Variety seems to be the buzzword in the fitness industry these days. Everyone’s talking variety. I’ve read and witnessed a lot of trainers and strength coaches espouse the necessity of including variety so as to avoid running into a plateau. But so often they only mention adding variety by changing the exercises or movements employed in ones workout, which leaves one under the impression that the only way to make continued progress is to keep changing the exercises. So is there a way to add variety without changing the exercises in your program? To that I answer Yes my dear Watson. It’s a concept known as same but different. Rather than using only exercise selection as your training variable to be changed, you keep the same exercises and change other variables such as reps, sets, rest periods, and tempo. So it’s the same exercises, but a different stimulus is applied in the form of manipulating other training variables which allows progress to continue. Same but different, if you will. By manipulating other training variables, and not just the exercise(s) used, you are still applying the principles of overload and progression which are necessary for continued progress and increases in hypertrophy, strength, and/or endurance.

To learn more take a look at the article Variety In Training.