In exercise, we talk about two different kinds of progression.
The first and most obvious is progression that refers to the level at which you are exercising and where you go from there. As I am sure you know, it is important to progress slowly making sure that you do what we call “earning your progression.”
Changing up the type of resistance, say, to kettleballs, is one way of progressing your routine. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)
What that means is making sure that you can do the first level of any
exercise with good form and strength before moving into a harder
modification.
It is always better to err on the side of caution and do the harder
progression in the next set or workout rather than jump ahead and risk
injuring yourself. If you find yourself doing something that is too easy, take a mental inventory of your form, brace your abs and squeeze your muscles.
Even the most elementary exercise can work for you if you focus on the
right things.
The second kind of exercise progression is the concept of continuing to switch up your routine to force you body to continue to adapt, which equals change.
If you never change, you will never change.
People always ask me….is it really so bad to do the same workouts all the time? The answer to that is-YES!
Once you’ve found a workout that you like, itap easy to find yourself
repeating it over and over and over again. The trouble, is, even the best and most valuable workout loses itap effectiveness over time.
In exercise, this is called the principle of adaption. It basically means that your body becomes very efficient at doing the same exercise over and over. This is great for sports performance, but not that great for weight loss, increasing strength, or becoming more physically fit.
It is also possible to develop muscle imbalances and repetitive movement injuries if you don’t vary your workouts. Not to mention you will eventually hit a plateau where you fail to see any additional change, get bored and perhaps even give up on your plan.
How do you know when to implement progression? Once you’ve done the same workout for 4-6 weeks, itap time to mix things up — you’ll know you are there once your workouts start to feel easy or simple.
Without getting too scientific here are savvy ways you can switch things up in your routine:
1. Change your position. Look for ways you can change your position to make moves a bit different. If you usually do regular squats, try taking the feet wide and the toes out or feet close together for a narrow stance.
Change your chest press by going to an incline or change your arm position during pushups and try a staggered version. This will fire different muscle fibers.
2. Change the type of resistance. If you gravitate to machines, try free weights or the cable machines. Try resistance bands or kettlebells. Movements will always feel different when you change the resistance.
3. Go unilateral. For instance, go from two legs/arms to one leg/arm. Not only does this increase the difficulty, it can balance out your strong side with your weak side. One-legged squats are much harder than regular squats and one-legged dead lifts challenge the standing leg in a whole new way. For the upper body you can try single arm rows or a single arm press
4. Add a balance challenge. Going unilateral, as mentioned above, can
make balancing more of a challenge but, even more challenging, is using something like a ball, foam roller, Bosu or inflatable disc.
5. Do more compound movements. Doing two exercises at once can
save time and add a new dimension to your workouts. Try doing a squat, curl and press to target the legs, biceps and shoulders or try a rear lunge with a row to work the back and the legs. Not only will you save time, but compound exercises are actually a form of metabolic conditioning allowing you to burn more calories and get more out of your exercise time.
6. Change rep/set ratio. If you always do 3 sets of 15 reps try 4 sets of 10 reps and then next go to 2 sets of 20 reps and then 8 sets of 5 reps.
7. Change work/rest ratio. If you are doing timed intervals and always do 30 seconds of work followed by 1 min of rest try 30 sec of rest or active rest using a different muscle group. If you are doing repetition sets and always rest 30 seconds between sets, try active rest with an opposing muscle group or a longer or shorter rest between sets.
Dana Fullington is a certified personal trainer, nutrition and fitness coach. She offers personal training and small group training through Small Group Fit Club. Contact her at personaltrainerdenver-dana.com.
