Accessory Lift Variety

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi BBM Team. I have a question about selection for accessory movements.

I’m 31M and am fairly new to resistance training. I’ve been lifting for about 6 months, and been running the BBM Beginner Template for about 4 months. Currently in week 4 of phase 2.

I’m wondering how important it is to keep the same accessory movements week-to-week. I like doing Squat/Bench/DL/OHP every week because they’re good reference points, but I feel like I’d enjoy mixing up the accessory movements every week or two.

For example, I’ve been doing paused squats as my squat accessory, but I’m interested in seeing if I can learn and swap in other movements instead like a front squat, pin squat, or anything else. Same with the other accessories. Is this fine to do, as long as I’m keeping an eye on the RPE, or is there a benefit I’d be missing by keeping the movement selection more consistent?

My inclination is to go ahead and mix things up, because it might help motivation by keeping things interesting. Self-efficacy and etc. But felt it was worthwhile to ask.

Thanks for all you guys do. I love the evidence-based approach to exercise.

-Alex

2

Alex,

I would not advise switching accessory lifts up weekly due to difficulties in managing training load, progression, and generating adaptations. Switching up accessory lifts is more reasonable on a new block, but I wouldn’t do it every week, especially for someone new to lifting. If the phase ends up going on for > 6 weeks or so, you can swap movements and run those through the same phase again (with low stress week). Just my 0.02 here.

-Jordan

3

Thanks Doc. I appreciate the response!