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Wednesday, June 7, 2006
IS YOUR ROUTINE STALE? HAS YOUR PROGRESS STALLED?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People, who have become frustrated because they seem to be unable to reach their fitness goals, often approach me and ask for advice. The question starts “Why can’t I build muscle or lose the last 10 pounds? Often, the problem is that the person hasn’t changed their workout routine in months and in some cases years. There is a name for this lack of change in training circles and it is called ‘adaptation’.
Adaptation is the way the body ‘programs’ muscles to remember particular activities, movements or skills. By repeating a skill or activity, the body adapts to the stress and the skill becomes easier to perform. Adaptation explains why beginning exercisers are often sore after starting a new routine, but after doing the same exercise for weeks and months they experience little, if any, muscle soreness. Adaptation also explains the need to vary the routine. In order for a muscle to increase strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is used to. To increase endurance, muscles must work for a longer period of time than they are used to.
We’ve all heard the old adage ‘If you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always get what you always got’. It really is true when you’re talking about the abilities of the human body. The efficiency of our physical machine to reinterpret how it performs work and do so with the least effort possible is nothing short of miraculous. In order to continuously improve you must change your workouts periodically. I personally like to change up every 4 – 6 weeks (depending on my goal at the time). Changing your program can be as simple as reversing the order in which you perform your current workout. Your body will accept this reversal as a new routine. Where your body is concerned, any change will bring about a response and your body will respond admirably.
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