Fitness Success Tip 2 : Challenge Yourself

Has your workout become just a tad boring? Are you finding your 20 minute daily run easier than you used to?

Surely that’s a good thing?

Well, actually, it isn’t.

The thing is, to improve any aspect of your fitness you need to exercise consistently and regularly on an ongoing basis – that means you need to show up regularly (3 or more times a week) and do the work.

But it’s not enough to carry out the same old routine day after day or week after week because you will not get any fitter (or stronger) from that.

Bodies need to be challenged to make any kind of improvement – a workout which you do repeatedly will get easier over time but your body won’t bother to take you to the next level because it knows it can cope with the work it is having to do just as it is.

So when a workout gets too familiar then you don’t get the full benefit from the time you spend exercising.

Stamina and strength increase when you make new demands on your body – your body is designed to respond so that it can handle the new level of work you are asking of it.

Best results are obtained not by switching exercises excessively but by doing the same types of exercise for a period of time while constantly increasing the effort required.

Not in a big way, you understand, but in tiny increments. This means things like running a little faster, adding a minute on the treadmill or a steeper incline, adding one more rep, a little more weight and so on.

This is called progressive overload and it will bring continuous improvement in its wake rather than the stagnation you can expect if you just do the same old, same old routine.

So don’t let yourself get bored. Make sure you challenge your body every workout, every day, every week for maximum benefit in minimum time.

December 29, 2007 | Filed Under Fitness Tips