How Often do you Rotate Exercises?

Training Bodybuilding
1

Asking because I recently switched from Floor Press back to Bench Press after floor pressing for about 5 months. First session benching in 5 months, even though I had made good gains on my floor press, I only hit a 10 lbs PR (estimated).

Keep in mind, I was speed benching once a week, although with much lighter weight.

So, do you think that I waited too long before switching back to Bench Press? Or (what I’m hoping) do you think since I haven’t benched in the 3-5 RM for so long, my body is trying to “get used to benching again”

How often do you guys rotate exercises?

Note: During the 5 months, I did gain bodyweight. I also noticed increased tricep developtment

2

Did you only do floor press and speed bench for those 5 months? If so, I would think you waited too long. I keep my main lifts (bench - incline, flat, DB) for longer than I do my accessory lifts (floor press, direct tri. work)
I keep my main lifts for 2-4 weeks, depending on how I feel I’m progressing, and my acc. work for 1-3 weeks, same as above.

3

[quote]Seinix wrote:
Asking because I recently switched from Floor Press back to Bench Press after floor pressing for about 5 months. First session benching in 5 months, even though I had made good gains on my floor press, I only hit a 10 lbs PR (estimated).

Keep in mind, I was speed benching once a week, although with much lighter weight.

So, do you think that I waited too long before switching back to Bench Press? Or (what I’m hoping) do you think since I haven’t benched in the 3-5 RM for so long, my body is trying to “get used to benching again”

How often do you guys rotate exercises?

Note: During the 5 months, I did gain bodyweight. I also noticed increased tricep developtment[/quote]

when you take an exercise out of your repertoire, it is not uncommon on your first workout back to that exercise that you cannot lift as much as you used to (in your case, only 10lbs PR). It’s because, in lamest sense, you have to “relearn” that movement, sorta.

The gains you got from the floor press will carry over to the bench press (it’s still working your pressing muscles). Just give it time, as your body gets used to the movement again, your strength should shoot up.

If not, then it might be because the weak part of the movement of the bench press (the part that hinders your gains in it) is actually the lower half of the movement, but this is probably not the case, unless you are a very advanced in that exercise and NEED to specialize the area just on the lower part in order to move up in weight.

But just disregard this last paragraph, that would be overanalyzing it at this point(just the first workout back to BP)

Just keep with it.

4

I change my excersises when i stop progressing with either weights or reps after maybe about 2 weeks

5

I don’t rotate, though from time to time I will decide a given exercise may be better replaced by another. There can also be reason to rotate supplemental exerices depending on the individual but that tends not to be appropriate for me personally.

The extreme emphasis placed on rotation by some coaches is I believe due to the fact that it is impossible for an athlete to make amazing real gains week after week, month-in-month-out, but when paying $3000 per hour or whatever, the athlete (or his daddy) wants to see amazing outcomes.

So by having the athlete do new-to-him unilateral DB bench presses on a Swiss ball, for example, there are amazing gains for the first few workouts. Of course it’s not really that much if any actual new muscle is being built, but having been uncoordinated on the exercise going into it, weights go up at an amazing rate.

Then when that tails off as it promptly will, time for some other odd-ass exercise.

Result, 10% strength gains every week! Hooray! Well worth the $3000/hour!

Can’t possibly keep a benchmark exercise in there, because then the athlete or his daddy would see that real strength gains are not occurring at such a rate if at all.

A person following this type of program can make amazing gains every week yet somehow at the end of the year, the Big Three lifts are not much better.

What about keeping the best and most important lifts in there all the time (except perhaps bench for reasons of shoulder problems where applicable.) Oh yeah, because that would prove improvement is not as fast as imagined.

6

So Bill, you are against rotating?

I must admit, I felt most confident in my strength progress when I was on a modified Bill Starr program that had me benching/rowing 2x a week, squatting 3x a week, dead lifting/military pressing 1x a week

I am currently on a westside template…but I preferred having multiple sessions of bench, squat, etc. per week. It doesn’t take me a full week to recover, so sometimes I think I could be making better progress if I was back to benching 2x a week again.

just a thought. For now I’m sticking with the Westside template for a bit, as I have seen good gains on other lifts. I am hoping the bench will soon take off!

7

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
I don’t rotate, though from time to time I will decide a given exercise may be better replaced by another. There can also be reason to rotate supplemental exerices depending on the individual but that tends not to be appropriate for me personally.

The extreme emphasis placed on rotation by some coaches is I believe due to the fact that it is impossible for an athlete to make amazing real gains week after week, month-in-month-out, but when paying $3000 per hour or whatever, the athlete (or his daddy) wants to see amazing outcomes.

So by having the athlete do new-to-him unilateral DB bench presses on a Swiss ball, for example, there are amazing gains for the first few workouts. Of course it’s not really that much if any actual new muscle is being built, but having been uncoordinated on the exercise going into it, weights go up at an amazing rate.

Then when that tails off as it promptly will, time for some other odd-ass exercise.

Result, 10% strength gains every week! Hooray! Well worth the $3000/hour!

Can’t possibly keep a benchmark exercise in there, because then the athlete or his daddy would see that real strength gains are not occurring at such a rate if at all.

A person following this type of program can make amazing gains every week yet somehow at the end of the year, the Big Three lifts are not much better.

What about keeping the best and most important lifts in there all the time (except perhaps bench for reasons of shoulder problems where applicable.) Oh yeah, because that would prove improvement is not as fast as imagined.[/quote]

Perfect.

8

They way i do things is i have 2 programs:

  1. Strength - I do this when i stop gaining muscle via Hypertrophy

  2. Hypertrophy - I do this when i am just finished a Str Program.

If any BIG excercise ceases to gain in reps/weight or any other variable then i swap it out and add in 3 supplemental excercises for around a months duration.

9

[quote]Seinix wrote:
So Bill, you are against rotating?[/quote]

I suppose it depends on what one means by the term.

In the sense described in my post, yes, I’m against that for the reason explained.

But if one means by the term instead the practice of sometimes taking an exercise out for a few weeks or a month or so as a break though it is in the workout plan most of the time;

Or means using different supplementary exercises at different times in response to detecting differing weak areas with time; or means introducing any major compound exercise only at particular times as part of a periodization plan, then no I’m not against those.

But I am against the self-deception of imagining that one is constantly gaining rapidly on account of, as soon as any exercise starts showing that that isn’t so, stopping doing that exercise in favor of one that will provide the illusion.

If one is apparently gaining say 1% or more every week thanks to following such a strategy, but in fact at the end of the year is not only not 52% stronger but nothing like it, this is self-deception – or imposed deception IMO if a coach is doing it to you and failing to explain to you the reality of what is happening.

10

good post Bill I agree with you 100%, I can only go with my own experience but I haven’t changed exercises this season, and made some go gains in size and strength ,progression , consistancy