Mixing things up

I recently wrote a post about training plateaus and, more specifically, how to break through them. If any one theme emerged from that post, it is that it is absolutely necessary to continuously change your workout. Failing to do so ultimately leads to the cessation of new results. But how often is often enough?

Studies show that some exercises can become stale after only a few weeks due to neurological adaptation, while others take a bit longer. The key is to keep your body guessing, thereby calling upon your central nervous system to recruit new muscle fibers (or at least stimulate the same ones in a different manner). To do so, major change is not always necessary.

Here are just a few ways you can go about mixing things up:

- Change your rep/set range. Example: If you were previously performing 3 set of 10 reps, try doing 4 sets of 8 reps.

- Alternate your grips/stances. Example: Try switching to a more narrow stance when doing squats, or reverse your hand position when performing lat pulldowns.

- Switch to barbells/dumbells. Example: Use dumbells for the bench press instead of the barbell, or try barbell bent-over rows instead of dumbells.

- Reduce/add time to rest periods. Example: Take only 30 seconds in between sets to recuperate, or take an extra minute longer than you have been.