Don’t Become a Gym Gerbil

When you’re at the gym do you sometimes feel like you’re just spinning your wheels?  You show up every day, put an hour in and get nothing back in terms of results.

Don’t let yourself turn into THAT gym guy.  Making a daily trip to the gym is a good habit but really how good is it if you’re not making any progress?  Time and time again I see the same people sitting on the same treadmill, bike, or StairMaster.  Like clockwork these people show up to the gym at the same time every day and do the same routine.  Ive worked in several different gyms throughout my career and I see the same thing everywhere.  People performing the same routine for years at a time with nothing to show for it.  Sure the routine may have helped you drop a few pounds in the beginning but what has it done for you lately?

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Your body is highly adaptive when it comes to exercise.  Especially when it comes to these low intensity, gerbil-on-a-running-wheel-type routines.  We see results at first because just doing any type of exercise at all is enough of a change to elicit some type of metabolic reaction.  In order to keep seeing results you need to create variety. And the more gym experience you have the chances are the more variety you’ll need.  Your body will become increasingly more adaptive as you make progress.

In exercise you have several ways to create this variety in your routines.  By increasing intensity, shortening rest periods, changing exercises, switching exercise order and much more.  There’s no excuse to keep doing the same lame routine every day in and out.

When it comes to your health and fitness getting into the gym, habit is a good thing.  But once you get that habit down make sure you make the most of it by switching up your routine every once in a while.