Weight Training—for some people it is a tool for achieving a leaner composition; for some people it is a tool for getting stronger; for others it may even be a tool for stress relief. Regardless of its purpose, weight training is something that can, and should, be kept interesting and full of variety. Research shows that making somewhat regular changes to your weight-training/exercise routine will help harvest tremendous benefits both, physically and mentally.
Take a minute and reflect upon your exercise regimen--or life in general—in the past 6 months or more. How many times have you gotten stuck in a routine? How many times have you felt the monotony of doing the same thing over and over day in and day out? Perhaps the answer is “zero”; but more than likely the answer is “at least once”. Sure, we may be creatures of habit. We may be comfortably set in our own ways or set in a predictable routine. But what some of us fail to realize or recognize is that monotony and redundancy, as “comfortable” as it is, could actually be reeking havoc upon our fitness plan and transformation goals!
Each muscle in your body is extremely adaptive, meaning if you continue to stimulate it in the same way, over time the motion and action becomes easier and easier for that muscle to perform and complete. A good analogy lies within an educational/classroom setting where you are exercising one of the greatest muscles of all—your brain! Given the example of simple math: If the teacher were to ask you “what is 12 + 12?”, at first it may take some time to calculate and consider the answer. However, as the teacher continues to ask you the same exact question, day in and day out, the answer becomes easier and easier and requires much less thought—or action!—from your brain muscle. The easier it becomes for a muscle to perform an action, the less energy is required by that muscle to complete the action. The less energy required to complete the action, the fewer calories you burn and/or the less you develop the muscle. This is a substantial reason why it is important to continually provide your muscles with new stimuli. New stimuli = new development! If the teacher has been asking you “what is 12 +12” for three weeks, it’s time to switch things up and for her to ask you “what is 12 x 12.” Otherwise you may not ever fully develop your brain as an actively useful, cognitive muscle. Coincidentally, if you have been training your quads with leg extensions and squats for three weeks, it’s time to switch things up and do some step-ups or leg presses. Otherwise you may not ever develop that smooth inner quad sweep of the vastus medialis, or a cutting diamond teardrop of the vastus intermedius.
This is true of every muscle group you work. By re-stimulating the muscles with new exercises, you will continue to respond to exercise, burn more energy (calories), and effectively work towards achieving a fitness goal. We therefore recommend that you choose new exercises for each muscle group every 3-4 weeks to help provide continual stimulus response and to achieve a balanced, leaner composition. Ladies, re-stimulation will help to ensure optimizing your ability to tone. Guys, re-stimulation will help to ensure optimizing your ability to grow. Change is good!
This week, challenge yourself to be adventuresome and try some new exercises—especially if it has been a while since you have made any changes to your routine. Do not feel like you have to limit yourself to the exercises illustrated in the Body-for-LIFE® book and Body-for-LIFE website. Feel free to use a plethora of fitness magazines, books, guides, etc. to find some new and exciting exercises and incorporate them into your Body-for-LIFE routine! Not only will this boost the physiological stimulus response factor aforementioned, but it will also most likely boost your mood as well! A break from the monotony of a regular routine is often necessary to offer psychological reprieve, and to keep the average person interested. By maintaining an interest and desire to workout by “keeping the exercises fresh”, you will also better ensure achieving your fitness goals (because you will better ensure that you will find the will to go continue to go to the gym)!
I love the BFL plan. It has done wonders for me! I'm in my 25th week and need to change up my exercise routine. I've been looking at the animated exercises on line and they appear very helpful, but my question is, do I still do the graduated weights with those exercises as I have done since the beginning using the examples from the original BFL book? Also, where dumb bells are used, do you graduate them as well? I've tried that but it's so time consuming to add weights to the bar and then secure them.
I just wanted to say that over the years I had tried many different workout routines from the popular mags...but always come back to the body-for-life plan...It not only covers every muscle group, but fits into the time you have available to exercise....John
i've tried all the different programs and this is the only one that has worked for me.
I've been looking at the animated exercises on line and they appear very helpful, but my question is, do I still do the graduated weights with those exercises as I have done since the beginning using the examples from the original BFL book? <a href="www.wilsontechnology.com/.../a>