How often should I be changing my workout routine??
How often should i be changing my workout routine??
It can be so frustrating when you have been really consistent with your training and you start to plateau with your progress. But how often should you be changing things up to avoid plateauing?
A slightly irritating answer is that is depends on a few things…
- How long have you been training? If you are brand new to training you will need a much longer period of time to acclimatise to training than someone who has been lifting heavy weights for years.
- What are your goals? If your goal is to build muscle then you will have a very different training programme to someone who is training for an endurance event such as a marathon.
- Your strength level, mobility and any injuries? You may have been training for years but are not actually that strong, or you may have a few niggles that have been holding you back from progressing. Maybe your mobility is holding you back from squatting heavier or causing you neck and back pain, which in turn is preventing you from progressing with your upper body exercises.
Whatever level you are at you should be changing your workout routine to continually challenge your muscles and see change.
If you are brand new to training then it would be worth sticking with a program for 6-8 weeks to build a good foundation and allow your body to get used to your new routine. Within this period of time you could make the exercises slightly more advanced as they become too easy, but stick with general plan.
If you have been training for a while and have a good foundation then typically changing your programme every 3-5 weeks is a good plan. This give the muscles time to adapt to the new weight/ intensity/ duration.
There are various ways your change routine.
- Progressive overload. This is where you gradually increase the load. For example, you have been doing 15 goblet squats with a 10kg dumbbell for 3 sets. After 3-5 weeks you would change this to 10 goblet squats with a 14kg dumbbell for 4 sets.
- Reduce your rest periods. Giving yourself less time to rest in-between weighted sets or interval sets is another way to push your body to the next level. For example you have been doing a HIIT workout where you have been doing 6 exercises, 30 seconds of work 30 seconds of rest. Change this to 15 seconds of rest.
- Adjust the exercises by making them more advanced. You could be doing press ups against a wall, but make it more advance by doing the press ups with your hands on bench or the floor. You could make your step ups more advanced by increasing the height of the step.
If you are struggling to progress in our training get in touch today and I can help you advance your programme and make your training time much more efficient.
