Breaking Workout Plateaus with Variety

There's never an easy way to do workout programs, and that's the way things should be. Granted you can afford several shortcuts, but you can only stretch these so much without compromising your progress. The main gripe people have with workouts involves the schedules. It always seems like gym and fitness are secondary priorities to work and leisure, unless you're a fitness buff who measures by the calorie. Taking on a workout program takes determination, and the least you can do is follow through with the same drive you invested at the beginning. Schedule is a minor problem, maintaining progress throughout the program is more difficult.

Plateaus Get in the Way of Workout Progress

I'm talking about the dreaded workout plateau. It's an inevitable part of the workout program, and the only way out of it is through. Plateaus happen when the body gets too accustomed to routines, when it considers these mundane and unchallenging. There's danger in doing the same routines for several weeks in a row, without increasing the load at the very least. Your body should take on routines with a variety of movements to stretch its capacity to its limits. Plateaus are also caused by diet and supplementation, so long as elements in your program stay stagnant for very long, you're bound to hit a roadblock which takes several weeks to break.

Variety as Antidote

The best way to break a plateau is to invest in variety. Your workout program should involve routines which vary every week. It's also doable by taking different exercises schemes, like supersets. A superset involves two exercise routines stacked on top of each other. You can do push-ups and pull-ups in quick succession, related exercises which develop opposing muscle groups. You can also do routines which develop unrelated muscle groups, like the quads and the biceps. The key to a superset is the absence of rest in between each set, maximizing the body's momentum and pushing the pace to progress.

Variety Applies to Diet and Supplementation

A note on diet and supplementation: you really have to switch things up in these areas if you want to shorten a plateau. This especially applies to your supplement program (Xtend, paired with intra and post-workout formulations). If you're taking the same brand of pre-workout supplements over the month, for example, your body develops a tolerance for the concentration and you'll need something more to achieve the same benefits the next time around. Consider brands like Xtend as part of your workout program, but rotate its use with other brands as well, in other formulation. Invest in the variety of your exercises, diet, and supplementation and maximize your workout's results.