Change workouts for safety and variety

Ever feel like blowing off your workout? Next time you get the urge to avoid your usual exercise session, go ahead and skip it.

But replace it with something else.

If you usually walk, ride a bike. If you're a jogger, go for a swim. Sick of aerobics class? Try roller skating or one of your club's newfangled exercise machines.

"Working out is something you need to do for the rest of your life," said Jo Bolger, program and membership director at Aurora YMCA. "If you did the same thing four days a week for the next 40 years, you'd get pretty sick of it."

Known as cross training in athletic circles, changing your workout from time to time is also a good way to avoid overuse injuries, said Steve Allen, fitness director at Condell Medical Center's Center Club in Libertyville.

"I definitely recommend varying your activity just so you don't get in a rut," Allen said. "It's more interesting, and you're using your muscles in different ways. If you do the same thing day in and day out for too long, you end up kind of hitting a plateau-your body doesn't seem to improve any more."

The frustration of hitting a plateau or "going stale" can occur relatively quickly-generally within six to eight weeks-in strength training," Allen said.

Symptoms include boredom with your whole routine, little or no improvement in the way you look or feel and the ability to breeze through the exercises without much challenge.

"I've talked to many people who say, 'I haven't been seeing any results,'" Allen said, "so I'll ask them how long they've been doing the same routine, and they'll say, 'Oh, at least a year and a half!'"

The key, Allen said, is to introduce subtle program variations every six to eight weeks. For example, you might change the order in which you do the exercises, the type of exercise (doing a different exercise for the same muscle group-stretch chords, dumbbells or cables instead of machines, for example), or the intensity-lift more weight and do fewer reps or vise versa.

"There are so many variables you can play with," Allen said. "You can also do circuits, where you go through and do one set on all the machines once, then go through the circuit again; you can stay on the same piece and do two or three sets before you move on; you can pyramid (increase the weight as you decrease reps with each set or vise versa); you can do super sets or tri sets...

"What you change and how often depends on your goals, how hard you've been working and the creativity of your trainer (if you have one)," Allen said.

© Copyright 1994 Paula Lauer