We can often become creatures of habit when it comes to exercise, sticking to the same routine that works. Regular exercise is important, but it is just as important to switch up your routine to target different muscles and areas of your body. This is how you improve your fitness and overall strength.
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Variety helps to keep the brain stimulated to prevent boredom and encourage motivation. It is way too easy to get comfortable with the familiar, although you can’t become better if you don’t get outside your comfort zone to try something new and exciting. Ben Lucas, owner of Sydney’s leading health and yoga studio Flow Athletic, shares his advice on why mixing up your exercise routine is so beneficial.
Keeps you motivated to exercise
Adding variety to your fitness schedule will help you stay motivated and excited to workout. If you find yourself counting down the seconds left on the exercise you are doing or hitting the gym simply because you ‘need’ to then it’s time you tried something different.
Keep your workouts from getting stale and boring by constantly trying new ways to stay active such as yoga, which has become increasingly popular for its help with mental clarity and stress management.
It is also a great workout to increase flexibility, stability and balance. Yoga can also help improve overall quality of life such as improving sleep, brain function and mobility.
Build new muscles
Have you ever noticed that boxers have a really defined core and arm muscles? That’s because athletes train the same muscles on a regular basis. But for recreational fitness, the best method is working all areas of the body to build optimum strength and fitness. This way you will gain strong arms, powerful legs/ glutes, killer core and healthy heart.
A trend that is hitting the fitness industry by storm is RUMBLE Boxing that features Aqua Bags filled with water to help reduce joint pain on impact to create more positive resistance. Originating in USA, this high-intensity cardio-based boxing workout is now available in Australia.
Meet new people
Another benefit of switching up your routine is the social aspect. Group exercise classes are an awesome way to meet new people and build positive relationships. It helps you stay engaged with exercise and potentially meet new workout partners.
High-intensity interval training (or HIIT) has become increasingly popular and is a circuit based class that involves short bursts of high energy hard work followed by a short rest recovery. This fast paced training burns calories without requiring too much time, they generally run for around 30-45 minutes. It is an efficient way to fit your cardio fitness in and socialise in a fun group environment.
Body needs to repair
If you do the same intense workout every day, your body doesn’t have enough time to heal certain muscle-groups which could lead to a higher risk of injury. It is essential to have less intense workout days to stop the body being overtrained as this could lead to soreness, fatigue and improper technique.
I always make sure to include a combination of cardio, strength and resistance training to my weekly schedule and a float therapy session. Float Therapy is a form of sensory deprivation which means it removes external stimuli such as sight and sound from the body. This helps you to mentally de-stress and feel a great sense of peace.
The Epson salt bath solution creates an anti-gravity effect helping to relax muscles and release tension. Many athletes and sporting teams integrate this into their fitness regime to treat various sports-related conditions and aid recovery.
Avoid a weight-loss plateau
At the start of your journey, you may find that you’re dropping the kilos and seeing amazing results. However, shortly down the track you may find that you start to remain the same weight and can’t achieve your fitness goals.
This is because your body gets used to is routine and therefore doesn’t consume as much energy. Basically, when you switch things up your body is constantly challenged and will shed more calories.
So, as well as keeping yourself mentally challenged, there are great physical benefits to switching up your exercise routine that will help your health and fitness goals stay on track.
About Ben Lucas
Ben was a professional NRL player for the Cronulla Sharks prior to getting into the fitness industry. After finishing his stint with the NRL, he fell into Ultra Endurance running and of course personal training, owning 3 x successful PT studios before selling them off to make room for Flow Athletic.
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