Should I be changing my exercise workout?

The body adapts to the stimulation is experiences. Ask your body to do things that are really hard and it will respond and improve. If you never ask more from yourself you’ll stay where you are.

137JEC wrote: »

Hi,

Wondering if anyone can give me some guidance. As well as running 4/5 times a week I also do a daily dvd workout. This has always been the 30 day shred for me, I like the mix of strength/cardio/abs and that it is shorter and so I can fit it into my daily routine.

I've completed this 30 day workout several times, it still challenges me but not as much as when I first started. I'd be happy to do it again but I've read that your body gets used to the same exercises and you should try new things to keep improving your fitness, is that right? Is it important for me to keep changing my exercise routine? I've just got to maintenance now so I want to focus on being as fit as I can.

Thanks for any advice.

Depends...you get better at anything with practice...but typically when you get better you're able to do more. For example, my primary cardiovascular exercise is cycling. The more I cycle, the better I get...I can go further and harder and faster. The more I cycle, my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) increases which means that my cycling workouts, while they may be the same in structure, are always increasing in the power I'm using because I'm always going to be working at some % of my FTP and the more my FTP increases, the higher the watts go to maintain that same % of work. Same concept for running. The more someone runs, the better they get...and they go further and faster.

For things like DVD workouts, classes, and weight lifting routines, people typically move on to more advanced levels of those things to continue challenging their fitness. A beginner program, for example, is no longer going to provide enough stimuli to illicit further fitness adaptation so you stay where you are. There's nothing wrong with that either provided one is comfortable with their current fitness level. At some point, most people simply strive to maintain their current fitness level as they get to a point of diminishing returns. I would be one of those people. I am capable of doing everything I want or need to do physically. I am not an elite athlete, nor do I want to be, nor do I have the time to train like one...but I'm functionally capable of doing everything I want to do.

As a matter of general physical fitness, there is benefit to engaging in a variety of physical activities vs. specializing. When you specialize, you get very good at that one specific thing, but may not be physically competent elsewhere. For example, I know people who live in the weight room but do very little cardiovascular work. They are very competent lifters, but couldn't run a few miles to save their lives. I know marathon runners who can't even bench press the bar because they don't engage in any kind of resistance training.

I spent about 5 years heavily involved in endurance cycling and training and participating in century and half century rides. I became very good at that one specialization, but other areas of my fitness lagged. I still ride quite a bit, but as a matter of general fitness I mix in some mountain biking and hiking...spend a couple of days in the weight room...do yoga once per week and do some rock climbing and bouldering here and there...swimming in the summer, etc. It's not so much about my body being used to something as much as it is about having more well rounded fitness...and the fact that my endurance cycling days are behind me. This also cuts down on overuse stress and injuries which are prominent issues when you specialize.

positiveyou1 wrote: »

your correct, the body does get used to whats coming, and this is a bad thing if your wanting to gain improvements - its like eating the same meal everyday, at first it taste great but eventually it just a chore to eat- the best way to shock the body is to confuse the body/muscles so it doesnt know whats coming next - So mix up your routines, add more weight, or fast/slow moves, do advanced prssups, if your doing squats as a jump to the squat or squat followed by a fast run on spot and back to a squat-- just if you keep the body surprised, it will develop to react.

NopeNopeNope.

Think about it: If this were true, those Tour de France cyclists, and Olympic endurance athletes who spend hours daily on their sport would eventually require fewer calories, stop making fitness progress, doing the same ol' sport and adjunct training (like purpose-specific weight training). But that's not what happens, not at all.

All those endurance athletes require thousands of calories of food daily to avoid losing weight beyond what's right for their sport, and they keep making progress doing the same well-chosen activities (but increasing their pace, resistance, or other intensity variables in a sensibly progressive way).

Us regular folks have the same physiology, even if we may not work as hard, have not worked as long, or have the same amount of genetic raw talent as a base.

Sure, if someone wants to work on different aspects of fitness, they may want to add or change activities.

Me, I've been rowing (on-water and machine) for a couple of decades. I can keep making progress, just rowing (and maybe doing the same ol' adjunct lifting), as long as I progress my rowing pace (or other intensity variables). At constant body weight, the same activity intensity/duration will burn roughly the same number of calories **, fit or unfit. It just feels waaay easier as one gets fitter - that's the "getting fitter" adaptation, in a nutshell.

** True even if a heart rate monitor suggests otherwise, because work (in the physics sense) determines calorie burn, and heart rate goes down with cardiovascular fitness improvement because the heart becomes more strong/efficient, pumps more blood per beat, delivering more oxygen per beat, so it beats slower to support the same work and the same calorie burn.

If I, as a rower, want to work on some fitness aspect that rowing doesn't much emphasize, like upper body push strength, or ability to do the splits or pull-ups or something, let alone (say) swim skills . . . then more rowing won't get me there. I need to do different exercises to develop different capabilities.

Shocking your body, keeping it surprised - that's the kind of thing that so-called fitness sites (like Beachbody and their ilk) claim in order to keep people buying new programs, fitness equipment, etc. If you think about how elite athletes train, it's obviously nonsense. Us average people don't have completely different physiology from elites, we're just different in effort and talent.