08/07/2022
Plateau? Switch it up
In order to avoid hitting a plateau in your fitness progress, you’ll need to switch things up and change your workouts from time to time. How often, level and which exercise routine that works best for you will depend on many factors (your level of fitness, your goals, your genetic make-up), here are some general rules of thumb you can follow.
Generally, you should change your routine every six to eight weeks to allow for appropriate physiological adaptations (like changes in body composition), But, depending on your level of experience as an athlete, you may adapt faster or slower, which means it’s important to have a structured program and keep track of your progress.
If you’re still getting results, then stick with it. The general rule is that if fitness performance drops on some level or you have a general lack of motivation/drive to finish your routine then it’s time to switch it up. For example, if you're running a mile every day, you'll see improvement for probably about two weeks. Then, simply because you're doing the same thing over and over, you'll plateau or see a decrease in performance, motivation and drive so you’ll need to add on to your mile with added running or different exercises or some days run other days go to another fitness routine. There isn't a lot of science to explain why or how we plateau despite consistently, but the sure sign that it is time to switch things up is when your performance plateaus or decreases.
How to change up your workouts
There’s no one set way to do this. It really depends on your routine, but the idea is that with progressive overload—more sets, more reps, less rest, etc—you should be able to elicit physiological adaptations and see your body change the way you want. Before changing your actual exercises that you’re doing, consider adding more sets and/or reps or scale down the amount of rest you’re taking.
Add in different exercises— MMA fitness classes are the best as we’re always switching up the routine, exercises and fitness levels are easy to increase but you can always add in other things as well so if you’ve been working with dumbbells, try incorporating medicine balls, the cable machine, or kettlebells.
You don’t have to make huge, drastic changes to switch things up and see results. Try making small tweaks here and there like changing your grip when doing moves like deadlifts, pull-ups, and push-ups.
Basically the bottom line is If you’re not feeling challenged, or if your results plateau, make some changes. The more you challenge the body, the more you are forcing it to adapt. And adapting equals getting stronger, leaner, fit and closer to the goals you set for yourself