Getting in to a a healthy exercise routine is one of the best things you can do for yourself. You’ll look better, feel better and have more confidence. But there’s also a downside. After a while the initial progress can begin to slow and you hit the wall. This is due to most beginners starting a routine and sticking to it like glue. Routines are definitely good for short periods of time but every so often you have to change things up. As humans our bodies adapt to the activity we perform most for survival, so naturally lifting the same weights or performing the same exercises can eventually lead to a day in day out routine of going through the motions without any progress.

This is why we must try to mix things up. Keeping things fresh will prevent your body from adapting to any particular routine and have it constantly being shocked from different angles and keeping that progress constant. The thought of constantly thinking of new routines and workouts however can be a bit daunting as a lot of us really like certain exercises. Exercises like Bench Press, Squats and Deadlifts (The Big Three – compound movements) should always be regularly integrated into your routines.  So how can you constantly keep things mixed up and fresh?  With a few simple concepts:

Change the order of your workout

This is a simple but highly effective way to keep things fresh.  For example, say you perform a workout including Bench Press, Dumbbell Flyes and Incline Dumbbell Press. Most of the time you’d just do a few sets of Bench Press, then a few of Flyes and so on. Why not do one set of each?  Perform 1 set of Bench, 1 Set of Flyes and a final set of Dumbbell incline then repeat for how many sets you wish to perform.  These can be done with rest between each set or you can treat it like a superset (without rest).  Another good way of further mixing things up is to reverse the order of your exercises.  Perform a few sets of each consecutively in reverse, or even follow the 1 set  method in reverse.  By mixing and changing these things around you’ve got a few different possibilities for one area of work, and you haven’t even altered which exercises you’re doing!  Another great way to mix things up is change the weekly order of your workout, once again you can reverse the order of your workout, eg start with chest on Monday and legs on Friday instead of legs on Monday and Chest on Friday.  Or even group some muscle groups to together or have a week of full body workouts.  These simple methods can create many different ways to structure your training.

Change the exercises you’re performing

Alternate exercises are a good way to work a muscle in a way it’s not used to being worked.  Simple things like switching from a barbell to dumbbells can have a drastic effect on your workout.  Switching from barbell curls to dumbbell curls or bench press to dumbbell press are good examples.  All it takes is a little thought.  Another approach is to try leaving the machines and cables behind and using free weights or vice versa.  Even just changing the nature of each exercise can make a huge difference.  Try slowing the speed of each rep, drop the weight & up the reps, or even increase the weight and lower the reps.  These methods of changing an exercise or even just the nature of the movement is a surefire way to keep things fresh.

Add an extra element of intensity

Try utilising supersets for a week, then switch from that into starting each workout with a burnout set.  You can alter from week to week or workout to workout.  It’s all about removing the monotonous routine and trying something you’re not so familiar with.  There are many ways to add to the intensity of the workout (see our post on adding intensity to your workouts here for some more ideas). It can be just a minor change that will have your heart pumping that bit harder , and in turn keep you away from that plateau.

Here’s something I’d like you to try, if you think you’ve been caught in a rut: apply the above principles to your routine and count how many different workouts you can come up with.  The final number may surprise you!  Let me know how you go!

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