I heard many times that having greater exercise variety is good for reducing overuse injuries.
However, i don’t know if that means changing exercises from time to time or simply doing multiple different exercises for the same bodypart at the same time.
Let’s take leg training for example.
Would it better to simply change from low bar to high bar squat or to have additional exercise alongside one of those two type of squats?
We’re trying to manage overall loading here, and there are multiple strategies to accomplish this.
You could certainly use periodic rotations of certain movements - for example, if you work up to a peak / mock meet / competition, taking a couple weeks or a block afterwards using different movements, particularly if there are no plans for another meet in the near future.
Alternatively, it’s certainly fine to keep the same “primary” movements in the picture (assuming there is a way in place to manage intensity over time, e.g., autoregulation), and alongside these primary movements we’d incorporate variations and/or accessories that can provide stimulus to an area with much less fatigue. For example:
Primary movement: comp squat
Secondary movement: any variation of a straight bar back squat (paused/pin/tempo, etc.), alternate bar position (e.g., high bar), or specialty bar (SSB, cambered bar, etc.)
Accessory: unilateral movements (e.g split squat, lunges, step-ups) or bilateral movements (eg leg press, belt squat, leg extension/curl)
Thank you very much for the explanation.