Have you ever noticed, whether with work, study, school, our personal relationships or what ever it is that we do in our everyday lifestyles, can become pretty monotonous and ineffective if we never added a little variation to it to make it worth while? We can all relate to some degree of what it’s like when we wake up each day and do the same exact thing over and over again without switching up how we did something, doing it in a different order, or simply doing something different altogether. Now, obviously we’re not referring to how we customize our daily lives, however, when it comes to planning our weekly workouts, (that is if you are actively doing a workout program or would like to start a workout program) we also should follow these same general principles and guidelines.
The basic principle of variation in physical activity and exercise programs implies that the body will respond to exercise in a multi-dimensional way as opposed to training it in one dimension only, and thereby yielding a better overall response to your exercise programs. For example, if one wants to start a 3 day per week cardio training workout, there are several different ways to ascertain cardiovascular fitness goals. He or she would perform a circuit workout on day 1, treadmill running on day 2, and interval training (running) on day 3, in an attempt to “shock the body” each workout day and disable it from getting too accustomed to the same workout day after day. Incorporating this principle into your workout programs will yield a more multi-dimensional result, and promote greater overall physical strength and endurance. The same would also hold true if every meal we ate day after day, throughout the day, was prepared with the exact same ingredients. Regardless of how nutritious the meal might be, over time our body’s metabolism would no longer respond to it in the same way.
For those of you who do switch up your workouts and say,”Shane, I’m still not getting those results your referring to,” keep in mind, the principle of variation is not limited to merely changing workouts each workout day, but consider also the frequency (how often), intensity (how tough), and the duration (how long) of each workout as well. Often times exercisers will consider alternative ways to stay fit but never consider modifying these other factors that also play a huge role in determining the quality of your workouts programs. Lastly, I encourage you to seek fitness classes as well, such as Spinning, Zumba, Body Pump, or Kick Boxing, as a means of giving your exercise fitness programs the balance and stability it needs to keep you improving and encouraged, and bringing life and refreshment to your fitness programs. God bless and enjoy your workouts!