Long Term Exercise Selection: Benefits of Rotation?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
1

Hi all,

I am someone that needs very little variety in my workouts, and hates isolation work. That said, when I consider the exercises I’ve done over the last 1.5 years, it’s limited to:

Bench (barbell and DB incline)
Deadlift (barbelll and SL with DBs)
Squat (barbell and DB goblet squats)
OHP (barbell)

  • calisthenics:
    Pull ups (weighted and body weight) and dips, push ups, roll outs (body weight or with weight vest).

In addition, I do pull aparts/face pulls with each workout. So, my question is: is it beneficial to cycle in new exercises? My goals are: 1) keep getting stronger, 2) remain relatively lean, 3) remain injury free, and 4) sustain overall well being and energy levels. Is there really a need to add in curls, lat raises, etc… for any long term benefits? I just don’t want to look back and say “Man, if only I’d rotated in X, Y, and Z into my training over the years, I’d be better off now”.

2

Hi,

New direction: I think for reason #3 and #4 you could include some cardio. I think jogging is superior for this (and number of ) reason because theres benefit in “shaking off” muscles with jogging. Lots of long time succesful coach swear by this.

Running on concrete must be not too good on the longrun tho.

You can cycle this cardio too: add some cycling or whatever is available for you.

3

Definitely. I do that already, and also attend one yoga session a week pretty religiously. I only listed the strength exercises I do, and should have clarified that.

This has come up for me because I’m running another cycle of Krypteia (just finished the “prep” phase) which is 5 cycles (2 prep, 2 leader, 1 anchor) with only a very short list of exercises. I like this, though, but wonder if I’m stalling progress and/or not benefitting in the longterm from choosing another template brings new exercises into the mix.