How often should I mix up my workout routine?

Question

I keep reading about how your body will plateao if you don't switch up your routine but no one says how often you should switch it up. Any idea?

Answer 1

What happens when you plateau is your body is getting too used to a workout and there is no stimulation anymore. Doing something your body doesn't recognize is one of the factors that will help avoid this. Try changing the order of your exercises every couple weeks. For example, you can mix main muscles with their submuscle groups such as chest, then triceps. Back and biceps. Then after working out like this for a couple weeks, start isolating the sub groups. Work only arms for one day (Triceps and biceps together). Then work chest and shoulders a couple days later. Something along those lines. For specific examples of various workout routines you can visit websites or read Muscle & Fitness.

If you workout 5 or 6 times a week, for the beginning of the week, work entirely on your strength. Don't max out more than once a month, because it will affect your lifting or workout potential for the rest of the week. Then for the last part of the week, lift lighter but more reps. This will work on your endurance. Overall, it will balance out. And just a note, testosterone levels are twice in the morning what they are at night. So, try early morning workouts and see if they are for you (Testosterone being one of the primary strength components in the male body).

Also, if you already have a workout that always worked for you, I suggest changing the order of exercises. For example, every time I worked out my chest, my triceps always gave out before my chest. I would usually start out with bench press workouts. I never fully "killed" my chest and I really wanted to make it sore instead of my triceps all the time, so I kept the same exercises but simply changed the routine. For my first workout, instead of bench press which also works out the triceps, I chose a chest specific workout such as the chest fly. That helped me target my chest before I began bench press. Then, after that exercise, I did bench press and my chest gave out first giving a fuller workout to my chest. Point is, change is crucial to working out.

Answer 2

My trainer at my gym says to switch routines every 4 weeks. This gives your body 1 week to adjust to a new routine, 2 weeks to get the full advantage of the routine, and 1 week to get used to it. By then, your body is well adjusted and ready for something new. And they don't have to be big changes, it can be something small, like working out on a different machine, adding or removing a weight routine, or starting a new class. Any small changes and your body will know it.

Answer 3

Every few weeks atleast. Or you can record your progress and switch when your progress starts to slow. Or switch it up every workout and you will never have hit a plateau. Make a few routines ahead of time and rotate between them.

Answer 4

I observed on the information this previous summer to blend it up a greater often than that the occasion given replaced into in case you walk 2 miles Mon, Wed and Fri. you will desire to evaluate doing an incline on Wed to make it greater severe, and jog one mile of the walk on Fri. The speaker suggested that the substantial element is to make helpful your physique can no longer get in a habitual, and whilst that's only too habitual try something a splash greater advantageous to shake issues up.