Creating a workout plan and following it can be quite a challenge. You need to take into account every aspect involved, from training every muscle group to making sure the exercise is right for your overall aim, whether it’s losing weight, toning up or just keeping fit. As we are all creatures of habit, once we step out of our comfort zone and start attending classes or training at the gym, we tend to stick to a routine.

Escape The Routine

What if I told you that you need to break that routine and challenge yourself even more? See, like us, our bodies tend to adapt to certain situations and get comfortable. So that workout plan or class you found challenging eight weeks ago won’t be as challenging today. What should you do? The answer is switch up your routine. Depending on your fitness level, we recommend changing your workout plan every 6 to 8 weeks as a beginner, 3 to 6 weeks as an intermediate, or 1-2 weeks as advanced. This is because the better your fitness level, the most likely you are to adapt quickly to a workout routine. It may sound a bit drastic, but in order to see those results you want, you should continuously challenge yourself.

Break Through the Plateau

I will give you an example of your truly: during my workout sessions, I like to monitor my activity with my sports watch, where I can see the calories burnt and other insightful information. What I found peculiar at one point was that, whilst attending my regular fitness classes, I was burning fewer and fewer calories, although I was working as hard as before. So I did a bit of research and found out that, when you do the same routine several times, your body gets used to it and becomes very efficient in the sense that it burns fewer and fewer calories, because it’s accustomed to that workout plan. So in order to challenge our bodies, we need to constantly switch up our workouts so we make sure we’re always working.

Build New Muscles

Did you notice how, when the Olympics were on, you could tell the sport of different athletes by just their body shape? You can quickly identify a swimmer by their powerful arms or a runner by their chiseled legs, as, when training, professional athletes solely focus on the muscles they need for their sport. But gym goers should do a bit of everything, to build endurance, stamina and improve overall health. This way, you’ll look great and be ready to take on a variety of activities, while constantly challenging your body and building new muscles.

Avoid Overuse Injuries

Another good reason to change your routine is to prevent injuries caused by repetitive motions - called ‘repetitive strain injury’. This occurs when you do a set of motions repeatedly - whether it’s running, playing tennis, kicking or punching, or even performing the same swimming stroke. When you mix up your activities, you give overused areas of your body a chance to rest and recover, while working other muscles. Equally, if you do have an injury, by performing an activity that doesn’t strain that part of the body, you enable yourself to stay in shape and heal at the same time.

Train Your Brain

Yes, you read that right. By always challenging ourselves and using different parts of our body to perform various activities, we use different neutrons in our brain, which keep the brain active, engaged and challenged. This is why they say that, when you exercise, you train your mind and
your body.

Be More Social and Learn New Things

By performing new activities, you learn new things while challenging your body. This way, the likelihood of getting bored is very dim, as you’re always engaged. Also, by stepping out of your comfort zone, you enable yourself to meet new people and workout partners, who can motivate you to work harder, as well as have fun learning new things.

Did we convince you or would you like more information on the subject? Either way, why not come in and have a chat with the Synergy Mentors, who can advise you on how you could change your workout so you can make the most of it.