by Linda Parker

In this article, our focus is providing insight on the importance of changing up your exercise routine as part of your weight loss program in addition to providing tips on how to change your routine for maximum benefit.

Why change up your exercise routine?

First, if you're already exercising regularly, good for you! And if you're already changing it up from time to time, even better! But the truth is most of us get into a routine and don't change it up much, which often leads to 1) boredom and losing interest in exercising, and/or 2) your body hitting a plateau. Thus, we want to keep our weight loss program interesting so we don't deviate from our goal in addition to ensuring that we change our routine so our body continues to respond to the new challenges we present it with. To put it simply, when we first introduce a new exercise into our program, our body responds, which helps us build muscle and endurance, but within a few days our body adjusts to 'handle' the stimuli, so with time, we get less result.

How do you change up your exercise routine?

Now that we know why we need to change it up, how can we change our exercise routine to keep things interesting and challenging for our bodies?

Season appropriate sports and exercises.With the changing of the seasons come new sports and activities, so maybe in the summer you swim, but in the fall you get involved with a flag football team. Or maybe you hike in the summer, and swim indoors in the winter if there's snow on outside. Whatever you choose, let the changing of the seasons be a time when you change up your exercise routine for weight loss, too!

Challenge yourself more. Keep challenging yourself with harder and more challenging workouts. Maybe you go from an intermediate to advanced yoga class, or you increase your weights from 5 to 10 pounds, or you run an extra mile each month. Keep stretching and challenging yourself to keep things interesting and to prevent your body's response to exercise from hitting a plateau. This will help on your path to losing weight and keeping it off.

Simply change it up! Keep your body challenged by switching up your routine frequently. Maybe you do yoga one day and Pilates the next, or you bike one week and jog the next. You're body will be constantly responding and building endurance and muscle while you keep your spirit and mind interested as you keep mixing things up for exercise and weight loss. This will help losing weight to be fun, as well.

It's important to keep challenging yourself in regards to exercise for weight loss, and these tips will help you get the most out of any exercise program. Keep moving and grooving my friends! The new you is just around the corner... - 39969