Most people find a routine they like and stick to it...forever. This mentality (keeping your workouts the same) is helpful for people who are just beginning their fitness program, because it allows them to do their exercises without much thought. The novice exerciser needs to focus on making exercise a habit. Science has proven that the biggest gains and results are seen when the person makes the transition from inactivity to some activity, even if that activity is low-intensity. This is great news: for the first several months that the former couch potato exercises after they begin a program, they have a chance to see immediate results.  

Several months later, these people are doing the same routine, but not getting any results. The probability of a “relapse to inactivity” is high during this time, since the person becomes frustrated at the lack of results, and the motivation begins to wear off. It has been noted that the fitness program needs to be a regular occurrence for longer than 6 months in order for the person to be less likely to stray. The aforementioned plateaus occur within the first 2 months, so the remaining 4 months are the troublesome times.  

It is not uncommon to hear about people who exercised regularly, did so for many months, or even years, and then they stopped. What happened? Boredom, lack of results, no motivation, injury? These are some of the reasons that changing your workouts is imperative! The body adapts to stress, and unless new stressors are added to the body, it will not make any more changes. Changes to the workout may be as easy as mixing up the body parts that are worked together. Instead of chest/back, shoulders/triceps, legs/biceps, the new routine becomes something like: chest/shoulders, bicep/back, triceps/legs. Another change may include varying your sets and repetitions for an entire month. The person lifting light weights changes to lifting heavy weights, and vice versa. If the routine consists of full body exercises every time you are at the gym, try breaking it up so that you are only doing a few body parts (with more exercises for these parts and more sets and reps). Those who only perform 'split days' and area-specific exercises can change to a few weeks of full-body workouts. Consider doing two days of cardio in a row and then weight lifting two days in a row. Another easy change is to try all new exercises. The rules are simple: whatever exercises you are doing now, you cannot do for 4 weeks. This means finding alternatives, getting out of your comfort zone, getting creative, and asking questions about new possibilities.  

How many people are satisfied eating the same meals every day? The body and mind crave variety, and your exercise program needs to satisfy this need. Any health and fitness professional understands the importance of cycling your routine. Depending on your goal and your time frame, the exercise program should be changed regularly. Exercise programs are broken down into macro, meso, and micro cycles. This breakdown allows you to look at the whole year, and then break it down into smaller chunks of time with the appropriate exercise program. The macro-cycle is the overall plan that may take 8-12 months to complete. The meso-cycle includes 4-6 months of time, and the micro-cycle can be 1-3 months of time. The fitness plan would change at each of these phases. For instance, the goal of losing 50 pounds is the macro cycle which contains 2 meso cycles, each of which contains several micro cycles. Careful planning and constant changes of the workout plan keep your regimen dynamic: they don’t allow the body to get complacent. Your body sees each routine as a different challenge and must therefore adapt and make changes. Changes are the key to seeing results, staying motivated, and making exercise a part of your everyday life.

Manny Escalante, Jr. MA, ATC, CPT has a Master's Degree in Sports Medicine,

 is a Certified Athletic Trainer, and Certified Personal Trainer.

Competed in bodybuilding and a 3 time Ironman Triathlon Finisher