The Importance of Changing Your Workout Routine

You’ve got to keep your workout routine varied. By By SPC Ryan D. Green, via Wikimedia Commons

A few weeks ago I walked into the gym when it was pouring with rain outside and thought, why am I here? I could be at home all snuggled up on the couch watching television in my pajamas. Instead I am here, in this humid gym. It was then that I realized the reason for my lack of motivation was because I have done the same workouts for months.

Every day that I go to the gym, it is the same thing, maybe in a different sequential order but the same exercises. After doing the same exercises day after day and month after month, I slowly lost my motivation. It was at that moment that I made the choice to switch up my workouts.

There are a few good benefits for switching up the exercises in your daily workouts. For me the most important thing to is to make my workouts exciting and challenging. Without the challenge of new exercises, it is easy to get bored and not put in the effort needed to make a workout effective.

When you do the same workouts, your muscles are not stressed enough and therefore they don’t tear, reconstruct and grow in a healthy cycle. It’s important to incorporate new and more difficult exercises into your routine. If you are a runner, then change it up by doing sprints instead of a 14-mile run. The same goes for if you lift weights, switch up the reps, sets and the amount you lift. This can be done in Yoga as well. I’m sure there is a difficult pose you have always wanted to do but haven’t tried. The best thing to do is work on new, varied things a little at a time.

It is extremely important to establish fitness goals, no matter how crazy or out of reach they may sound. If you need some inspiration, check out Instagram pictures and videos of your favorite types of exercises. When you establish what your goal is, slowly work towards that, every day. For me, my goal is to be able to not only do multiple pull-ups but also to be able to do body weight exercises on the bars.

My first step is to just hang from a bar and let my muscles feel my body weight. Then I will try to do a pull up. The first ones will definitely be assisted with a band, but as time goes on, I can develop those muscles and be able to achieve my goals. So I encourage everyone to write down their fitness goals and the process to getting there. Make your first step towards that today, right now!