By Janet Luhrs, www.simpleliving.com
Do you find yourself falling into the same workout routine simply because it seems too complicated to change things up or think of a new approach?
I get it. But guess what? I have a simple plan that makes it easy to bring variety to your workouts without a detailed, complicated plan or having to learn new techniques.
First, it’s not only your mind that needs variety to keep things fun and fresh, but your body needs the same thing.Doing the same cardio and resistance routines leads to your body hitting a “performance plateau” resulting in a lack of results. Changing things up allows your body to recover and also repair.
- If you belong to a gym, changing your cardio can be as easy as getting outside of your comfort zone and taking a different group class than usual. If you naturally gravitate toward Pilates or yoga, register for a boot camp. Are you a devoted spin junkie? Get into a dance aerobics class instead.
- No gym? No worries, try this simple approach to switching up your cardio: If you normally run, M, W, F, get out and cycle. If you normally hit the elliptical at home, get out and do an outdoor boot camp. Your body will appreciate the break from your usual pounding on the same muscle groups.
- Regardless of which new cardio you try, challenge yourself to use the HIIT method to make your cardio efforts more effective and keep your time manageable.
- Body weight exercises keep your resistance training simple since they usually work multiple body parts at once. The simplicity is the lack of gear, weight machines, or even dumb bells.
In addition to the above, learn to see opportunities throughout your day to “workout” without having to head to the gym mid-day. Take the stairs, park furthest back in the parking lot as you can, do a full squat when you need to lift something. Each time you need to move, do it with full use of your body as possible.
Let me know what strategies you have adopted to keep your workouts simple, yet fresh.
Featured photo source: Pixabay.com.
