By Staff
Many times I have heard workouts being compared to relationships. First you go through the "honeymoon phase" where everything is so new and exciting. In time this stage passes and you get into a routine with your workouts. Everyday it is the same old thing, nothing new, nothing exciting. Then along comes the boredom and just being comfortable with the relationship. It becomes time to find a way to make your relationship fun and exciting again.
So many of us can relate with the notion of how boring our workouts can become. Everyday you have the same routine. You walk the same 2 miles, lift the same sets of weights, swim the same laps in the pool and you feel like you are in a rut. Most people get to the point where they can do their workouts in their sleep. People get frustrated because they will get to a point that even though they are faithful to their exercise workouts they cannot seem to shed any weight.
The question is – what is there to do? Simple - rejuvenate, add excitement to your workout relationship, and boost your metabolism. Here are some tips:
1. To burn more calories throughout the day and raise your metabolism you need to
weight train. If you already weight train you will eventually need to find a new routine. There are many ways to do this. You can make it as simple as lifting the weights in a different angle or adding a new type of lift to your routine. Start using heavier weights. The weights you use now may only be stabilizing the muscle you have. If your muscle gets use to the weight then you will hit a plateau. Try going to the point where you absolutely cannot do another repetition. This is called fatiguing the muscle. You can also do a set of lifting to fatigue and then each set after that reduce your weight for about three more sets. You can do the reverse and begin lifting lightweights and move up to the point of fatigue with heavier weights. One last thing to try is supersets. This is where you pick a muscle, for example biceps. You would do three sets of different bicep exercises in a row without a break.
2. If walking and running are just not cutting it, add some depth to spice up the workout. Change your route so there are hills to go up and down. If you are on a treadmill use the incline button throughout your workout. Find a hill or stadium stairs and repetitively run up and down. Add intervals to the workout. Walk for one minute and run for three minutes. Just add a different walking and running route. Going in the same direction day after day can be boring. Add a different cardiovascular exercise like swimming or aerobics class to your routine.
3. Eat breakfast. Very, very, important. Breakfast helps keep your metabolism up and gives you that boost to get you going for the day. Those of us who forget to eat breakfast will tend to feel more worn down throughout the day, snack more, and overeat.
4. REST. When people hit plateaus in their routine they will then tend to overdo it trying to get over their plateau. Instead people need to know that taking a few days off for recovery is as important as the exercise.
Making sure you are aware of your exercise routine and knowing that at some point you are going to have to change it to keep seeing results is important.