The Truth: How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?

If you find yourself here reading this post, chances are you are feeling stuck in your workout routine. I get that. This past summer, I found myself easily chickening out of my routines because of lack of motivation. I have found that mixing it up at times actually helped me get excited! With this in mind, you may be wondering, how often should you change your workout routine?

In today’s post, I will be walking through everything regarding creating the ideal workout routine, in addition to how often you should mix it up. I will also introduce my fall workout routine plan at the end to hopefully inspire you as well!

So, I feel like this is important to reflect for a few reasons:

Firstly…

I find myself in this exact predicament right now. I have had a hard time these past couple months sticking to a routine. Granted, I not only was working on a new workout schedule, but I also switched to working out first thing, early in the morning, as opposed to whenever I could fit it in by the end of the day. It hasn’t been easy because, well let’s be honest, I would much rather sleep in. But I have also found that my workouts weren’t exciting to me. I felt like I was plateauing.

Secondly…

This is a holistic wellness website at its core. As much as I want to share all my favorite gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free recipes all the time, I want the website to be balanced and touch on everything regarding living a clean lifestyle – from recipes, to wellness tips, to lifestyle changes. I want you to come to this website and feel like you have found your community and can find what you are looking for, whatever the topic, in the realm of holistic wellness.

Lastly…

With the season changing, it makes sense to switch up your routine. This is the best time to start something new and exciting… something that fits your fall plans. When the time of year changes, it excites me to try new things!

So, let’s get into how often you should change your workout routine and creating your next ultimate workout routine!

Signs it is time to change your workout routine

How often should you change your workout routine?

So you find yourself in a workout rut. It’s tough. You have been lacking motivation to go get your workout done. Maybe you think it’s because of your playlist. Or maybe it’s because of the time of day you are choosing to workout. Maybe you feel like you are just not achieving the goals you thought you would.

These are feelings that are important to recognize and be conscious of during your wellness journey. And it is so important to recognize when you have these feelings. I bring this up because listening to your body is important in reflecting on how often you should change your workout routine.

The feelings I described earlier are more common than you think and are usually the most important indicators – boredom, dreading workouts, and losing motivation. This means your workouts have not been engaging and stimulating!

Along these lines, you may feel stagnation in your progress. This is sometimes what people refer to when they say they feel like they have hit a plateau.

This happens when you feel like you are no longer seeing or feeling like you are making any improvements in your strength training, endurance, or hitting your weight loss goals. It means your muscles have adapted to your current routine!

For example, sprinting is never a part of my workouts. Mainly because I do not like running. However, I felt like I wasn’t doing a good enough job of accomplishing solid cardio workouts in a gym setting. So, I decided it was time to give running outdoors a try.

And honestly with the fall coming up, I do think this would be nice! With the cooler weather slowly making its way in, running in the morning sounds like it could be great! Anyways, I decided to try doing a few short laps sprinting so I could see how fast I could go and how it felt.

When I tell you I was extremely sore the next day and for days after that session…I mean it was insane! My entire lower abdomen was sore, and my quads and hamstrings were sore. I could barely move!

I mean that is a prime example that I have not and DO NOT use my muscles in that way for such sudden bursts of movement.

It was a sign that I NEEDED to shake up my routine to continue to grow and evolve. And sprints are so good for your overall strength and toning! It’s a no brainer! It’s also just a life skill. I mean, come on, I have to be able to run fast if I need to in any scenario, right?

Finally, the last important sign that it’s time to change your workout routine is an increased risk of injury. When you workout, if you experience regular joint pain or discomfort, it’s a good idea to shift your routine to reduce strain on areas that are bothering you.

If I notice something doesn’t feel right, my first step is to do research to make sure I am performing the motion correctly. If I am and it still hurts, then it is a signal to me that this is not the best exercise for me to do!

The importance of variety

How often should you change your workout routine? You may find yourself considering this when you come across new workout styles or new machines that you haven’t used before. I think when you incorporate variety into your workouts, you will find the benefits come back to you tenfold.

You will find yourself constantly challenged. And, this is great for muscle development, improving endurance, and ensuring you workout all parts of your body during your routine. Think about it. When you challenge different muscle groups, you are able to keep your body responsive to new and different stimuli. You will also lower the risk of wear and tear on muscles you overuse or over train.

Finally, I think most importantly, it helps you have fun and look forward to your workouts. You will head into it feeling invigorated to challenge yourself and learn new things that your body is capable of doing. I find that to be the most exciting part of working out. It’s like wow, my body is capable of doing so much. It’s unreal.

You’ll feel thankful.

Factors that will influence your routine change

When you think about how often you should change your workout routine, it should be congruent with your fitness goals. For example, let’s say your goal is to build muscle. Firstly, you will want to change the types of food you eat to ensure you are bulking.

In addition to this, you likely won’t need to change your routine as frequently as say, someone who is focused on losing weight or building endurance. This is because you will want to see progress and increase in the weights you are lifting or the amount of reps you can do over time.

Another important factor is whether or not you are a newbie or a veteran to working out. If you are newer, you may want to keep your routine consistent so you really get to know what works for you and what does not work.

Lastly, your personal preference matters. Maybe you do thrive with a consistent routine! Well, that is ok. The goal is to remember to listen to your body and what it needs. Maybe it needs more rest. Maybe it needs to be challenged in a different way!

Become skilled in listening to what you might need at any given point. It takes time to learn this skill, but I guarantee you that it is worth it.

How to change a workout routine to avoid plateau

Changing your workout routine can be boiled down to three key steps:

1. Listen to your body
2. Create a structured plan
3. Incorporating different methods to keep it varied

Listening to Your Body

I think listening to your body is so essential. This is something I learned over the last several months as I learned how my body reacts to different types of food. This health journey has taught me how to listen to what my body needs!

Actually, I talked a bit about this in my article on how pilates has transformed my life which you can find here. Pilates is a great way to learn how your body responds to certain movements and helps you strengthen your mind-muscle connection.

The mind-muscle connection is essential for really powering your workout. It helps you get that extra rep in, or that extra set in. I honestly think it’s what makes the difference between you lifting a heavier weight than the one you are currently lifting!

I bring up this reference because listening to your body is an essential aspect of an effective workout routine. It involves paying close attention to how your body responds to exercise and making adjustments accordingly. This can also help you with recovering after workouts as well as injury prevention.

Creating a Structured Plan

While there are many different ways to create structured plans for working out, I think the best way is to write it all down in a place that is easy for you to refer back to. How often you should change your workout routine will be a decision that comes to you more easily if you can track your progress towards goals over time.

My favorite way to create a structured plan is through journaling. I have several articles on journaling that can be helpful for you achieving different goals in life. It may help to start here with this overview article to help get you in the rhythm of journaling if you aren’t already.

Some topics you might want to reflect on include:

1. Goal Setting – What do you want to achieve with your workouts? Weight loss, muscle gain, improved endurance, or enhanced flexibility?
2. Variety – As we are covering the topic of how often you should change your workout routine in this article, it is important to plan for variety like I mentioned earlier. You can change the type of exercises you do, altering the order or intensity, or try adding new activities. As a rule of thumb, a solid plan includes a mix of strength training, cardiovascular exercise, flexibility work, and rest.
3. Progression – As you outline your goals, your plan should outline how you’ll progress over time. For example, you can increase weight, reps, or sets gradually. Make sure to have a place to easily track your progress which will help you monitor achieving your goals over time!
4. Schedule – We all have busy lives and I know many of my readers are busy boss babes, including myself. It is important to determine which days you will workout, how often, and what time of day. Sticking to this schedule will be essential because it will help you stay on track. It is also best to not just leave your workouts up to chance…maybe you get to it, maybe you don’t. That will lead to inconsistency for sure.
5. Rest and Recovery – Always build rest and recovery into your plan. When you overtrain, you run the risk of burning out or potential injury.

Types of Workouts to Incorporate in a Solid Workout Routine

When considering how often you should change your workout routine, you may find that if you incorporate enough variety and challenges, you may not need to change it all that often. Here are some great types of workouts to incorporate in your routine to help keep things spicy:

1. Strength Training: Of course this is a given! Strength training builds lean muscle, increases metabolism, and enhances functional fitness. Include compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses as well as functional training utilizing some of the auxiliary machines that can be found in the gym. As you strength train, it’s a good idea to implement progressive overload overtime as you get stronger.
2. Cardiovascular Exercise: Cardio workouts improve heart health, boost endurance, and aid in calorie burning. In other words, it’s essential. Don’t skip out on this. You can incorporate activities like running, biking, swimming, or HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts. With cardiovascular exercise, it’s good to mix it up more frequently to continue to challenge and improve your endurance.
3. Flexibility and Mobility: Stretching and mobility work enhance flexibility and can reduce the risk of injury, and improve overall movement. Incorporate activities like yoga or dedicated stretching routines to help keep your body limber and agile.
4. Take some classes! I think this is a great way to keep things spicy and interesting. Plus when you are in a class setting it can be challenging and fun to keep up with the instructor and other classmates! You can try different activities such as kickboxing, pilates, yoga, stationary cycling, HIIT classes, and so much more.
5. Incorporate at home workouts: sometimes it’s such a hassle to get ready and go somewhere else. Well you can get just as an effective workout at home as in the gym using just your own bodyweight, or with minimal equipment. This is another good way to mix things up because you’ll feel accomplished from the comfort of your own home and save time not having to commute and do all the things.

It is important to avoid over-changing your workout routine

Yes, it is possible to overchange. I will say when doing cardiovascular workouts, it is important to challenge yourself using different methods of cardiovascular workouts, but it is possible to overchange.

Your body does need time to adapt, grow, and improve with the workouts you are currently doing. Don’t forget to be present in your workouts and appreciate what you can and are able to do! Don’t always focus on what’s next.

Instead of wanting to change your entire routine frequently, maybe try incorporating different workouts here and there to add more variety in what you are doing. Of course, incorporate these new exercises gradually and find a balance that works best for you and your body!

My Structured Fall Workout Routine

With all the basics out of the way, I am happy to introduce my improved fall workout routine. I am really excited to incorporate a few new activities than I was previously doing. Like I mentioned earlier, I am terrible at running.

And since I am craving some outdoor activity to incorporate in my routine, it makes so much sense to incorporate jogging especially with the weather cooling down a bit more now! You will see I have incorporated this in for a couple of days a week. Again, I’d like to emphasize that I am not a runner nor have I ever been which may be why I am hesitant to add it in every day ha!

Schedule: Morning workouts (6:00 – 7:30 AM) Monday-Saturday with rest days on Sunday

Note: I will of course incorporate a warm up and cool down both before and after my workouts each day. I will stretch thoroughly and do some light jumping jacks or something else to warm up my systems before beginning.

Monday: Morning Jog (Cardio)

Duration: 45 minutes
Intensity: Moderate to high

Tuesday: Lower Body Workout (Strength Training)

Squats: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Deadlifts: 3 sets x 8-10 reps
Lunges: 3 sets x 10 reps per leg
Leg Press: 3 sets x 10-12 reps

Wednesday: Arms and Back Day (Strength Training)

Pull-Ups/Assisted Pull-Ups: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Bicep Curls (with dumbbells or barbell): 3 sets x 10-12 reps
Bent-Over Rows: 3 sets x 10 reps
Seated Back Rows: 3 sets x 10 reps
Lat Pull Downs: 3 sets x 10 reps
Tricep Dips: 3 sets x 10-12 reps

Thursday: Glute Day (Strength Training)

Hip Thrusts: 4 sets x 10-12 reps
Romanian Deadlifts: 3 sets x 10 reps
Glute Bridges: 3 sets x 12-15 reps (with a resistance band)
Standing Kickbacks (with cable machine or resistance band): 3 sets x 12 reps per leg
Hip Abductions: 4 sets x 10 reps

Friday: Bench Press Day (Strength Training) / Cardio

Morning Jog (Cardio)

Duration: 20-30 minutes
Intensity: Moderate to high

Late afternoon Head to Gym:

Bench Press: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets x 10-12 reps
Push-Ups: 3 sets x 10-12 reps
Chest Flyes (with dumbbells or machine): 3 sets x 10 reps

Saturday: Second Lower Body Day (HIIT Workouts)

Jumping In/Out Squats: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Jumping Lunges: 3 sets x 10 reps
Squats with and without weight: 4 sets x 10 reps with weight followed by 10 reps without weight
Sumo Squats: 4 sets x 10 reps
Leg Press: 3 sets x 10-12 reps

Sunday: Rest Day

40-60 minute walk to get steps in otherwise rest and recover! Incorporate some stress relieving activities such as taking a bath, stretching or some of the other activities I have mentioned in the past!

So, Final Verdict, How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?

How often should you change your workout routine? I’m not necessarily giving a “well it depends answer”, but I will say if your goal is more strength training, then you shouldn’t change your workout routine as much as say someone who is more focused on endurance and cardiovascular training.

Generally, it’s best to mix it up every couple months, although that will depend from person to person, goal to goal.

You can definitely try incorporating more variety without having to fully overhaul your workout! That’s what I have done as the fall season quickly approaches. I want to incorporate some more intentional cardio while still maintaining my strength training routine.

So what are your workout routines? How often do you mix it up or add variety? Comment below!