Is transference between movements mostly circumstantial?

[El Rojo]

After reading the great blog post by Andy Baker on programming the assistant lifts, and learning about how individual is the transference to the main movements that you get from them, a question comes to mind: is this transference mostly circumstantial, based on your specific weaknesses of that time, or is it more or less constant over the training life of a particular lifter?

So for instance a couple years ago I really gave incline presses a go, and I found out they didn't had much carryover either to my bench or press. Should I expect that to remain that way for the rest of my carreer or my strengths and weaknesses as a lifter might change in such a way that two years down the line incline presses are precisely the accessory I'll need to be doing?

Thanks for chiming in on the topic.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

It can and does change over time. Unfortunately I haven’t given this particular question (which is a very good one) enough thought to give you a clear and concise over arching summary as to why.

But I think it would have a lot to do with changes in build/weight as you add muscle mass. Certainly if you take a weakness and make it a strength, then you now have a new weak point somewhere else.

Overly simple example: skinny guy has small pecs and delts and needs to build those up with lots of benching and pressing. Tricep work probably doesn’t do much for him at this point. But Weak skinny guy gets thicker in the chest and Delts over time, now he might benefit from more direct Tricep work if that area is under developed and weak.

Other factors also play a role, even things like skill as a lifter. For instance, many beginners lack the skill or low back strength or mind-muscle connection to do good Barbell rows. As their overall ability and strength increases they can actually do decent Barbell rows which can then be useful.

[El Rojo]

Appreciate the input.

So following up on that, in practice, when you or one of your trainees find out that a lift gets them zero carryover, how do you treat it over time?

Do you banish it altogether? Maybe you try to introduce it only when changes on the specific weaknesses of that lifter make you think he could benefit from it this time? Or perhaps you just put them back into your rotation after a while and see if it sticks this time?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Most of the time if an exercise doesn't work it's because the lifter is having difficulty mastering the technique or the lift feels so awkward to them that they aren't putting maximum effort into the exercise because they're worried about something else (like it bothers their wrist, etc).

So in that case we may omit the exercise pretty quickly because I don't like dicking around forever on assistance work trying to master technique and almost always with assistance work there is an appropriate substitute that will yield a similar effect so it's rarely imperative that we master something. And assistance exercises are rarely worth creating an unneeded problem, so if something is irritating a joint or whatever, i'll swap it out quick with something else.

This happens more with online clients than gym clients, because in the gym I'm usually about 99% on target with my exercise selection and I rarely give someone something they're going to struggle with.