Over the past three months my work out routine has been a 30 minute aerobic exercise in the morning (elliptical trainers, mostly) and then I do strength training in the evening. I the aerobic stuff I do about six days a week and weights I do about four.
In combination with my diet (I only consume about 1200 net calories a day, total after losing exercising), I've dropped a considerable amount of weight on this routine. Week to week I saw a drop of at least 3 pounds. This week, I think I only dropped 1 pound with practically no change in what I was doing (I reduced my waistline about 1/2 of an inch). I'm 5'5" and 204 pounds and still have quite a bit further to go before I reach my goals, but I was wondering if the sudden decrease in progress might have been because my body has adapted to my workout regiment.
I'm thinking about changing it this coming week so that I do a resistance circuit routine in the morning and an aerobic exercise later in the evening (and stop strength training all together). I'd do both about six days a week since circuit training is as demanding on my muscles and quicker to recover from.
My question is two part: first, do you think this will shock my body in burning more calories? Secondly, how long does it take for the body to adapt a work out routine?
Ideally I think I could rotate between the two schedules pretty easily, but I would like an idea as to how long I should stick to one before switching.
Thanks!
This is a guest blog submitted by a healthkicker reader.
Comments (10)
Don't they say that you should mix up your workout as much as possible? Like do one thing one day, another the next; always keep your body shocked? I don't know, I heard it somewhere. Since you've been doing the same routine for so long, I feel it's safe to say that your body is used to it, yes.
You should change up your routine occasionally because your body will get used to your usual routine. If you change it, your body will shocked and it will work harder.
I get bored easily so my personal trainer changes my routines all the time.yes your body is adapting. muscle confusion is one was to shock it back into gear, but i'd go about it differently. this is only my opinion but i think its pretty credible since it works for my clients. keep doing resistance training but do your cardio immediately afterwards. the reason is because when you're doing anaerobic weight training your body uses glycogen as the primary energy source, which it will burn off after about 30-45 minutes depending on your intensity. when you finish doing weights begin doing cardio. because you have used up all your muscle glycogen, and aerobic exercise is the only way to use fat for energy, your body will tap into your fat much quicker and you will burn more in less time.
also, make sure that when you're changing your routine its not just doing the exercises in a different order. do different things each week, hit the muscles from different angles, and change the number of sets and reps and the weight you do. again, this is only my opinion, but its based on my knowledge and experience as a personal trainer, and seeing this method used to get results over and over. good luck reaching your goals however you do it, i hope you succeed.
even on the elliptical you can change things up. Don't do the same program on the elliptical everytime. Constantly change the resistance, incline, and the rate at which you go. I like to do manual when I go on the elliptical, every time I do a different workout. I just randomly change the incline and resistance constantly throughout my workout. Also, keep in mind your heart rate. Try to challenge yourself each workout.
I personally LOVE cardio. I always do the elliptical because it burns a lot of calories, it's great for toning, and it is easy on the knees! You don't necesarily need to change what machines you use, but if you use the same machines all the time, mix it up!
I honestly don't know howlong it takes the body to get used to a workout. I've always changed my workout each week. For example, I have 15 different leg exercises that I LOVE! I always do the main machines 3 times a week, like the leg press, the hip abduction, the hip adduction, the calf raise, and the hamstring curl but then each week I mix up the other leg exercises that i do. Lets say that week 1 I want to focus on my quads, so I would do exercises like squats, lunges, squat jumps, lunge jumps, wall sit, star jumps, 3 way lunges. Then week 1 I decide I want to focus on my calves, so I do more jumping type exercises, like jump roping, side to side jumps over a small cone (or over a line), knee jumps, jumping jacks, ect....
There are sooooooo many different ways that you can change up your exercise routine! I would say that you should change it up a little each week... perhaps focusing on a different mucle group each week... just make sure you target every mucle group before you do the smae muscle group again!
I hope my advice helps! Good Luck!!
definitely switch it up. Incorporate free weights, try new yoga or pilate moves or if you workout on a treadmill change over to a bike, recumbant, or elliptical. :) Good luck on your weight loss!
I would say it has. People don't realize that our metabolism adjusts to many different factors, like if it's getting enough or too many or not enough calories. Or not getting enough variety can do it. Plus muscles weigh more than fat so gauging your progress by weight won't give you an accurate enough picture of how well you're losing weight. But I would start at stepping up the weight machines. I personally think aerobics every other day is all you need (and every aerobics instructor I've had at various health clubs agrees with this), but you can up each aerobic workout to 40 minutes plus make sure to either buy a mini heart monitor thingie or take your pulse and do the math and make sure your heartrate is in the zone. I personally use the bicycles or elliptical machines with built-in pulserate monitors (they even have a chart that cross-references by age and pulserate).
I don't know what exactly you're going by, a less-calorie intake plus excersize is ok as long as you eat *some* of each food group (well, more than 1 serving greens a day) but I think the most important things next to all that is to make sure you get enough water (I do 3 qts a day) and take your vitamins and get into a regular sleep pattern. It's incredible what getting regular sleep will do! Oh, and one other thing. Sure, diet pop is wonderful, but if you *knew* you could drop 10-20 pounds IN A WEEK if you quit drinking it, would you?? CAuse I do, every time I go off pop. DIET pop. What makes pop fizz is 'sodium bicarbonate' and y'all know what sodium does to you....makes you retain water.
Good luck y'all who are struggling with it. I get the idea there are blogrings on subjects, but I don't want to end up with women who crave being skeletal like I crave banana pie. I think that what's underlying their obsession is a hate for self and a deathwish, anyway. I need a group supporting healthy lifestyle choices. I might even share my miracle diet online here.
I think you need to be eating more, depending on your height. You should only be cutting/burning off 500 calories a day from your diet, your maximum reccommended intake I think.
It's better for your body (and especially for your heart) to do weight lifting first and follow it with cardio. It prevents blood pressure spikes.
Do other exercises. Try a rowing machine or recumbent bike or something that you normally don't do (or even hate doing... that's what I did to lose 90 pounds; I learned to love running). Work different muscles and challenge yourself.
Good luck.
Yes. I'm afraid your body has adapted to the workout. I used to run 7 miles a day. I know, it's a tremendous amount. I could drop up to 3 pounds a day just running that much. I've been running for a little longer than 2 years. My body is lean now and I don't gain weight yet, it doesn't even shed a pound. My advice for you is switching it up, like aerobic routines on Mon, Wedn, and Fri; while weight training and circuit training and yoga/pilate on the other days; however, keep cardio your main workout. Just don't overdo it. :) I hope it helps.
@C_UNIT42@xanga -
Hey, since your a personal trainer, I was wondering... I've been told that if I run or other cardio like that right after lifting, that I will lose everything that I just gained with weight training. I was wondering if this was true.
One more question, I think I've gotten used to my workout too. I was wondering if upping the weight would be good to change it, or if i should do some different workouts all together. If you could let me know that'd be great!
Thanks