Do you really need all these varieties of exercises?

When I look at videos online from various fitness gurus or influencers it seems like every time I turn around someone has come up with a new form of exercise that targets different muscle groups. So now instead of just doing seated bicep curls you now have 45 different variations of the same exercise that has to be done in a very specific way in order to further target muscle groups to get that "full pump."

I'm not a trainer, but I do lift almost daily and I have to say that for most people, this is just a bunch of useless shite that you do not need to do.

There's a reason why these people do this and throw new exercises at you constantly and it is the same reason why Pepsi comes out with 25 new beverages every year even though there is nothing wrong with the original: They need fresh material to keep people using their product. The product in this case is for the most part their Instagram or YouTube channel.

One guy that really pisses me off with this is Athlean-X. This guy makes nearly daily videos about how to tweak your workout and he constantly introduces new exercises that are just slight variations from things that most people do normally, like seated incline curls. This guy is far more qualified than I am to give fitness advice and he is in much better shape than me but check it out: I am a NORMIE and so are most other people. These variations that he describes are simply going to over-complicate your workout and also perhaps encourage injury because they put you into odd positions that without a trainer watching you, you run a serious risk of doing them wrong.

Athlean-X seems to have an ongoing beef with another YT influencer Sean Nalewanj who seems to make a habit of making his videos about debunking whatever it is that Athlean-X released earlier in the week.

In this regard these two guys have actually worked out a pretty great system because one guy makes a video with some silly variation of an exercise, the other guy rebukes him, then the original poster rebukes the rebuke. Normally they are respectful of one another and recognize that the other person is clever and is a good trainer, but in the meantime those of us stuck in the middle are still looking at information that for the most part is totally unnecessary for us.

Take the first image I posted above the guy is doing reverse-grip standing curls and these are meant to target muscles that can't be engaged by doing traditional grip curls. I have done these... They hurt.... and I don't really feel the engagement in my biceps the way that I would like it to.

I'm not saying that I know more than these two and many other influencers do because I am quite certain that is not the case. I drink beer almost every day and didn't go to school for anything fitness related. What I AM trying to say is that for most people, the stuff that these guys are recommending is not something that you actually need to bother yourself with and if you try to incorporate it into your exercise regimen, you are going to stand a very good chance of accidentally hurting yourself because you don't know what the fuck you are doing.

I think that for most people you really just need to stick to the basics. I've seen great gains from just doing the same exercises and targeting the major muscle groups. Am i tweaking minor muscle fibers in the latimus maximus (made up term) in the back part of my bicep? Probably not. But I think that just like with diet, if you over-complicate your workout you are simply increasing the risk of failure or worse, injury.

I like that people like these guys exist but at the end of the day I think there is only so much that can be said about how to workout and the rest of it is just made up shit so that someone can make a video to get millions of views and therefore make money.

For a vast majority of people out there including and especially normies, you do NOT NEED these various adaptations of popular exercises. If you one day experience that you are not longer getting gains but also can't up how heavy you are lifting, I think it might be a better idea to change which part of your body you are working on rather than trying to engage every single fiber of a particular muscle group.

I just think it is a waste of time.

I'm not trying to achieve a Mr. Universe physique. With my lifestyle this will never be possible. I think that it is important for people to keep their exercise routines as simple as possible and this will increase the chance of success. I lost 50 lbs and kept it off making small, manageable changes to my life and by not overcomplicating things. If I can do it, I believe other people can as well.