|
Author: Mubarakah Ibrahim Article source: http://www.health-spot.info/. Used with author's permission.
How to Break Your Plateau
Today is a typical morning like any other for you. You get up, go for your workout at the gym or go for a nice run, before you start your day. Or maybe you go from work to the gym to jump on the treadmill for 40 minutes then home. No matter when you fit your workout in, you are to be commended you've stuck to it. SO why isn't the weight coming off like it did when you first started your new workout routine. Everything is the same. Cardio 3 to 5 days a week. Weight training 2 to 3 days a week. Your diet is still in tack (despite the PMS breakdown in the chocolate abyss). If you are still doing everything the same and you can't seem to drop those last 10 lbs then you can't drop those last 10 lbs because you are still doing everything the same. (I know I just reverse the sentence but read it again and you'll catch on if you didn't the first time.)
Your body is a wonderfully efficient machine. Everything from your head to your toes adapt to your environment, your activities and your lifestyle. Your exercise regimen is no different.
Here is the scenario.
Your Story...
You began the new year with a new found dedication to running. After all, you need to drop those extra pounds. So you go for a 45 minute run 5 days a week and weight train in the gym 2 times a week. In January and February the pounds fell off. You consistently left 2 even 4 lbs some weeks, chocking on your dust as you laughed your way all the way to the clothing store. But here we are in April and the scale hasn't moved since the beginning of March. What happened?
Your Body's Story…
When you began your program, your body worked hard to keep up with the new intensity and duration of your exercise regimen. As a result it burned energy (calories/fat) to keep up. Then one day as it accompanied you out the door and began picking up speed, then it said to it's self. Oh I've done this plenty of times before. In fact I am good. I am so good at this now that instead of burning 200 calories on this run, I can do the same run and only burn 150 calories. So it runs with you and indeed it proved that it could do the same activity and burn less calories doing it. Your body has succeeded in doing what it does best...become efficient.
Ah ha! Eureka! Now you know. So what to do about it. Throw your body a surprise party and call it Cross training. Cross training is a great way to condition different muscle groups, develop a new set of skills, and reduce boredom that creeps in after months of the same exercise routines. The term cross training refers to a training routine that involves several different forms of exercise, and/or exercise intensity levels.
Get up tomorrow and instead of running for 45 minutes, jump on the bike and take a spin. Instead of doing 45 minutes of a moderate intensity run. Kick it up a notch and do 20 minutes of intense interval training (fartlek run will do as well) Providing different challenges in a workout forces the body to move out of its comfort zone and the body must work harder to complete the activity… Resulting in more calorie burn. More eating the dust off from the bottom of your shoes as you leave those pound behind. But that's not the only benefit of cross training. If sports are your passion cross training can actually help you prevent injury and overuse syndrome. For most sports enthusiasts, cross-training is a beneficial training method for maintaining a high level of overall fitness and that's not all Cross Training
Reduces exercise boredom
Allows you to be flexible about you training needs and plans (if the pool is closed, you can go for a run instead).
Produces a higher level of all around conditioning
Conditions the entire body, not just specific muscle groups
Reduces the risk of injury
Work some muscles while others rest and recover
Can continue to train while injured
Improves your skill, agility and balance Mubarakah Ibrahim is an AFAA certified personal trainer and owner of BALANCE fitness, a personal training service for women in CT that offers in-home personal training, on-line personal training, outdoor boot camps, and hiking clubs for women. She is the creator of http://www.ctwomenbootcamps.com She also lectures, promotes and conducts workshops on health and fitness through out the northeast. She can be contacted by visiting her website http://www.balanceCT.com or e-mailed at balanceCT@hotmail.com
© BALANCE fitness
Article may be reprinted without permission only in it's entirety including author bio and contact information.
Choose Your Suffering - Be Willing to Pay the Price for Success!
Too many people think success will come easy, with little or no hard work. Those people are liars. You have to be willing to choose your own suffering; choose t...
How to Enhance Quality in Your Business
Every business must strive to provide quality products and services to customers. To achieve that objective the company must draw well thought out policies and ...
Avoid Marketing Stagnation Using 3 Basic Methods
Maintain your dynamic with these proven strategies.
Store Card Versus Credit Card - Which Should You Choose?
Store cards and credit cards have their advantages and disadvantages. Should you have both or only one type? What's your strategy?
Marketing: Can I Trust You?
We live in an unprecedented era of communication. Because of this, your prospects are literally bombarded from all directions with marketing messages. They've h...
The Old But Reliable Ways of Attracting Free Online Traffics
Every home business owner should know that your WEBSITE TRAFFICS will determine the life span of your work at home online business.
Creative Storage Solutions
When the things in your home start crowding in around you and you're short on cash, it's time to come up with some creative storage solutions. Don't be afraid ...
Love the Opportunity
Somebody said you have to love what you do, but that's not necessarily true. What is true is that you have to love the opportunity. The opportunity to build lif...
Dog Training For Beginners
Training a dog is a fairly difficult task. Some find it to be very frustrating and simply send there dog or puppy to a professional trainer. Now if you have a d...
Top Ten Things to Do to Make your Signature File Sell
Always include a powerful signature on every email you send out, even to friends. It's even more important when you send out articles to opt-in ezines (no spam)...
Open a Vein
Writing can be easy or difficult...
Edgeworthia Chrysantha
A short article on a very distinctive shrub.
Underwater Digital Cameras
Underwater photography's is primarily focused towards entertaining and informing the people and the users themselves about what is happening in the world of und...
Discover The 8 Steps To A Mountain Moving Faith
If you have faith as a grain of musterd seed you can say to this mountain: move! And it will move! And nothing will be impossible to you." You can transform y...
Positive Dog Training Techniques
There are many different dog training techniques that are out there today. Many people often don't realize that dog training courses often utilize different do...
Are You At The Mercy Of Computer Geeks?
Many business owners are sabotaging their business without even realizing it. They are completely out of the loop when it comes to all technology aspects of th...
What A Golf Conditioning Tip Must Have
There are certain aspects that any good golf conditioning tip must have. And with the increasingly high number of golf tips flying through the net and many othe...
Make It A Threesome
What if -- every time you had a networking appointment with someone -- you invited a third person. Sound like a ridiculous concept? Why on earth would you want ...
Best Credit Card Processing Rates
Everyone goes into business to make money, so why spend more of your profits on expensive transaction fees, Website maintenance, service agreements and high cre...
How to Prepare the Best Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Garlic Mached Potatoes are a lot of peoples favorite. Try these two recipes and succes is almost guaranteed...
Five Ways to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate
Though it's wonderful to get all those hits to your e-commerce web site, hits don't mean much unless you convert them into sales. This is especially true if yo...
Heaven and Hell
Heaven is a bribe and hell is a punishment?
Five Ways to Read Your Bodys Changes before Pregnancy Test
What are the most unforgettable changes that happen to your body when pregnant? There are a few things, but mostly women can't forget about their breasts which ...
The Road to Bliss
Within each of us is the ability to choose harmony and peace over dissonance and vengeful, fear-based reactions to the circumstances of life. If we choose to f...
|
Print this page