Some fitness programs out there give a month’s worth of workouts; others may even go up to 90 days. But what do you do then? Rest a week and do it again? One big problem with that: you’re asking for a plateau.
No Endless Loop
One of the key reasons that a program like ThriveFit is superior to many of the month-long of 90-day DVD sets is that not only does it come with 200 workouts (which should last you about a year), but once you reach the end, you’ll have the tools to create more workouts for yourself. Once you understand the philosophy of varied programming using functional movements, the sky’s the limit for the number of unique combinations you can create. This makes your workout more enjoyable and less monotonous but also minimizes your propensity for plateaus.
Apply the Principle
A personal example of this happened to me recently in my 1-rep max squat. Several months ago, I had plateaued at a squat of 315 pounds. Traditional programming would have led me to simply keep doing squats week after week. Instead, I intentionally built for myself workouts involving squats, but sometimes back squats, sometimes front squats, and sometimes thrusters. Not only that, I also varied how many reps of squats I’d do and whether to do them heavy or light. Examples of these types of workouts would include:
1. Three rounds for time of
2. As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:
- 5 squats 255#
- 25 pushups
- 15 box jumps 24″
3. For time:
With this type of programming, I was able to train my squatting muscles without repeating the exact same movement in the same way week after week. As a result, when I retested my max squat last week, I found I had jumped from my previous max of 315 pounds all the way up to 345! While this won’t get me anywhere near the Olympics, it was a huge gain for me and a big victory in an exercise I’ve struggled with for some time.
Try It Yourself!
I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the ThriveFit page and learn the philosophy and techniques. I look forward to hearing about your success reaching new heights by mixing things up!