Everyone who works out regularly realizes that sometimes your workout routine becomes stale. No matter how much you love heading to the gym or following your personal fitness regime, it can be challenging to do the same routine every time you workout, especially once you realize you aren’t getting the same results or the ones you’d hoped to see.
You might notice you plateau and find it difficult to achieve your fitness goals. Instead of becoming discouraged, it’s important to recognize that it’s time to diversify your workout. CrossFit, in particular, recognizes the benefits of incorporating a variety of exercises into your routine and is one of the few workout programs that openly acknowledges the benefits of varied exercise. There are endless reasons it’s important to vary your workout routine; here are a few of the top ones.
Break a plateau
All too often, fitness enthusiasts find themselves plateauing. Whether it’s at a specific weight even though they just want to drop a few more pounds or it’s a PR you want to beat, but can’t seem to get the results you used to, plateauing frequently occurs for those who regularly workout. Changing up your exercise routine allows you to break through any plateaus preventing you from reaching your fitness goals.
Stimulate different muscles
If you do the same routine over and over, you never work different muscle groups. You run the risk of over-developing specific muscles and not paying enough attention to others. Diversifying your workout routine helps build all your muscle groups instead of a select few. You’ll avoid bulking up one area of your body too much and you’ll be evenly toned throughout your entire physique.
Avoid boredom
No matter how much you value fitness, doing the same exercises over and over again becomes tedious. Even changing the order in which you do certain routines can help prevent feeling bored with your workout regiment. Add something new into your routine on a regular basis and don’t feel bad switching a stale exercise for something more exciting.
Prevent injury
An incredibly important part of diversifying your workout routine is that it helps prevent injury. If you work the same muscles too much and avoid building up the rest of your body, you run the risk of injuring yourself. It’s vital to provide your body with time to heal after a particularly intense workout; if you ran ten miles one day, focus on your upper body the next. Give your leg muscles time to rest and repair themselves. As your muscles repair, you’ll become stronger and it’s more effective than constantly straining the same muscles.
Boost brainpower
Exercise has been shown to greatly increase brain health and function. Your brain benefits from any kind of exercise because it helps it stay flexible and prevents natural decay that often occurs with aging. A new exercise adds another aspect that benefits your brain; learning something new helps keep your brain healthy as well. Teaching yourself a new fitness routine gives your brain needed benefits from physical exercise as well as the mental exercise of learning new methods of working out.
