Top 5 Fitness Plateau Busters

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Ah the infamous plateau...we've all been there. You've been busting your butt for months, working hard to get more fit or lose weight. Yet, for some odd reason, you suddenly stop losing weight; you're pant size has stayed the same; you just can't seem to run any faster. Don't panic! You've just hit your first plateau...or second...or third. The good news is it doesn't necessarily mean you need to spend more time in the gym or work harder in your routine. In fact, your routine is most likely the culprit.

Here are a few ways to break the cycle and begin to see results again.

Switch it Up

There are a few reasons you want to vary your workouts: avoiding boredom, cross-training to burn more calories and reach new levels of fitness, and avoiding plateaus. If you don't switch it up once in a while, your body will eventually go into cruise control. Basically, your body doesn't have to work as hard to do activities you're used to doing. Try new cardio exercises, or use some free weights instead of machines, do your normal routine backwards, try a group fitness class, take up mountain biking, anything to switch it up. By changing your routine, you will shock and surprise your body--in a good way--and force it to adapt, taking you to new fitness levels.

Eat More

Think about it; as your fitness level goes up, your body's metabolism may increase. Guess what, so will your caloric needs. Sometimes your body is simply crying for more nourishment. If you hit a plateau, just take a week or so to evaluate how much you're eating. You might need to eat a little more than you have in the past in order for your body to continue to increase fitness levels. If you feel hungry more often than you used to, this is a good indicator that you need to eat more to sustain the intensity of your current fitness program. Remember, WHAT you eat is more important than how much or how often you eat.

Vary Your Intensity

Just like varying your activities is important in avoiding or breaking a plateau, alternating intensity of your workouts is just as beneficial. Try planning specific intensities for different days of the week--low, moderate and high-intensity. Additionally, you can vary your intensity during the workout--great for fat burning! One of my favorite type of workouts is interval-training. Try alternating high and low intensity cardio training, perhaps changing every 2-3 minutes. Another great way to incorporate interval training is to switch between resistance training and cardio. Your options are endless.

Take A Vacation From Your Regular Routine

If you've hit a plateau, it could be time for you to take a break. Sometimes your body just needs rest, but that doesn't mean lay around on the couch all day. What you need is an active rest. Take a week off from your regular activities, and instead take some yoga classes or leisurely walks in the park. An active rest can rejuvenate the mind and the body, as well as allow for overworked muscles to rest and rebuild. You'll return to your normal routine refreshed and charged, ready for new challenges.

Get Some Sleep

If you're like me--night owl with a hectic day & evening schedule--you have to force yourself to go to bed. Getting an adequate amount of sleep will allow time for your muscles to recover from exercise--it's when we're asleep that all the awesome changes happen! Try to go for 8 hours to ensure you can come to your next exercise session with a full tank of gas (so to speak). =)

Ladies! Stop Being Afraid To Lift Weights!

Monday, July 13, 2009

OK I'll try to keep this brief, but this is a subject I tend to fly off the handle over. It just irks me when I hear women--in the same breathe--complain about how much they want to get in shape, but they won't lift weights because they don't want to get "big." Now that's just silly! What in the world gives women the idea that our bodies can come even close to producing the amount of the hormone necessary to build "bulky" muscles--testosterone? Calm down ladies! You will not bulk up and certainly won't get bigger by incorporating resistance training into your fitness plan. It's quite the opposite.

So how, then, do the women displayed on pages of bodybuilding magazines look that way? Glad you asked....

In order to build the kind of muscle you see these manly women sporting--no pun intended--you need to take 'stuff.' These ladies have done anything and everything to pack on the muscle; things like extremely high calorie diets, extremely heavy weight lifting--the kind where you need 2 spotters just to bust out a single repetition, STEROIDS (and the like--which are ILLEGAL by the way). Oh, and worst of all, many actually inject themselves with male hormones!!! No lie! Now I really don't know what would drive a woman to take it that far, but if you don't plan to do any of the above, you're safe.

Including weight training in your fitness regimen will not only help you achieve your goals faster; it will help shape your muscles. Furthermore, lifting very light weights that produce little or no resistance does nothing for you. Muscle responds to resistance, and if it's too light, then there's no reason for the body to change. Women who concentrate only on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. Now this doesn't mean stop doing your cardio. Balancing weight training, cardiovascular training and proper diet is the key to success. If you have all three ingredients, you can't be stopped baby!