Repetition may lead to mastery, but it can also keep you in your comfort zone. The best way to avoid hitting that dreaded plateau at the gym is to keep changing up your workouts. When you challenge your body by incorporating a variety of movements into your routine, you maximize your workouts and keep yourself moving steadily towards your goals.
Studies suggest constant intensity and varied exercise, or CIVE, is the most efficient way to gain full body strength. This means, the more you challenge yourself with different intensity levels and types of activities, the stronger you’ll be overall as an athlete. Here’s a few overused exercises you should swap out and change up today:
Lateral Raises For Shoulder Presses
Admit it—you’re tired of doing this age-old exercise, anyway. Lateral raises are great for your shoulders, but that’s about it. Swap them for some shoulder presses to target both of your shoulder muscles completely, while engaging your triceps and biceps.
Crunches for Planks
Planks are KING of the total body workout. While you hold your entire body weight in an isometric contraction, you strengthen your abs, glutes, chest, back and legs. Hold it for a minute or two, for a rep or two and you’re good to go! Your run-of-the-mill crunches may be familiar, but far less effective and efficient than this head-to-toe exercise.
Hip Raises For Walk Lunges
If you haven’t caught on already, the best exercises are those that pack a powerful punch by targeting more than one main muscle group. Enter: walking lunges. They target the same muscles you’re trying to hit with your hip raises—your glutes— but also fire up your hamstrings, quads and core. You’ll get better results in less time when you make this special swap.
