4 Exercise Tips To Conquer A Fitness Plateau

​There are several reasons to change up your fitness routine. Perhaps you've been doing it a while, and it's not as exciting or challenging as it once was. Or maybe your progress has stalled, and you've hit a plateau where you don't feel like you're getting leaner, stronger or making as much progress. 

​That's normal. If you've bee exercising for a while, you may have to overcome many plateaus in your exercising career. The same exercises as when you started would no longer be appropriate for you. Here are 4 tips to push through those plateaus and keep progressing towards your fitness goals.

Tip #1. Make A Change To Your Training Frequency

More specifically, this means changing how often you perform specific elements of your training. Ask yourself a few questions about your current programme:
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• How often do you do a particular exercise (e.g. run, cycle, rowing, swimming, or resistance training)
• Is this too often or not often enough?
• If you're using resistance training with weights or bands, how often do you train each muscle group or perform the same exercise each week?

Training frequency matters because too much can be just as limiting to your progress as too little. It can decrease motivation and even harm your excitement to train. It's essential to think about your training's impact on your physique and your mental fortitude.

Tip #2. Make A Change To The Intensity Of Your Training

Intensity is about how hard your workout subjectively feels to you on any given day. This could be about moving faster, lifting heavier, or limiting the amount of time between movements, so you are working while under fatigue.

Working out consistently hard all the time can increase your risk of injury. If you're continually aiming to "go beast mode" in the gym, it can take a fair bit of motivation to get the session done in the first place. If you find yourself feeling lethargic when you think about your training, decrease the training intensity to have more rest periods, more time in between sessions and fewer sessions during a week. You can also mix up your routine to include more steady-state work with a lower heart rate. 

Similarly, if you're bored with your training and feeling uninspired about your next training session, it could be that it's too easy. You could change your routine to make it more challenging and increase motivation, perhaps setting yourself a more difficult goal for a short period. 

When thinking about how you could try to change your programme, consider the FITT principle to keep your motivation to exercise high, limit boredom by doing the same thing repeatedly, and overcome a training plateau. 
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• Frequency: how often you train
• Intensity: how hard you train and how much time you have to recover
• Time: how long the training sessions are
• Type of exercise: merely changing up the activity.

As you get fitter, improve your skills and develop your neurological system to perform the exercises, your body gets used to what you were doing before. That means that you may not get the results you're looking for by not changing the workouts from time to time.

Tip #3. Try Something New

One of the most effective ways to adjust your programming and make a new plan is to work alongside a personal trainer. An expert can build a new, exciting workout and maybe more intense than what you're currently doing. A trainer could also give you some new ideas about how you could challenge your body differently.

Think about what sounds like fun rather than what aligns best with your performance goals. This is the time to re-energise and motivate yourself to enjoy your exercise again.

Tip #4. Keep An Open Mind About Being A Beginner

It can feel daunting to try something new, especially if you're pretty experienced with your own training. But remember, growth is found in the challenge - and that's firmly outside your comfort zones. Keep the attitude of learning for fun, and don't worry too much about trying to master something. Just enjoy it.

Being flexible about planning your journey towards long term health and fitness will be essential. Being able to adjust your plan as you go will make your training both fun and sustainable.

Conclusion

​Working out is something that hopefully stays with you for a long time. Changing your exercise methods and trying new things can add an element of novelty and challenge back into your plan.