If you’ve ever tried to create a workout program on your own, you’ll find there are hundreds of different exercises and many different ways to do them to reap benefits. It can be confusing, which is why we provide the programs live or online. We make sure you get variety in workouts for several reasons. The first is easy. It prevents the boredom that can occur when you do the same workout repeatedly. You simply go through the motions after four to six weeks and eventually that boredom will make it harder and harder to workout, until eventually you quit.
You’ll push past the plateau when you switch your workout regularly.
When you do the same workout repeatedly, plateauing often occurs. It’s when the body becomes too efficient at doing an exercise or specific group of exercises and burns fewer calories. Efficiency is good in our daily life, but when it comes to weight loss, not good at all. You’ll see slower weight loss and less progress, which is why trainers offer a wide variety of workouts to help you accomplish your goals.
When you do the same workout repeatedly, you can develop stress injuries.
Runners often have stress injuries like shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, stress fractures and plantar fasciitis. Those come from doing the same type of movement continuously. You’ve heard of tennis elbow and workout injuries from strength training that start with pain, but if the exercise continues, ends in chronic persistent pain even when not lifting. Overuse injuries mostly occur in older individuals, but if you run constantly, it can happen at any age.
You need to work muscles on all planes to ensure functional fitness.
There are three planes of motion. The first divides the body into left and right halves. It’s called the sagittal plane and encompasses backward and forward movements. Bicep curls and back squats exercise that plane. The second is the frontal plane, that divides the body into a front half and back half. It involves side to side movements, like side bends. The third plane is the transverse plane and that divides the body into the top half and bottom half. When you do twisting movements you’re working that plane. Switching exercises frequently focuses on strengthening muscles on all planes.
There are many muscles in your body, some very small, some large. When you vary your workout, you ensure that you build all the muscles in your body.
Switching your workout is good for both your body and brain. Learning new exercises, like learning movements in ball room dancing, stimulates the creation of neurons in your brain and keeps the ones you have in better health, boosting your memory and aiding your learning skills.
Switching your workout keeps you more excited about exercise. Some people find that it also helps to find a different way to workout, like bike riding, when you don’t go to the gym or exercise with an online program.
Every time you switch your workout, your body has to adapt to the change. You might feel sore for the first few days, until it makes the adaptation.