Changing Up Your Exercise Routine

I’m starting up today’s post with an honesty moment: I’m a SUPER Type A personality. I have a very meticulous morning routine and I plan out my days so much that it gets on my husband’s nerves. I run certain days and cross train on the others.  HOWEVER, when it comes to exercise, you MUST change up your routine occasionally.

Now, I’m not saying go into the gym with no plan at all. That’s just madness. What I’m talking about is finding your comfort zone and pushing past it. For example, it’s no secret that I’m a runner. It’s rare that I go a week without it. A good way to change up my exercise routine would be to add in sprints or hill intervals to my runs. What this does is it challenges your body and keeps your mind engaged.

Your body is this ever changing complex organism. If you do something long enough, you’ll build what’s called muscle memory. Professional athletes thrive on this and that’s why you’ll see Quarterbacks practice passes multiple times a day and basketball players spend HOURS on free throws. Once your body gets the basic mechanics of the moves, then you can practice throwing harder, faster, etc.

Same with running and weight lifting, your body finds a balance and gets used to it. If you do a workout long enough, you’ll find that you’re not as tired as you were when you started. A workout that you couldn’t get through three months ago may seem easier now. Your body knows what to expect and has adapted. Now that you’re here, you want to continue changing it up and challenging your body. This is how you become strong and faster.

Ways To Change Your Routine

1.  Interval training – if you want to run, break it up into intervals and run at different speeds. This doesn’t have to be complicated, you can sprint to choruses in songs or find landmarks along your trail.
2. Add body weight exercises to your runs – city running usually means waiting at intersections and lights. Why not use this time to add in some squats or push ups. If you run at a park, do a different workout at each park bench you pass.
3. Change your speed – one thing I learned is your speed affects the difficulty when you’re lifting weights. Do five reps of an exercise slow and really focus on your form and the muscles you’re working. This will improve the exercise and increase the burn.
4. Try something new – even if you don’t like it. It will remind you what you truly love to do and give you a motivation to hit the ground running!

What’s one way you change up your routine?