If you exercise regularly, it is likely that you have experienced extended periods of time when your body failed to respond to your workouts. Even though you were working out as you had in the past, you were not getting any results. Those periods are referred to as plateaus, and they can cause you to lose interest in your workouts. The key to moving past a plateau is to force your body to adapt by changing your routine. Consult with your health care provider before beginning a new exercise program.
Considerations
When you exercise regularly, the physical demands made on your body cause your body to adapt. For example, as your heart adapts to aerobic exercise, it becomes stronger and more efficient. As your heart becomes more efficient, your resting heart rate decreases. Because of this, continuing to improve your aerobic fitness requires you to exercise either at a faster pace or for a longer duration. When you lift weights, your body adapts by increasing active muscle fibers. To add muscle and strength, you have to progressively lift heavier weights. For you to determine that changes to your fitness program are meeting your goals, it is important that you conduct a fitness assessment every 30 days.
Variety
Adding variety to your workouts is an effective means of improving your results, and preventing boredom. Aerobic exercise, for example, often involves continuous, repetitious movements, which can become monotonous. You can add variety to your aerobic workouts, by cross-training. For example, alternate your aerobic workouts between jogging and riding a stationary bicycle. Cross-training also helps prevent injuries to connective tissue and bones that result from performing one type of repetitive exercise over time. You can add variety to weightlifting and aerobic exercise by combining both of them in a circuit weight training program. If you are using primarily weight machines for your resistance training, adding free-weight exercises helps build muscle mass by involving the use of your stabilizer muscles.
Intensity
Increasing the intensity of your workouts is an effective means of preventing exercise plateaus. When you lift weights, you can increase your intensity by incorporating techniques such as super sets, forced repetitions and negative repetitions. You can also increase your intensity by decreasing the amount of time you rest between sets. During your aerobic workouts, alternating between intervals of high-intensity exercise and active recovery can help you burn more calories.
Frequency
Working out more frequently can improve your results, provided you give your body adequate time to recover. If you overtrain, your muscles will not have adequate time to repair, and your strength and endurance will decrease. Generally, your muscles need a minimum of 24 to 48 hours to recover between workouts.
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