Creatures of Habit

 

Every gym has them.  They are the members who have been going consistently, five days a week, month after month, year after year.  And you easily recognize them because they look the same, day after day, month after month,  year after year.  And by the same, I mean they still haven't lost the weight they set out to lose or achieved the muscle definition they wanted.  I'll bet you even know what they are going to do for their workout; walk on the treadmill at a steady state for 30 minutes, do the ab cruncher, stretch their calf muscles and hit the shower.  They look the same because their routine is the same.

As Metabolic Warriors you know the importance of variety in your workout routine in order to get results.  As your Trainers we certainly know the importance of changing up your workouts, and yet when we go to do our own workouts we sometimes have to fight the tendency to be creatures of habit and settle into the same old exercises.  It takes some planning and thought to change things up and it often just feels easier to keep on doing what we have been doing.  But if you want to achieve something different, you have to do something different.

The good news is that if you are one of our Warriors you are getting a varied strength and cardio workout when you attend training.  But if you are supplementing your Metabolic Training with other cardio or strength training make sure you get the most out of it by changing things up on a regular basis. 

Some simple ideas for changing up your workouts:
Increase the ramp incline and resistance on the elliptical for a steady climb workout
Decrease the ramp incline on the elliptical and do intervals
Shorten your treadmill workout and go faster
Add speed walk intervals when walking your dog
Power hike the hills on your hike and recover on the flats and downhills
Do dumbbell presses instead of barbell presses
Do diamond or offset push ups instead of regular push ups
Do slow motion or negative emphasis reps in full range of motion instead of regular speed reps
Vary the number of reps and sets for your exercises

Our bodies very quickly adapt to the exercises or activities that we do by becoming stronger and more efficient with the movement.  That is good news when we are training for an athletic event where the goal is to become stronger and/or faster.  But as we become stronger and more efficient with an activity our bodies don't have to work as hard and they burn fewer calories.  This is when we hit those dreaded plateaus.  If our goal is to progress beyond where we currently are, we need to change the way we are working our body.  Even small changes challenge our bodies in different ways.  A perfect example is the 10 minute strength sequence we are doing in our workouts this month.  We have done countless push ups, rows, bicep curls, and triceps extensions.  Yet, when we do them in a different format we find them very challenging and our bodies respond by becoming stronger.  Remember one of our favorite sayings, "If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you."