're constantly changing things, it's much harder for us to gauge. Like, because we'll talk about the neurological adaptations in a moment, but if we're constantly changing things, It is much harder for us to gauge whether we're actually progressing or not, or again, just kind of learning a new skill. So I mentioned neurological adaptations as well. basically, early on when we first implement a new movement, we will see quick strength gains that come from better coordination, better balance, improved motor learning. Basically, we're just better at the skill of the movement. So the first couple of weeks we do a new movement, we'll see week to week huge increases in the amount of weight we can use or reps we can do. That isn't, hey, we built a ton of muscle and we're moving more

because we are massively more jacked. It is we're better at the skill of the movement, we're more efficient. It is after we get past that period of neurological adaptation that we actually start to build meaningful muscle. so again, if we're constantly changing things up. we will kind of always be in that period of neurological adaptation and never really accruing a whole lot of tissue, even though it'll feel it'll feel like we're making quick gains because every week we're seeing quick progress, seeing quick progress, we're getting better at the skill. But again, it's a good way to really not make a whole lot of progress at all in reality when it comes to building muscle. and then as I mentioned before, another key point here is better execution will yield more stimulus. The more you practice the movement, the more accurate with it you'll get, which means we're better at keeping tension where we want it. We'll get better at taking that movement closer to failure, which will usually mean more hypertrophy from the same exercise. So, just a couple key concepts to understand here before we get into the meat and potatoes of the discussion. So let's chat about how we decide how often and how long we'd want to keep a client doing the same exercise, or when we might even have a client doing the same exercise multiple times within a week. So to kick things off. Let's talk through equipment availability, which I'm curious y'all's take. I would personally say this is like one of the biggest pieces to all of this in terms of like, hey, how often and oftentimes how long are we doing the same movement? Like I'll say a lot of times a lot of clients have more limited, a more limited setup. Maybe you train at like a YMCA and we're looking at like your lower body compound movements. You might not have like a hack squat and a leg press and a pendulum. We might have like Horizontal leg press and a forty-five degree leg press. So like our main squat pattern of the week might be hey, twice in the same week we're running that same leg press. Would you all agree with that? Cool. When it comes to equipment availability, any key considerations from your end or in terms of dictating like, hey, how long or how often are we keeping the same movement in place? Anyone have anything that comes to mind here? Or is it just as simple as like the best we have available? Jeremiah Is Fat: Yeah, I think No, that's Andrea: I like to always talk through Go ahead, Natalie, sorry. Jeremiah Is Fat: all right. Andrea: if somebody has more limited equipment or especially like a home gym, something that I usually talk to them about up front is more we're more likely to keep things more repetitive with your movements because if we think about all of the the filters that go into deciding what movement is really good for somebody, like the amount of tension they can create, their lever limb lengths, like how heavy they can take this movement, we're narrowing it down. Down more and more. And there's just so many movements that are actually good movements for any one given person. So when we're also applying a filter of we don't have that much equipment available, it means that if we're changing movement very often, we're doing it just for the sake of novelty. And it's actually gonna be a worse movement for growth for them. So rather than do that. I would rather them just run with the same movement for a longer period of time. Maybe every once in a while we're toggling the amount of volume they're doing or intensity or adding a set here and there. But aside from that, like we kinda just don't have any other option if we want to grow as best as possible. Jeremiah Bair: I think even kind of aside, but even in a more well stocked gym, I typically within programming think it makes more sense if we have like a few movements that we get a lot out of, like, hey, this chest press fits you super well, or like, man, this leg press just fits you so well. Typically, when it comes to the number of movements we're doing within a training day, I would rather like Hey, rather than us doing two squat patterns, this leg press rules for you. Maybe we're gonna do less total movements, but just do more volume of these few that you get a lot out of. I think in when it comes to exercise selection and like number of movements within a training day, people can get super carried away with that as well, with like, hey, we need more variation. I need to like, or even like I can't, same thing with like repeating the movement twice within a week. Like if it's, hey, you get so much out of this leg press, this just fits you so well. And we're like outside of that, like really trying to force you into this hack squat that just really doesn't fit us all that well. Let's just run with the one that we get a lot of stimulus out of and really maximize that. Anything else to add in terms of equipment availability? Jeremiah Is Fat: I think one of the things that you run into with lack of equipment availability, which is common, is and I I hesitate to bring this up because I don't wanna jump the gun in terms of things we're gonna talk about later, but let's say that, you know, we just have a leg press. Like no hack squat, no pendulum. so maybe we're gonna use a leg press and then, you know, we're doing that twice a week and then at some point that just like really starts to bother the client. You know, like that leg press in particular, like their knees start freaking out or it just like doesn't feel good and we maybe need to like deload that. I that's where I might sub in a slightly like suboptimal movements for like a few weeks. Just to basically like kind of deload and reset that leg press because I know I want to go back to it because it's the best option we have. So rather than, you know, this this person's knees are really bothering them, they're really bored of this, it's frustrating because it doesn't feel good. So rather than just like continually trying to cram a

square peg and round hole. Okay, let's come off of that for four weeks and let's sub in, yeah, like a Smith Squad or, you know, maybe something like that. And then go back to the leg press. and, you know, perhaps a different rep range or tweak volume or something like that. and kind of try to get that cooking again. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah, that's a very good show. I I don't think I have anything else to add there. Danny, anything you wanted to add? Dani: Yeah, I was just gonna add, like, you know, especially when we're wanting to I guess push certain muscle groups like super hard, you know, you kinda need machines, like the right type of equipment that's gonna allow for that without something breaking, without else without something else like caving in, or whatever. And then on at at the other for especially for hypertrophy, but then at the other end of the spectrum, if you're working with a beginner client who just has no idea where they are in space, you need options to to teach them to should to bring up certain certain muscle groups. So if they if they can't squat like at all and I've worked with clients like that, then okay we need we need a leg extension. We need to bring up their quads. and that's very hard if they don't if don't have that available. but yeah that was all I was gonna add. Jeremiah Bair: Okay, okay, right on, right on. I don't think of anything else to add in terms of equipment availability, but again, I guess kind of Andrea's point, it will oftentimes limit like hey, say we're ending the Mesocycle and we'll reassess client goals and hey, maybe this is a time where In general, I might with our less important movements or like less key movements for the like let's say long term, this client really wants to bring up their quads. Like we're probably gonna keep the lot of the same squat patterns for a longer period of time. But there might be, just for the sake of like their engagement, more variation in like, hey, this pull down, we're gonna like play with this other one you experience. Where if we're like training at home with a very basic setup, it is gonna be like there is gonna be a lot l shorter list of, hey, these are like S tier, A tier, whatever type movements that we were probably gonna want to keep in rotation for a long period of time. There's just less to play with there as well. when it comes to client skill level, which Danny, you touched on this also. and I think that you and I approach things pretty, I mean, I think we all approach things pretty similar, but I really like this in your programming where something that I see quite frequently is for like a client who is more beginner. you'll oftentimes have them repeating the same movement multiple times in the week or like, Hey, that lower body day, like day lower one and lower two might look quite similar, especially in terms of compound movements. Is that pretty accurate for how you like to program for like a more beginner client? Dani: absolutely. I think is it's

it it takes time to for people to learn how to do how how to train, right, versus exercise Jeremiah Bair: Uh-huh. Dani: right? those are two those are two quite distinct different different things, right? How to exercise and how to train. so then but then also just to learn how to move through space and mastering something like a split squat or any compound movement for that matter is very challenging. So let's just hammer that home and get really good at it by doing it twice a week. You know, no reason to mix things up so much. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah. I especially in the online setting, I think that for like beginner clients, a very high frequency of repeating the same movements makes so much sense. I have some clients where it's like, man, we're at like ground zero in terms of movement capacity when they get started. There's just so much that we need to learn here. And if it's like we're trying to learn, I don't know, twenty-four different exercises over the course of the week versus we have twelve and we're repeating those twice a week. Getting them to the point where we've mastered those and are generating like meanow hypertrophy, we just get there so much quicker. I I I love using just like hey, we're repeating a lot of the same movements multiple times a week in that instance. when it comes to more advanced clients, what's y'all's take? Do you like like a higher frequency of the same movements? Is that a situation where you you'd argue for more variety? Any takes on that? Jeremiah Is Fat: If someone is more advanced and I have a lot of faith in their skill set, I ask a lot more questions about how they're connecting with movements. Jeremiah Bair: Mm-hmm. Same. Jeremiah Is Fat: and then if if it's like, Hey, I feel like this pendulum is highly stimulative and like they're not getting like anything from the hack, so to speak, or you maybe the hack like is not just like a great fit for their body, but they get so much more out of the pendulum and I can like trust that that assessment and opinion, then that's where I might double up on frequency for them. Jeremiah Bair: I like that a lot. Andrea, anything else to add there? Andrea: The I for somebody more advanced, I it just depends on the movement and what they're prioritizing. For some things, like if they have a big glute bias, we're probably gonna do like two split squats or swift squat variations in a week. But for other things, I might be able to use a little bit more variety within the week just because they're not gonna need as much repetition just to get the skill level down, because they're probably more of a gifted mover that can kind of drop into anything and pick it up relatively quickly. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah, for sure. I would say I think it I feel like it's more common for what are priority muscle groups. Like with the priority muscle groups typically are the ones that are gonna get that like, hey, we're gonna might repeat the same movement multiple times. If it's like like I think like in my own programming, like my upper body days, my push days and my pull days are basically just repeating the same push and pull day both times because it's like chest press fits me super well, the pull down I use fits me super well, get get a ton out of it. think I have anything else to add there in terms of skill level. Anything else from y'all? Dani: Well, I think it's all I think when you say advanced clients it's also then okay we'll d we'll define define advanced. Just because we've had like we've had such a spectrum, got such a spectrum of clients, that it's okay, what how would how would you define advance? And you know, I d I don't think that there's anything wrong with doing split squats twice a week. I think it's evil. But but but is it wrong? And then it's down to down to the individual person. Like do they absolutely hate split squats or do they like split squats because they're a psycho? Andrea: Mm-hmm. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah. Dani: you know, because but then you could get a lot out of it. personally, I do every workout twice a week, but my coach changes the rep ranges. So we do a low rep day and a high rep day. And so and I would say that I'm someone that is somewhat advanced. so I think it's just depends on the person, and also what how their body responds, how they how that works for them and their mindset going into that. Are they okay? Can they can they sustain it? yeah, just my two cents. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah. I typically give all my clients who I really dislike the split squads twice a week. Dani: Fair. Jeremiah Bair: that's a that's a good shout though. I think it is a lot of times on paper it w might be more ideal to run the same movement twice. But if it's like, man, three, four weeks in this person is just so burnt out on it mentally. And we could keep like, just suck it up, you know, don't be soft. But I think we I don't think we'll get that many more productive weeks out of it. Before we might come to a point where it makes sense to just plug in something else. So for like a longer duration of hey, maybe we could run this for 16, 20. We could run this for a whole year. If we run it less frequently versus like, hey, let's hammer it twice a week. There's for sure an argument there as well. compound versus isolation. Personally, I would say that typically our compound movements, obviously, they're good, they're going to generally be more complex, more skill-heavy. and we typically have a very, very long runway for progression on these. So like our pendulum squat or hacks, our RDLs, our split squats, a lot of these movements are gonna be we're gonna have these staple movements in this program for a year longer, oftentimes. Like it's gonna be there, it's gonna very much be like the thing, like a leg press, right? Like it's incredibly rare we're not gonna have a leg press in someone's program unless you don't have access to a leg press. Whereas when it comes to more isolation based work, again, there will be like like for

me, like my goal is different than y'all's, like a pec deck. We're probably almost always gonna have a pec deck in my training. It's gonna be one of the best, like more short biased pec movements that we can do. Or like there's a lateral raise that fits me super well. So like we're probably gonna have that in place. But also if it was an instance where like, hey, this person just wanted more variety for the sake of it. We could easily argue that like, hey, those movements are pro like a lateral raise or a bicep curl, for example, is probably pretty easy to pick up the skill of quickly. So not a big deal if we do need to rotate that more just for like the sake of keeping the program fresh when we are adjusting training. But at the same time, like not something we need to s change just for the sake of changing. but when it comes to like compound versus isolation movements, any d any Any input from y'all in terms of like, hey, I like to keep these things in about the same period of time or they rotate more or is it just client dependent? Andrea: I'd say I'm quicker to give those up if they're not feeling very good for somebody for sure. Unless they're there for a specific like pain reason. Like if I put them in as a primer or something. But aside from that, if if somebody's like, I'm just really not connecting well with this particular like lateral raise variation or bicep curl. I'll watch a video, I'll request a video first and then if they don't feel good with it and there's nothing major for me to correct, then I'll just say, Okay, let's try this variation and I'm much more quick to do that versus if it was like this leg press isn't feeling great, I'm not connecting that well with it, I'm not gonna say, Okay, let's just switch it to Smith Squat, for example. So Jeremiah Bair: Yeah, no, I like that. or if the person again it's like, hey, this isn't we have five different movements that we can get the same stimulus from and again like it's a chest press for you whose pecs aren't all that important at all, it's not a big deal for us to just swap to a different chest press. Anything else in terms of exercise selection? Jeremiah Is Fat: I think a note that I don't even know if this really belongs in this podcast, but kinda worth mentioning it, because we're talking about exercise swaps, so I guess so. a lot of compound lifts will highlight movement inadequacies or deficiencies. And that is not a reason to swap them out. So if someone has difficulty accessing something like internal rotation at the hip, I can think of so many clients right now who like Weeks and months later, we're still looking at their beastance RDLs every single week and working on those. There are only so many movements we have to help that along, and we need that if we want to build glutes. So swapping it out because it doesn't feel good is not going to help with the goal of growing glutes. And there are only so many movements we have. You know, we're looking at unilateral leg work here in in the case of internal rotation at the hip. so something like a B stance RDL, it's like, no well, it is worth it for us to just keep hammering away at this and to try to get this right, 'cause this it's not always a skill acquisition. It's sometimes movement deficiency. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah. Andrea: That's such a good point. There's the questions that we'll send somebody whenever we are transitioning to some different training programming. And whenever it's w one of the questions is about like movements that you hate or just like not not feeling great with, want to swap out. And if it's like I said, like a bicechroll or something or or a non-priority muscle group, I'm more quick to change that. But there's been so many times where somebody will say, the RDL is just still not feeling good for me. And I'm like, cool, we're gonna do a variation of that twice instead of once then. And they're like, what the heck? I said I didn't like this. I don't want to do it anymore. but in a movement like that, it is like, okay, well that's just a cue that we just need to practice it more, not take it out. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah, so often it is in the context of building glutes. So, like Natalie, you said, like, hey, we'll see you aren't very good at internal rotation. But it's like, okay, this is also the reason that you haven't been able to build your glutes the way you want to in the past, because we do suck at that skill and that's something we need to acquire to be able to build this. So this is like it's like the obstacle is the way here where this is where we might need to be okay with sticking in this, sucking at it for a while. But on the other side of that, again, like us sucking at that, the thing we suck at is why we're not where we want to be. So being okay with embracing that. But it c it can be hard. RDLs are, yes, a very common one as well. But it's like, hey, if we can get really good at split squatting, get really good at hinging, you're probably gonna be able to build some great glutes. But those are also the two things that are holding most people back. But if we're just can we find a different variation around this, we never really get anywhere. Dani: But that's also why I say, like that's why I need a coach. 'Cause I'm only gonna do stuff that I like and stuff that I'm good at. I'm not gonna program stuff that I'm that I'm bad at or that I hate that that's hard. Like I'm not gonna do that. But that's always this the you know, like you said, that that that that that's the way. Right? We gotta we gotta do the hard stuff to get better. Jeremiah Bair: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's the power of coaching. let's talk about I think the most productive way to take this conversation from here is reasons to introduce more variation, like when we would potentially change things up. one of the biggest ones obviously is going to be and then I'll let you guys start firing off yours as well. But one for me would be goals change, right? So

obviously I'm typically gonna reassess like anytime we're changing major phases, so like from fat loss to building phase. Hey, what are our top priorities in terms of areas we want to build? I'm gonna reassess the person's physique. What do I think we need is needs to come up? And that might change like, hey, we're shifting more of a bias to lower body or upper body, or maybe we were too biased and we just need to get back to focusing on building more across the board. and then similarly, actually I won't, I won't get into too many more points. What do y'all have in terms of Hey, here's a valid reason for why we might change up a movement within the programming. Dani: just stop progressing. It's hit a plateau. so then it's like, right, let's just add add a slight variation to hit that that muscle group slightly differently. and run with that. Jeremiah Bair: Okay. Okay. Do you see people hitting like plateaus quite frequently? Dani: mm, it takes a while with it again, depending on kind of their training age and their starting point. Like if they're a if they're a total b beginner, like especially with upper body movements, like any any upper body pressing, it's like right, okay, we might we might hit a plateau at this rep range. and so then Okay, let's let's kind of do some undulating periodization here. and go, you know, go into a lower rep range and then upper rep, you know, but then at some point maybe it hits a plateau. And so when I say a variation, okay, we might we might make that an inclined bench rather than a flat bench, you know. to me that's that's you know, a slight variation. Or let's go into machine pressing, just a different type of pressing. but yeah, it take it takes it can take a while. Jeremiah Bair: Sure. Okay, right on. go ahead, Natalie. Jeremiah Is Fat: Say I would say with troubleshooting plateaus, they certainly do exist and happen, but nine times out of ten we take a deeper look and they are still progressing. It's just that the rate of progression has slowed. So instead of going up a rep every single set, every single week, like maybe we progressed one of those sets and it's like, no, we're still steadily progressing over time. So So it becomes more a conversation of managing expectations around progressions and what that looks like the more advanced that we get, and the longer we've been doing that particular movement. And then second to that, well, maybe tied with that, I would say also 90% of the time we look at videos and there are some things we need to clean up. And so then it becomes maybe we do have to strip the weight off to address some problems within the movement, but that in and of itself is a form of progressive overload. And I always like to say it's important to get our movements right, because that is going to yield the longest runway for progression. So when we are performing a movement incorrectly or we're bringing in lots of body English movement compensations, that is when you will hit a brick wall

with your progression and you're gonna stall out and feel like I've just been stuck here forever. So it's worth r I like I always call it resetting a baseline and addressing the issues that you have with that movement and then build from there and get it progressing again. Yeah. Dani: I heard someone the other day use use a term for this. it was I was watching a a podcast with IFBB figure pro Lena and she was talking about having a t a doing a technical reset. and how even at that at at her level, who's won multiple pro shows, done multiple Olympias, said that, you know, she sought out some help and got and did a whole technical reset of her pulling movements for her back exercises because all she was doing was using biceps. So she she got out some help. So yeah, so that that was refreshing to hear. Jeremiah Is Fat: I mean you c just can't I say this to clients every week, you can't just keep progressing everything always until the end of time. That doesn't make sense. We would all at that rate we would all be lifting like five million pounds i by the end of our life. You know, there has to be some sort of reset at some point. Jeremiah Bair: Yeah, that's a that's a very good shout. When it comes to that reset. Like I find on RDLs, for example, this is one which I I get into this. I think we all it's pretty normal. Like we all have times where, hey, okay, I've gotten a little bit too carried away with the body English here. I need to like set this back, pull this back. I don't remember the point I was gonna there outside of just as normal that we needed to take that. But also this is quite relative to like I think we could argue a true plateau in terms of like there's actually nothing else we can get out of this. We truly can't progress if we're like using textbook technique, which this is like not a real world. Like, is it r it's rare that there's not something we clean up with our execution as well, but like a true plateau would be like hard to come by for a very long period of time, just understanding that we are gonna see like slow progression. But I do think they're a lot quicker can come a point where it's like maybe the like quote unquote stimulus to fatigue ratio of this doesn't make sense anymore. Like with a, for example, like a hip thrust. Like there's a couple clients lately who have like pulled the hip thrust out because it's like, her execution of this doesn't look bad, but we've been running this for like a year now. Do you still feel like you're getting a lot out of it? how are we feeling with this? And it's like, dude, I'm just so gassed when I go into this, or like by the end of this, and I'm just I dread it like more than my leg press and my split squat. There've been a couple instances like that where it's like, okay, cool. I'm like, let's get you on maybe a 45 degree hip extension inside. so I think that's an inconsideration there. But again, if it's like if this is the leg press that rules for this person, we don't have another good pattern there, we're probably gonna troubleshoot that a lot more and like maybe take a reset. And we could make the like reset argument for the hip thrust example as well. Jeremiah Is Fat: Yeah. Yeah, one one that you'll see with RDLs are when you're getting quite strong and I mean I love to have people on a dumbbell RDL. everyone loves to do barbell, but honestly, most people are really not good at it. So I do like to have most people on a dumbbell RDL. It's just a little bit easier to get your weight into the midfoot and control your center of mass, but once we get really proficient at that and, you know, we're slinging like the one tens in each hand, that starts to be a pain. in the ass. Because then it's like we're slinging those dumbbells around and like just you know, getting them off the ground is annoying and it's like, okay, now this makes sense to move to a barbell. Jeremiah Bair: Okay. That's a good child. Jeremiah Is Fat: But at the end of the day, we're we're still doing an RDL, right? We're s we're not getting rid of the hinge. Jeremiah Bair: Absolutely. troubleshooting aches and pains can be a reason to introduce variation as well. Again, to Natalie's point earlier, oftentimes, like, hey, if this movement doesn't feel good, the worst thing we can do is just, cool, well, let's just plug in something else, right? We want to look at the root of the problem. But as she said earlier than that, with the leg press example, like, hey, maybe we've like been leg pressing for a long time, this just is not feeling good. We need to take a couple weeks away from it, kind of reset and then come back to a new baseline. Can be a very good reason for us to potentially plug in a different pattern. any other major reasons y'all see in terms of, hey, this is when we might change things up. Andrea: I will often do that a few weeks after the end of a fat loss phase. typically by that point, because I don't like to change things up much during the fat loss phase unless it's necessary due to these other things we've talked through. that just doesn't make sense to change things up a lot while we're in a calorie deficit because we're then comparing apples to oranges with your progression. and so coming out of that. We usually have been in the same programming for quite a while. they look physically different. And so maybe now we can see now that body fat is stripped down where we want to add more tissue. So like maybe the glutes weren't as high priority before. We lost a lot of body fat, realized glutes are kind of flat, and then we want to prioritize those more, for example. and that's also a time where food is coming back up, excitement is a little bit higher, in terms of like getting into some new training and that matching that with their increasing calories tends to go really well. Jeremiah Bair: Fully agree. I love it. Okay. Anything else from y'all before we wrap it up? Cool. Well, a couple important considerations here. as a whole, biggest takeaway is just there should be intent behind the variation, not just for the sake of novelty. We talk a lot, we've talked a lot about how important it is to focus on progressing the same movements for a very long period of time, getting really strong on them. And that will be the foundation for building muscle. That said, there's a time and a place for introducing variation as well. But again, we just need to understand the intent behind it. But that is what we have for y'all for today. 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