Is Your Exercise Routine Diverse Enough?

The problem with doing one type of exercise over and over again is that your body is not adapting, and the benefits of your routine slowly fall away. That’s why we encourage adding a variety of exercises to your workout regime and occasionally switching it up because it holds numerous benefits.

The SAID Principle

In physiology, this word describes the adaptivity of the body to certain demands – Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands, to be exact.

Your body will respond and adapt to lifting hefty weights, and if you run long distances at a slow pace, your body will also change to that. Therefore, various exercises in your workout plan will allow your body to adapt to all the demands, from slow, steady exercise to high-intensity workouts.

Fitness as an Investment

One of the best ways to strengthen a long-term investment portfolio is to diversify investments. Not having ‘all your eggs in one basket’ will ensure that your money won’t disappear in an unpredictable market, and the same goes for fitness. Your health won’t disappear in the future when you diversify your exercise portfolio. It will help decrease your risk of heart disease, arthritis, disability, and even some forms of cancer.

The Right Mix of Exercises

Aerobic and strength training. Everyone should integrate these two into every workout – the optimal balance, however, depends on your age. The following variables can be added to maximise your results, but they should always be reasonably constant with intensity, frequency, duration, and variety within the exercise type.

• Intensity: The percentage of the maximum heart rate you reach during an activity.
• Frequency: How often you perform an activity.
• Duration: The amount of time spent performing an activity.
• Variety: The number of different exercises you perform for a specific exercise type – for example, the number of different cardiovascular exercises you do or the number of different strength-training exercises you do.

Trojan’s Advice

Too much variation can become an issue too, because adapting to an ever-changing routine becomes challenging. Your system must constantly wake up to different things, making it hard to adapt. Only choose two to three variations.

We offer a diverse range of home gym equipment that enables you to incorporate different exercises, to your liking, within your routine. For example, you can start with yoga (aerobic), then lift some Trojan weights (strength), or you could start with exercises on a Trojan exercise bike (aerobic), then run a couple of kilometres on a Trojan treadmill (aerobic), and finish off with some weight training on a Trojan bench.

It all depends on your age, personality and preferences. Stick to a routine for at least one month before changing it up. But suppose you’re past the beginner’s stage and need to push yourself to new levels and do different exercises regularly. In that case, we encourage you to stick to your gut – it’ll keep you challenged and mentally stimulated.

Have any questions? Contact us – we’d love to hear from you!

“Your body can do it. It’s time to convince your mind.”