You won’t get fitter by simply doing the same routine for years. In fact, you might even backslide a bit. In order to see the results you want, you have to challenge yourself and go beyond your comfort level. If you feel like quitting after ten push-ups, trying doing just one more. That “one more” attitude can get you to your goal faster, but also help build mental toughness. Nothing great was ever achieved by settling for less. People pushed beyond their frustration, exhaustion and the belief they could do no more.
What’s the fun in doing the same thing repeatedly?
There’s a lot of reasons for varying your workout, which include preventing plateauing and complete boredom. If you do the same workout daily for weeks at a time, pretty soon you don’t even have to think, you put your body on automatic. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make you any healthier, but continues to keep you at the same level of fitness. It’s like studying the same five historical facts over and over and then taking a full history test. You’ll get those five facts right, but probably won’t do well on the rest of the test.
Challenging yourself with a new workout that pushes you a step further exercises your muscles on different planes.
If you’re only working out your muscles on one plane, when you use them in a different way, it can cause injury and pain. You need to vary your workout and challenge yourself to ensure you have functional fitness. It’s the type of fitness that can prevent injury from doing simple tasks, like picking up a bag of groceries or even bending to tie your shoes.
Challenging yourself means building mental toughness.
Besides a healthy body, a program of fitness can help build mental toughness. What is mental toughness? It’s the ability and desire to continue even after others would have quit. It’s what separates those who succeed from those who tried and failed. Just trying isn’t enough. You have to go beyond what your mind is telling you that you can do. If you added just one more rep each workout, it can result in better results and more confidence.
- How do you challenge yourself? You can increase the speed that you do your workout, taking fewer breaks between exercises or sets.
- Another way to challenge yourself is increasing the number of reps each set. If you’re tired, try doing just one more.
- Increasing the weight you use for strength building is another way to challenge yourself. It doesn’t have to be a huge increase, just one extra pound at a time can help.
- No matter what you do in life, using the energy and confidence you developed from your workout program can help. Challenging yourself can reap rewards, while making life more interesting and enjoyable.
For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training