Exercising daily is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. However, simply hitting the gym day in and out and going through the same routine exercises is not a very efficient approach to get into shape. If you have a particular fitness target in mind, scaling the difficulty and level of your workouts as you progress is important. Whether you are trying to bulk up or trying to lose weight, increasing the difficulty of your workout regimen as you progress will lead to better results. However, to do so, you need to track your progress. Even more important is ensuring that you make progress and are not stuck on a plateau.
You can introduce different changes into your workout regimen that can help ensure that you continue to progress and monitor the same. Here are a few ways of ensuring that you are making progress.
Track Your Progress
Before you go about introducing changes to your workouts to make them more difficult and challenging for a stronger you, you need to be able to track your progress. Only then will you be able to make suitable changes. There are different ways of doing this. The most effective approach is to maintain a workout journal. All you need to do is maintain a record of the amount of resistance that you used during a particular exercise and the number of reps you were able to perform. Doing this will also keep you motivated as you will be able to visualize your progress. You can use other methods as well, like periodically measuring your body mass index and your physical capabilities, and simply using a tape measure to look for any improvements. Testing your fitness level once a month using a predetermined set of exercise routines can be a good way of monitoring your progress.
Increase The Resistance
As you progress and improve your strength and stamina, the exercises start to appear simple and do not present the same challenge that they once used to. This is a clear indication that you have progressed over time and continuing with the same exercises would not prove beneficial. When you reach that stage you should increase the difficulty of the exercise by increasing the weight. If you do use weights and perform bodyweight exercises, it would be a good idea to increase the intensity of the exercises by using resistance bands. Changing the tempo of the exercise can also help alter its intensity.
Shorten The Breaks
By reducing the length of the break between consecutive sets and exercises, you can modulate the level and difficulty of your exercises. This is because decreasing the duration of the break without reducing the intensity of the exercises forces your body to heal faster. Being able to perform the same number of repetitions per set even after reducing the resting period is a clear sign of progress.
Experiment With Exercises
Performing the same set of exercises as part of your daily exercise regimen, in addition to being boring, has numerous disadvantages. To begin with, your body becomes used to the exercise and your progress slows down. What is worse is that it can stress your joints and lead to an injury. An injury can be a major setback and your workout routine can get affected.
Recovering from an injury could take anywhere from a few days to even a few months. By repeatedly changing the exercises that you perform, you can avoid overstressing particular joints; reducing the chances of an injury. The fitness trainers behind https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mma.spartan suggest mixing up your exercise routine with Mixed Martial Arts style workouts which can be tailored to all fitness levels. These exercise routines are high-intensity workouts that target major muscle groups and accommodate both gym and home-based workouts. Experimenting with different exercises will not just help you progress but will also help keep you interested.
Increase The Number Of Repetitions
Increasing the number of repetitions you perform for each exercise is another great way of ensuring your progression. However, while using this approach, you must take care to not let your form get affected. You could either increase the number of sets you perform or the number of repetitions per set. In addition to this, you could also add a drop set to your exercise routine. A drop set is a low-intensity set that is performed after finishing all your regular sets. Adding a drop set to your routine will help deliver better results and improve your endurance.
You can introduce various changes to your workout routine to ensure that you continue to progress. However, before you go about changing your exercise routine, you should start tracking your progress. Tracking your progress by maintaining a workout or fitness journal will not just help you scale up the level of your exercises when required but will also help identify what works for you and what doesn’t. Following these methods can help you ensure continuous progress and monitor it as well.