As creatures of habit, we cherish a good routine, which applies to work, family time, studying, and exercise.
Often, people find an activity they enjoy and focus all their attention on it. Common examples include running, swimming, powerlifting, and more.
While any form of exercise is beneficial, we can’t ignore the importance of variety in our fitness pursuits.
Without further ado, let’s discuss the importance of doing various activities in your training.
- It Allows For More Balanced Development
We can do countless beneficial exercises to build muscle, get stronger, and improve our athleticism. The problem is, no single activity can offer balanced development and cover all of our training needs.
Let’s take the bench press as an example. The exercise is fantastic for building upper body strength and muscle mass. But, despite its effectiveness, that exercise alone is not enough for us to develop all involved muscles in a balanced way. Because of that, including other movements, such as flyes, dips, push-ups, and incline presses, is beneficial.
The same rules apply to every other muscle group. If you seek optimal development, include a variety of exercises.
- It Reduces The Risk of Overuse Injuries
Despite its benefits, training also causes stress to joints, connective tissues, and muscles. Training too hard or for too long can ruin the integrity of tissues, leading to cumulative injuries, such as tendonitis.
Doing various exercises is beneficial because it allows you to change up the stress you cause to the tissues in your body. Each movement stresses your body in a unique way but not to a point where you’re unable to recover in time for the next workout.
In contrast, doing the same exercise puts laser-focused stress on tissues, increasing the risk of degradation and overuse injuries. This is one reason why many competitive lifters suffer from nagging injuries. They stress the body in the same way repeatedly by doing a single movement and close variations to it.
- It Keeps Your Training Fun And Fresh
Many people are under the impression that fitness doesn’t have to be fun. Instead, we should endure the necessary drudgery to get fit, improve our health, and feel good about ourselves.
The above is a fair point, and your workouts can’t always be fun. But ask yourself this:
How long do you think you can stick with an activity if you despise doing it? Sure, you can be consistent for a few weeks, but what happens once the initial motivation fades? Most people give up and go back to old habits.
Doing various exercises is a fantastic way to keep your training fresh and engaging. You look forward to upcoming workouts and are more likely to stay consistent.
Conclusion
Variety is a fantastic thing to leverage in your life and fitness. Don’t be afraid to experiment because doing so offers benefits, prevents stagnation, and maintains freshness. As a result, you can have more fun, make better progress, and keep yourself injury-free for many years.