Changing up exercise routine?

Ok, so Ive heard that you have to change up your routine because your body gets used to doing the same thing. I do an hr of cardio and hr of weights. I alternated with treadmill, bike, and elliptical. What can I change if Im doing everything @ my gym? Confused and need help.

Good question!  I'll be watching for the answers because I need help in this too.  I try to switch up my weight routines, but after a while they all seem the same.  Sometimes I substitute classes for the weight routines.  We have a great "Body Definition" class at my gym.  There are lots of classes like Zumba or step classes that you might be able to substitute for some of your routines.  I'm limited because I can't dance and I can't run!

Zumba is so much fun! They offer it at my gym -- what a fun way to sweat!

I saw an almost immediate break in my stall when I switched from all cardio to mostly weights for a week.  I had been stuck at 205 for weeks, I switched over to lifting weights for a week, and just a light walk on the treadmill, and my weight dropped from 205 to 198 during that week.

But since you are already doing weights, perhaps you can focus on other specific muscles, or can you do some swimming?  The other thing that helps break up the body getting used to exercise is to do complex movments that require multiple muscles.  We have a class at the Y that is taught by a drill instructor, he had us doing things like running laps while skipping rope.  That was a killer workout, I hadn't been that tired in a long time.  Or he had us running sprints back and forth across the gym, but at each end we had to stop and do pushups.

Good luck.

Scott

When they say you need to "Change" your workout routine, they usually talk about gaining muscle mass. When you do the same repetative workout routine, (Lifting weights) your body gets used to the routine and the associated resistance, and can stop building muscle. This is what they call a cycle. Cycles should last 4-8 weeks (Longer or shorter depending on what you are trying to accomplish), but it is good when training with weights, to mix the routine up every so often so you can develop different fast twitch muscles and stabalizer muscles. The purpose of "Cardio" is to improve your cardiovascular health, not necesarily build muscle, although that is an added benefit of cardio. Keep doing what you are doing, unless you are just bored with it, but aside from lifting weights, there really is no need to change your routine, but trying new stuff is sometimes fun. Good luck with it and keep up the great work. (Try taking the excercise outdoors too, go running, go for a bike ride, get out and nature and there might be a good chance you will fall in love with those excercises)!

-Dan

THANKS FOR ALL THE RESPONSES!

You can change up your cardio, too.  Try different levels, different intensities, different elevations.  Try running on a reverse rotation on the elliptical or using an interval program on the treadmill.  You'll engage different muscles, possibly triggering a gain in performance or muscle mass.  Either way you burn more calories.

I'm fortunate enough to work out with a trainer at my gym 2 x's a week and he always changes up my workouts so I don't get bored and see results he also is always challenging me with different exercises.