There are a number of reasons why someone would want to switch up their gym exercise routine: boredom, stagnation, or simply just wanting to try something new. Here are 5 ways you can easily switch up your gym exercise routine.

Get Back to the Basics

If you’re experiencing symptoms of fatigue and overtraining through your normal routine, it’s time to switch it up! Overtraining occurs when you exceed your body’s ability to recover from strenuous exercise. This can result in lack of progress or even a decrease in strength and fitness. A form of overtraining can occur from monotony in training, due to the central nervous system’s adaptation of repetition and lack of stimulation.

There’s nothing wrong with going light for a short period of time, like you did when you were first starting an exercise routine. Even an experienced gym goer will benefit from taking it easy from time to time. If you adopt a “beginner exercise routine” for a short while, you’ll allow your muscles to rest before making incremental changes again.

Swimming Exercise Routine

If you’ve been repeating the same gym exercise routine for awhile, at some point you might find yourself hitting a plateau. In other words, you’ll notice you won’t be making any more progress. Whether you’re a treadmill runner or a weight lifter, perhaps there’s a form of exercise you haven’t considered – swimming. A swimming exercise routine combines the best of both worlds. The water’s natural resistance will give you an element of muscle training, and the constant movement will also work your heart and lungs.

Access to indoor pools make a lap swimming exercise routine easy to do year-round. At LSF, you can reserve your lanes in advance through the MyLSF app. If you’re new to swimming, you can try private lessons to learn the basics or refine your stroke technique.

More Intensity, Shorter Time

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a 5-minute exercise routine every day? Unfortunately, that’s not the case, but that doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as a compact workout. High intensity interval training is one of the most effective ways to exercise. It involves short bursts of really intense anaerobic exercise followed by brief periods of recovery. HIIT can be either cardiovascular activity or resistance training, as long as it involves the components of maximal effort, duration, and short rest periods.

Group Fitness Classes

One of the easiest ways to switch up your gym exercise routine is by taking group fitness classes! Actually, group fitness classes can mix up your routine in more ways than one.

1. If you’ve never take a group fitness class, or haven’t for awhile, there are plenty of amazing options to choose from! Even better, you can try a bunch to see which one suits your preferences or fitness goals. At LSF, there are hundreds of classes taking place every week to fit in anyone’s schedule.
2. If you’re a regular for a particular class, odds are that your instructor is regularly changing the class so it never feels like two workouts are the same.
3. If you regularly take one class, you can always take a different class to mix it up!

Personal Training

If you don’t know exactly what else to try to break through your plateau, enlist the help of a professional! Personal trainers are experts in kinesiology and can help determine what exactly is causing you to be in a rut. They can design a brand new exercise routine for you, while supervising your movements to ensure you have proper form. Each workout will be progressive to make sure you’re always challenged.

Learn More About Personal Training at Illinois Center

Learn More About Personal Training at Lincoln Park