It’s Move It Monday, what are you doing today to start off your week? Hopefully it isn’t the same exercise routine you did yesterday. One of the challenges to maintaining an exercise program is that we often get bored when performing the same routine. You are more likely to be successful at losing weight and keeping the weight off when you mix up your routine. When first starting an exercise program you will notice that the weight melts off but after a few weeks of performing the same exercise your weight has the potential to plateau. This happens because your body becomes used to the same exercise and it is no longer challenged, thus your weight stagnates. When your weight becomes stagnant, you get discouraged and than the dreaded happens, you give up. Here are some benefits of varying your exercise routine:
- Avoids the weight plateau and helps you break through a plateau.
- Engages new muscle. When you incorporate different exercises you are likely to build muscle that you haven’t worked before.
- Eliminates boredom.
Ways To Mix It Up
- Increase the intensity. As an example, if you are a jogger add 30-second sprints.
- Incorporate a new exercise. Maybe you’ve wondered what all the rage is about Soul Cycle and Zumba. Stop being curious and try it out.
- Compete with yourself. You can increase your speed, number of reps or the weight.
- Challenge yourself. Think outside the box and think beyond what you taught you were capable of. Training for a marathon is a great example. If you are not ready for a marathon than a 5K Walk/Run is a great place to start.
- Do something different everyday.
- Take your workout outside the gym. Take a hike or get a buddy and take it to the tennis court.
There are so many exercises and activities to keep you moving. If your routine is mostly based on strength training than you should add aerobic activity to the mix. You can start with a 5-minute warm up on a treadmill, bike, or an elliptical machine. Or perhaps a few jumping jacks, skips with a jump rope, mountain climbers or burpees. You can end your strength training routine with a 30-minute aerobic activity such as spinning, Zumba or a swim. If you are an aerobic franatic than you should incorporate strength training to your routine to reap the benefits of strength training as discussed in last week’s post of Move It Monday.
Take-away point is that you always want to mix it to keep it up. You never want to get bored with your routine. When you follow the same routine your weight may plateau and you won’t see results. Avoid boredom and stagnation and mix it up to keep up.