How Often Should You Rotate Your Lifts?

There are a few schools of thought in terms of rotating exercise selection, with the first being variation is key rotating assistance exercises each week and the second being that variations should be rotated less frequently (3-4 weeks of the same variations.)

The third school of thought encourages using the same variations for more than four weeks (I’ve seen some programs using the same assistance exercises for more than eight to twelve weeks at a time).

So the question is: How do we find out what works best for our clients and ourselves? After five years of programming for general fitness clients all over the world and over 15 years of experimenting with my own programming, here’s what I’ve found.

Quick Personal Story

Before I get into the meat and potatoes, I want to share with you a quick story that may be relevant to figuring out what works best for you.

Back in college (circa 2004) when I was introduced to the conjugate method, my coach gave me a new program every three weeks — this included the same max effort exercises for three weeks at a time.

Obviously, my training age was significantly lower than it is now, but this was a time in my life when I experienced the most consistent progress in terms of performance on the football field and seeing metrics like the 40-yard dash and 5-10-5 improve. Still, also in the weight room, my numbers went up at an alarming rate. But this alarming rate didn’t slow down — it continued for the next three years.

Fast-forward to the present day — I still hit lifetime PRs (I hit a lifetime PR on my power clean at 330 pounds this past year at a bodyweight of 195). Again, I’m older now, and I have racked up some miles on my body.

I think many of you coaches who are OCD (like I am) probably have a record of every single workout they’ve ever done. I still refer back to my old programs from college when I’m in need of some creativity. The funny part is that when I refer back to what worked best for me then, I always seem to glean some “new” information by reviewing old material.

Back in 2018, I noticed something interesting with my own clients - they'd make great progress with their movement quality during a three-week wave of dynamic effort work (same variations for three weeks) and less progress with their foundational patterns & accessory exercises that I varied in their programming bi-weekly. Is one extra week really that big of a difference? At the time I would have said no, but my opinion since then has changed.

After some personal experimentation, it made sense to at least try adopting a three-week model of foundational patterns, and assistance exercises which actually aligns better with a three-week dynamic effort wave keeping things more uniform from a programming standpoint. This model is used both on Team CXC & Team EVOLV and even works well for conditioning and not just for strength modalities. 

The results were substantial, to say the least. Actually, people liked it more mentally too as there was less thinking on their end. Less thinking makes the training session much more free-flowing too which is an added unforeseen bonus!

Ps. I actually use a four-week model with my 1:1 clients and I've found an additional week to coach my clients with the same lifts is optimal without getting stale performing the same exercises. 

The Benefits

• Technique improvements: My clients found themselves getting sore from exercises that they didn’t typically get sore from.
• More time spent training vs. learning: The way I look at it is this, week #1 is spent learning new variations and getting comfortable likely leaving more reps in the tank, week #2 is spent dialing in technique, and week 3 (and 4 for 1:1) is spent increasing intensity.
• For conditioning better gauge of improvement & work capacity when using the same variations for multiple weeks: Using repetition is not only beneficial with strength modalities but works wonders with conditioning for many of the same reasons as it does strength work, but also to improve pacing and use of energy.
• Nagging pain management: Clients that had a history of front deltoid and lower back issues would note improvements in these areas.
• Recovery improvements: HRV scores improved and as we know, how you feel is one of the most subjective things in the fitness industry so having something tangible like HRV eliminates the chance of error.
• Better time management: My clients' training does not require the same amount of thought and their time is better used when they're in the gym.
• Constant variance leads to constant assessment: If programming is varied too often it becomes harder to know what's actually working and what is not.
• Online training benefits: No one wants to spend their entire session on their phone watching demo videos and less variability allows people to put their time and attention into actually training vs. checking their phone.

Additional Considerations

Keep in mind that I work with a lot of former CrossFit athletes as many of you know, and former CF athletes are some of the most ADHD people on the planet. I have had clients that don’t even want to repeat the same warm-up in the same week, so variance has always been a staple.

But now I’ve seen the benefits of less variance firsthand, and people with less experience can benefit from less variance more than people with higher training ages. Exposure to the basic lifts and the same warm-ups for three weeks at a time will afford people the ability to improve motor patterns.

What will work best for you?

Clearly, what has worked for my clients may not work best for you. The only way to discover what works best for you is to spend time in the trenches experimenting.

From my own experience, I’ve seen that for three weeks, I can continue to make progress, but after three weeks, I have little desire to use the same variations anymore and am ready for a chance.

Some personality types can use the same variations longer and still be engaged in their program. If that’s you, go for it!

I’d recommend starting with three weeks and then tailoring your approach from there. Again, time in the trenches will afford you the best education in terms of what works best for you.