Change up your exercise routine?

[j.s. 0]

:sad: My question is how do I do this? I basically work out mon-fri. I do ellipital machines, exercise bikes and treadmill plus I have just started to swim. So every day 2 of these for at least 1 hour per day is my cardio. I am not doing too much in the weight training. I also take 2 hour long classes for Water aerobics per week (that is not including in this list, that I do extra at night). So my question is, do they mean do ellipital training and bike every day for a week then swim the next week or do they mean swim monday, bike tues, ellipitical the next and so on? I am trying to change things up so I start losing again but I dont think i am diong it right. I just dont know what they mean by "change it up" and nobody seems to ellaborate on that. Any help sure would be appreciated.

p.s. my swimming that i just started (last week) is only laps - different strokes and sometimes I will use a board and flippers for part of my laps. I do that for 40 minutes.

[MerryHearted 20]

If you are already working out for an hour a day at a level that is getting your heart rate in the zone, are you sure it's your exercise routine that needs changing? How is your calorie & Water intake? (too much / too little?)

Usually when people talk about changing up exercise, it's along the lines of

• Doing it longer: up the 30 min routine to 45 min, for example
  
• Doing it more intensely: walk/jog instead of just walk, or walk on an incline; speed up on the elliptical trainer or add more resistance -- getting your heart rate up higher and your muscles working harder
  
• Adding weight training to a cardio-only routine
  
• Cross training instead of just one type of exercise (you're already doing this)
  

An hour a day seems reasonable to me -- do you really want to do more? I know some people do, but I'd have trouble finding that much time every day along with work & family responsibilities, and then I'd end up ditching exercise.

[luluc 6]

I work with a personal trainer twice a wk & work out on my own another 3 days. Our routines are the same for 2wks - then he changes things up.

For example today was a "New" routine, and I spent 40 minutes on the basketball court with cones doing squats / lunges / jumps / sprints. Never done that - but tonight, my thighs feel like jelly:tongue: Weight training is also a big focus, & where I've seen the best results.

On my days of exercise - I focus predominately on cardio. I'll do 20min on stairmaster / 20min on elliptical & a 2 mile run. Sometimes I'll add some ab work in - but I do so much resistance/weight training w/my trainer, I leave my down days to work up a good sweat.

I run a small ranch - so I'm pretty active all the time even when not at the gym & love pool season is here....

Your on an awesome track so far - but I do believe mixing things up, as well as your diet when you don't necessarily see the scale moving.

An hour a day is good quality time to be selfish about yourself & your health..PS - it took saying that a LOT to myself to feel good about being in the gym as much as I am.

[Frustrated 1]

To me "change it up" means not to get into a steady routine. I must say I'm guilty of this, but I like routine. Every morning I walk my son to the bus stop and then stop at the gym on the way home to do 30 minutes on the treadmill. In the beginning of my journey, this was a good habit to get into. But as the pounds dropped and my fitness level increased, the tough workout I was doing in the beginning wasn't so tough anymore. So I had to "change it up". I increased the speed and the incline level. For me, this was all that was needed. Until things got easy again and were no longer a challenge. I need a challenge. My body needs a challenge. My mind needs the routine of same time, same place. So in order to benefit from my exercise, I need to change something so my body is forced into making an adjustment as well. I still do my morning routines and have made the increases as mentioned, but now I also have other workouts a couple of times a week to continue to challenge and now tone my body.

[j.s. 0]

Thanks for the thoughts, Im going to keep trying to switch things around. I think I really need to start journeling my food and see if that is where I am going wrong. I also will start back up with my trainer to get back into the weights. I just started swimming last week and beside being totally differnt kind of work out, it is pretty fun although I have to wonder how much good it really does since I dont "feel" like I am working out when I swim. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

[Cerrin 3]

When the trainer in the gym told me to change it up some I had to question them.

Basically it boiled down to. When I am on the Elliptical Not to do one pace. Speed it up for a while then go slower for a while then kick it back up.

I can tell that when I do it My fast pace is much faster then it ever has been.

[areellady 1]

Start training with weights. That is a huge huge issue with most people. They think they just have to do cardio....well, your muscle burns fat, so get more muscle.