Dealing with Exercise Plateau

We are creature of habits and create a routine that give us pleasure and comfort, doesn’t matter how big or small. This routine can add order to our lives, it won’t bear the same results if we talk of working out, or following the same exercise for months and years together.

This turns our exercise in boring session full of monotony which doesn’t bear desired results.

If we keep on performing the same kind of activity for the same amount of time and with the same level of intensity, our body eventually becomes used to that type of exercise and its calorie burning capacity reduces. Research proves that if we follow the same exercise regime for days all together the number of calories we burn can be reduced to 20-25% of what we burn when we initiate the same workout program.

If you perform aerobics for 30 minutes at the same intensity every day, you won’t lose the amount of calories you lost earlier. You body will get in the habit of the exercise routine and your exercise won’t have the same effect, besides making your workout mundane and boring.

The best option to overcome any boring exercise or weight plateau you need to mix a variety of workouts better known as Cross Train yourself. This happens because when you do the same workout your body becomes accustomed, but by cross training your body responds and burns more calories as our body regulates the amount of calories burnt by different forms of exercise.

For instance next time you hit the gym, instead of 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill bike for around 20 minutes, and go on the stepper for 20 minutes. Try dance aerobics, swimming or yoga on a day and weight training the other. See the new kind of exercises hitting your city and try them out it can be anything from kick boxing to water aerobics to Pilates, you name it.

You don’t need to go to a gym for cross training; you can do the same at home or outdoors, like aerobics on one day, brisk walk or jogging the other and biking on a particular day.

Research shows when you follow a particular exercise regime and follow the same, you would reach an exercise plateau within six – eight weeks. You can avoid the same by playing with the exercise regime regularly, this will help you deal with the plateau and avoid monotony. You should ideally have 2 alternative forms of exercise for alternate days.

The results of cross training would help you lead a fitter, healthier and slimmer life.