If you Love Your Workout it may be time to change it

If you are regularly going to the gym and have been using the same work out program for a while, it is probably time to change it . Your body will learn an exercise program the same way that your brain learns things like this 2, 4, 6, ___ . You really didn't have to work out your brain very hard to come up with the next number 8. Although when you were first learning math it wasn't so easy.

If you feel that you have reached a plateau, and you are not getting the results that you are expecting, here are a few ways that you can change your work out :

• Use a different machine to work the same muscle

• Change the order that you go through your exercises

• Change the Weight and Reps --- You can use less weight and do more reps or you can use more weight and less reps

• Use Dumbbells and Olympic Free Weights instead of machines -- When you are exercising with free weights you are not only working your core muscle but all the little stabilizer muscles that you need to hold the weights steady. When you are using the machines you are not working these muscles.

• You might even think about changing the groups of exercises that you do each day. Instead of doing Chest, Back, Legs in a day you might want to do Arms , Back, Legs

• Once a week really do a heavy work out. Increase your weight and do less reps for your whole program

How often should you change your Program ?

If you are changing your program to fast you are not giving your muscles a chance to adapt to the work out and if you don't change it enough your muscles are getting lazy and need to start thinking again. So I would say at least every month you should change something in your program. Better yet change one exercise on your work out each week that you have been doing a month or more.

Last Note:

Remember that in different times of the year you are going to be doing different activities. For example in the winter time you might like to ski, so you should incorporate some exercises that work the muscles you use during skiing. Also during the summer you are outside more playing sports so you might want to change your cardio program to match your activity.

Good Luck,

Tony