Considering that our bodies get used to what we do everyday and over time, it is important in weight loss to change things up periodically with our workouts. This could mean anything from exercising more to increasing the amount of effort we exert during exercise, or even adding in a new exercise. It is anything that wakes our bodies up and helps prevent us from hitting a plateau from doing the same thing day in and day out!
It’s also useful in order to keep challenging our bodies to do a little more, which will help increase our endurance and strength as we move forward with our goals. So besides being a way to help stave off a plateau, changing our workouts up will help increase our fitness levels, which is a fun and interesting reward for our hard work and a great step towards overall health! Not to mention the added bonus of keeping things fresh for our minds as well. At least half of our battle is mental and keeping things fresh for our minds in this way really aids in keeping things interesting and engaging.
The recommended timeframe for changing things up is every 6-8 weeks, which works really well all around. This Spark People article explains why it’s a good idea: Habits of Fit People: Mix It Up. In there it’s mentioned that you should change your entire workout routine up every 6-8 weeks, however I believe that you can change things up in smaller ways if that works for you. I know that I was very limited in the beginning, where walking outside and indoor walking videos were pretty much my only workout choices, and with my joint problem and other issues that’s all I could do. So I changed things up by doing completely different walking video workouts from the library every two weeks at first. That worked for me. I also increased my walking distance and time, did longer videos at home, etc. as I was physically able to.
Trust me, changing things up here and there will keep things moving smoothly for much longer than they would be if we simply moved at a steady, unchanging pace. Try something new and exciting for you when your workout routine gets boring, add more time or intensity to your current workouts when you’re able to, and do whatever works for you to keep things fresh!
~Bonnie~
Be the Best You 