Should You Do Different Weight Lifting Exercises Per Workout Per Week?

ShowPoodleGirl

I couldn't figure out how to phrase this in the title
I go to the gym 4 times a week. I do 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days. I like this split and don't want to change that.
Right now I do the same routine for both days (so both upper body days I do the same exercises, and both lower body days I do the same exercises) but I'm wondering if I should do slightly different exercises each workout?
Like for workout 1 I would do a bench press, then for the second upper body day maybe I do a chest fly instead? So working out the same-ish muscles but just in a slightly different way or is it better to do both workouts the same?

Benisapha

ideally a upper/ lower split does have some variation between the days. What does your currently split look like? When I ran U/L I would do like heavy bench press on upper day 1. Then heavy incline bench on upper day 2.

tomcustombuilder

you can but it's not required. Those are good exercises you're doing for chest you could include chest dips also. What you can do instead is change the weight and reps each time. For instance, you may one day go lighter in the 8-12 range and then the next time 4 to 6 in a heavier weight.
progressive overload will be the main factor.

Retroguy2000

Variety is fine, to a point. The average person doesn't need too much variety for one muscle group in one session (I realize you didn't ask about that), but across multiple sessions in the week, sure that's alright. Or as Tom said, same exercise with different rep range.

Don't go adding variety for the sake of adding variety though. It's better to progress in one or two things than jump around many different things making limited progress in all of them. Then after a few months, switch it up if you want a change.

You might consider stimulus to fatigue ratio in your planning, e.g. you might deadlift 1x per week instead of 2x. You might barbell squat one workout, and another workout do something less taxing like belt squat or leg press, for example.

nossmf

I agree with the guys above. Let me throw out several alternative ideas for your consideration (including repeating ones mentioned, just so you have in one place all the ideas together)…

• Repeat perfectly (Monday = Thursday) (or whichever days you do)
• Change everything
• Keep same exercises, but different order (Monday BB bench first, DB bench second; Thursday DB bench first, BB bench second)
• Keep primary exercise same (BB bench press) and switch up the secondary (Monday DB bench, Thursday incline DB bench or DB fly)
• Monday heavy (sets of 4-6), Thursday moderate (sets of 10-12) - My personal favorite

ShowPoodleGirl

Thanks everyone.
My current exercises are
Upper
Bench Press, Shoulder Press, Lat Pulldown, Row (currently trying an incline bench row), bicep curl, skull crusher, lat raises
Lower (Glute focused)
Hip thrust, RDL, Bulgarian, Sumo Squat, Abductor machine.

I currently tend to work in the 10-15 rep range as I lowered some of my weights to be sure my form was more solid but am starting to work back up to more weight so I could do a 6-8 rep range and a bit heavier weights one time and a 10-12 rep range another. I just wasnt sure if it would be best to do slightly different exercises to work the same muscles in just a slightly different way to be sure I was getting the best out of the muscle group.

Retroguy2000

@ShowPoodleGirl

Those are all very good choices.

Two things I'd suggest if you don't mind:

1. Not enough quad focus. As you probably know, the Bulgarian can be more quad dominant with foot placement closer to the body and keeping upper body more vertical, and it will still work the glutes too. Or switch the Sumo squat to Goblet squat, or some other squat variant.
2. 6-8 rep range is an unusual range. Up to 6 reps is strength building range, and while you can build muscle at any range, generally more volume is better for that, so 10-15 reps is effectively better since you can get more volume in, and it's easier to progress by adding reps. I mean going from 12 to 13 is less relative effort than going from 6 to 7.

Other than that, you're nailing all the important movements. Fly's are another option for chest if you want some variety. Switching one row for a different row, workout to workout, is kind of pointless, unless as I said fatigue is a concern. Some exercises generate more systemic fatigue than others.

ShowPoodleGirl

Ok, thank you for the advice!

tomcustombuilder

Legs LOVE reps…..

nossmf

Tom, that's why my squat sessions are always a minimum of 10 reps, sometimes hitting 20. (My days of chasing the 1RM on squat are over.) Calves, too.

The one exception I make is deadlift, where I do not go above 5 reps, even with light weight. Experience has taught me my form starts to get sloppy as reps go up, vastly increasing the chance of injury.

tomcustombuilder

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48599397#Comment_48599397

yep, smart. As we age 1RMs are a thing of the past along with reps below 4.