How many people do you know that do the same exercise routines month after month but never seem to get anywhere? If you’ve been using the same exercises, weights, reps and sets for longer than a month than maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit and add a little variety to the mix.
Doing the same routine week after week will cause your weight loss to stall and your workouts to become boring. Instead of sticking to a few basic exercises in your routine consider adding a wider variety of exercises that work your muscles from different angles. There are hundreds of different exercises to choose from that you could incorporate safely into your old routine. See Exercise Directory
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For instance if you are doing flat supine bench presses one day than on your next chest day try doing an incline bench press instead. This exercise will still work the pictorials but from a slightly different angle. Other good exercises for the chest include the cable crossover and dumbbell flyes. Mix things up a bit by doing different exercises on different days for the same muscle group. One day you might start off with flat benches followed by dumbbell flyes on an incline bench. The next time you work chest you might try your hand at doing parallel dips followed by some cable crossovers then maybe some pushups. There is no end to the variety of exercises that you can implement.
Another good way to change your routine around is by doing different reps and sets each workout. For instance one workout you could do 3 sets of 8~10 reps. Then for your next workout try doing 5 sets of 5 reps with slightly heavier weights. Different rep schemes work different types of muscle fibers. Different exercises work your muscles from different angles. If you keep doing the same exercises every workout than that will lead to a lopsided development which could result in possible injury. If you are injured than you would have to work around that injury or stop working out altogether. This is not a very desirable condition to be in.
Muscle confusion is the principle of changing your routines to keep your body guessing. The human body is very efficient at adapting to its environment and will seek to maintain homeostasis. If you’ve hit a plateau than you will need to make changes in your diet and to your exercise routine. Why limit your choices when you can have it all? So confusion is actually a good thing.
Another way to add variety to a stalled program would be by switching from free weights to pulley cable exercises, changing from machines to dumbbells, or doing a combination of all three. Free weights are good for working your stabilizer muscles that criss-cross across the landscape of your body. Pulley cable machines have the added advantage of applying continuous tension to every movement while being easy on the joints.
Cross training is another excellent way to add variety to your routines. It will help you to work your muscles more effectively and reduce the boredom of doing the same type of training month after month, decade after decade. No wonder so many people dislike exercising. This change in routines will also be useful in helping to prevent injury from overuse caused by doing the same repetitive exercises.
Cross training involves doing several different types of exercise during the same week. This will help you to improve your level of cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength by training in different ways. This will allow you more freedom to vary your workouts when you have several different activities to choose from and will also allow you more flexibility in planning out your routines by choosing those activities that are available to you in your area. For example you could alternate between running and swimming during the week and go bicycling on weekends. All of these different activities will work similar muscle but from many angles.
Cross training will give you a balanced total body workout by including a variety of exercises to train with. Did I also mention that this will help to prevent boredom so that you will more likely stick to your routine? Nod an approving yes.
A good general fitness routine consists of three things; 1) Aerobic exercises to increase cardiovascular fitness i.e. jogging, swimming, biking, etc. 2) Resistance anaerobic strength training to build lean muscle, working all the major core muscle groups including the legs, hips, waist, chest, and back. 3) Stretching everyday for 5~10 minutes. Get into the habit of walking every day for no less than 30 minutes. You can also break it up into three ten minute brisk walks each.
Regularly changing your workout routines encourages your body to adapt and become stronger. Changing the manner in which you exercise will prevent you from hitting the dreaded plateau and result in new levels of increased fitness and health for you. Aren’t you glad that you exercise with energy and enthusiasm?
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Muscle Confusion and Cross Training
Linear Mode
