Cycle Training

Have you ever been exercising to the point of exhaustion, but not seen any results? One of the biggest reasons is the failure to consistently alter your training program. Too often I see people doing the same activities over and over again, and yet never achieve their fitness goals.

One of the main reasons to cycle your training routine is to continually provide a stimulus to your body that forces it to change. In other words, if you don’t change your routine at the very least every three to four weeks then your body will become accustomed to what is asked of it and results will begin to slow or come to a halt. Ever hear someone say they “hit a plateau”? No matter what they do or how much they exercise, they aren’t seeing any change. It’s a safe assumption that it’s because they’re doing the same routine as when they first started.

Now it’s not possible for us to continually progress in a linear fashion. We can only get so strong; we can only get so lean. If that weren’t the case then we’d all be lifting dump trucks.

If you do not cycle your exercise routine, not only will results slow or come to a stop, but continuing to perform the same routine all the time can also lead to injury. Repeatedly putting stress on the body (exercise is stress, although a good stress) will begin to put wear and tear on bodily tissues. Often in the gym I will have a patron come up to me complaining of shoulder pain, and upon further investigation, they are typically performing the same exercise which would be the ever-popular bench press. Thus not allowing their body time to recuperate.

Another reason to cycle your training is to prevent mental burnout. Ever do a routine so often that your motivation and enthusiasm to exercise starts to diminish? If you’re not finding exercise enjoyable you’re less likely to stick with the routine.

I’ve found that changing my clients’ routine every three to fourweeks seems to work best for progression. Remember, if you repeatedly do the same thing over and over and expect results, you’re fooling yourself.

Albert Einstein said it best, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”