Fitness Ideas
Why Isn't My Workout Working?
By Michelle Fowler | 11/1/2004


Your four-times-a-week fitness routine used to leave you huffing and
puffing, sore for days, and steadily dropping pounds. But four months
later you're barely breaking a sweat, you can't detect the
slightest "ouch" in your calves – and worst of all, the scale has
been stuck on the same three digits for weeks! So why did your
workout stop working?

According to Richard Cotton, spokesperson for the American Council on
Exercise (ACE), it's because your exercise routine has become just
that – routine. "With repeated, regular exercise, our bodies become
very efficient at whatever it is they've been doing – which is a
great thing if you're running a marathon and trying to conserve
calories – but not if you're on a walk around the block trying to
burn them."

So what should you do when you're too good at your workout? Here are
some tips:

Pick-up (then Slow Down) the Pace. On your evening walks, instead of
breezing past the Smiths' mailbox, zigzagging through the park, and
making it back to your front door in 45 minutes flat – like always –
try adding intervals. "Pick a point one or two blocks ahead and walk
briskly until you reach it, then walk it off until you catch your
breath, then repeat," suggests Cotton. The work intervals (or brisk
walking) will stimulate the body at a level that it's not accustomed
to.

Change Your Routine. Then Change it Again. Have three or four fitness
routines, and rotate between them every four to six weeks, suggests
Karen Merrill, MS, ACE Personal Trainer of the Year for 2004. For
example, "If Tuesday is typically 'chest and back day' switch it
to 'back and biceps day' for a while." (Just be sure your routine
includes cardio, strength training and flexibility.)

For a new take on your bicep curl session, try standing on a balance
board while you're lifting weights to strengthen your core. And if
the treadmill feels like your home away from home, try the rowing or
elliptical machine, says Merrill.

Nothing Ventured... "An inexperienced swimmer will exert a lot more
energy and burn a lot more calories treading water in a pool than a
swimming pro," says Cotton. So find something you don't know how to
do – and give it a go! Get into that yoga class you've had your eye
on (even if you hide in the back row), or get a trainer to show you
how to use some of those gym machines that look oh-so-daunting. But
if you really must stick with your regular run, take it outside, on a
trail, or along the beach. Not only will the difference in terrain
jump-start your jog, but getting in touch with nature might be just
what the fitness-plateau doctor ordered.