Michele Maroldo

When your exercise routine becomes a bore and you don’t see results in the mirror, it may be time for a change. Read on and follow these easy steps to get your routine and your body back on track.
You’ve been working out for months, you’ve got your routine down pat, and when you first started you saw significant results. Now that the months have past, you’re seeing less and less results. What gives? You’ve reached an exercise plateau. You might find this hard to believe given the fact that you’re still exercising so I’ll give you an example. A man of average size and build begins a job as a construction worker, when he first begins his muscles are very sore at the end of the work day. Each day that goes by he becomes less and less sore until he no longer feels muscle soreness. He begins to notice that his arms are becoming more muscular and well-defined due to swinging a hammer all day. However, in time he no longer sees growth in his arm muscles, they remain the same despite his continuing to swing a hammer day in and day out. Why these results? His body has become accustomed to this motion and it’s no longer a challenge to his muscles because he uses the same weight of hammer every day.

So how do you continue to challenge your muscles? You must revamp your routine every so often, as your body will become accustom to a daily routine of exercise. The first step would be to increase your weight resistance as your muscles become less challenged with the current weight you’re using. Depending on the exercise you are performing, increase your weights in 5 pound increments. Some exercises, however, will not allow for a 5 pound increase. An example of this would be most shoulder exercises like side lateral raises. You may only be able to increase the weight when performing this exercise by 1 pound increments. If you don’t have access to dumbbells or there are no dumbbells increasing by 1 pound you can try performing your shoulder exercises using a shoulder machine or cable crossovers.

The second step would be to change the actual routine. For example, if you’re doing chest and triceps on Monday, legs on Wednesday, and back and biceps on Friday try doing chest and biceps on Monday, hamstrings on one Wednesday and quads on the following Wednesday, and back and triceps on Friday.

The third step would be to change the exact exercises you are currently performing. For example, if you’re doing barbell bench presses for chest try doing flat dumbbell presses and incline dumbbell presses. It sounds like the same exercise but you would be surprised at how your body will respond to such a slight change as a barbell and a dumbbell. If you’re working out in a gym and you usually use free weights, try utilizing the machines even if you use machines one week and back to free weights the following week. Try alternating this way for a couple of months.

Last, but not least, there is one step that may be the hardest step of all for a true work-out enthusiast - take a week off. For some of us it’s easier said than done but I can tell you that your body will thank you. Every now and then it’s important to give your body ultimate rest. Try to occupy yourself in some other way and convince your mind that you are doing something to help your physique by taking a week off. When you return to the gym or to whatever exercise routine you have, you will feel the results instantly. You will return refreshed and renewed.

An exercise plateau is inevitable but it doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Follow these easy steps to get your exercise routine back on track and giving you the type of results you once saw.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 1:32 pm and is filed under weight training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.