Hello BBM Crew,
Apologies if this has been asked before, but I couldn’t find anything when doing a quick search.
Anyway, I’m in the luxurious position of having access to several different gyms, two different work places with different gyms, a basic gym set up at home, and also access to a commercial gym. I’m currently running Bodybuilding 1, block 2. Now, each gym obviously has different machine set ups, some more restrictive than others, and my home gym only has free weights. My problem is sticking to the same exercise variation week to week for a full block given the different equipment available at different sites. I could force myself to go the same gym all the time, but it’s soooo nice to just be able to pop in to the closest place and staying as close the program as possible and getting a good work out in.
So to my question:
- Provided movement is similar, targeting the same muscles and rep range and RPE stays consistent (for example chest supported machine row, seated cable row, inverted ring rows, seal row), is there a noticeable downside from a hypertrophy perspective?
- If everything above stays consistent, but now we add rep range variation week to week as well (while staying around 10-20 reps and consistent RPE), would this make hypertrophy gains suffer (even) more?
As I said, I can force myself to get access to consistent equipment for a full block mostly, but it removes the huge advantage of having a gym around the corner basically when I’m at work, when I’m at home, and also being able to hit a commercial gym with friends. So to make an informed decision on how to prioritize I need better data.
Thank you in advance!
IL,
Thanks for the post. I’m not sure what your 2nd question means specifically, but you certainly can vary the exercise week to week. If anything, that variation is likely to produce less hypertrophy and strength due to reduced accommodation to the training. Whether or not that makes a noticeable different long term I cannot say, but it would not be my preference to have that much variation in a single block.
-Jordan
Thanks for the quick reply!
Second question was if rep range variation week to week would further negatively impact hypertrophy results (in addition to only varying exercises), assuming similar exercises and RPE. For example, if dumbbell press of 12 reps at RPE 8 would be varied with a bodyweight pushup variation at around 20 reps at RPE 8 instead.
When you say “accomodation”, do you mean technical proficiency in the exercise (which seems like a problem that can be overcome over time), or by some intrinsic advantage of repeating the same exercise for a set amount of weeks. I realize that might not be two phenomena that could be separated.
Anyway, I might be getting a bit too much in to the theoretical side of it, just because I find it interesting. In practice I think I’ll use the BB template exercise selection to set up one or two full sessions that can be done fully at home with free weights, and the remaining with full gym equipment, and might switch the days around a little to retain flexibility depending on how I work that week and still stay as consistent as possible with the exercises.
Thanks for the help!
I think as rep schemes get further apart, different adaptations are selected for. In general, nearly all rep ranges will “work” to improve some aspect of fitness, especially hypertrophy. We use rep ranges in our BB II template, for example.
Regarding accommodation, I’m referring to the fatigue cost of the exercise. For example, repeating exercises reduces muscle damage and it seems like only when muscle damage levels are relatively low do people actually grow.
Your plan sounds reasonable to me!