Improving your health and fitness takes time and hard work.

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You shouldn’t expect to see changes after one or two workouts, but if your daily workout routine isn’t producing noticeable results after a month or so, there might be a good reason why.

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How do you know if your exercise routine isn’t working? According to Beachbody fitness expert Cody Braun, there are a few telltale signs: “Lack of progress toward your goal, lack of performance improvement, and new or nagging injuries,” he says.

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William P. Kelley, C.S.C.S, ACT, adds that your daily workout routine could be lacking if you no longer get sore from your workouts, meaning “you [probably] aren’t overloading the muscle enough to elicit change,” he explains.

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If you’re unsure about the efficacy of your daily workout routine, assess your situation: Do you still look the same after six months of exercise? Are you lifting the same amount of weight you did when you started? Do you have new or worsening injuries? Are you losing muscle?

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These all may be indicators that you need to change your approach to exercise.

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Why Your Daily Workout Routine Isn’t Producing Results - And What To Do About It
Take a look through these 5 potential problems in your daily exercise routine. If one (or more) of them sounds like it applies to you, try the suggested solutions to get back on-track.

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1. You don’t have a clear goal
Exercising without an intention makes for aimless, inconsistent workouts. If you don’t have a clear goal, chances are good you don’t have a barometer for measuring your progress, which means you won’t know what type of results to look for.

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Solution:

“Before you start your journey, you should know what it is you want to accomplish,” Braun says.

Do you want to lose weight? Gain muscle? Run three miles without collapsing? Once you get clear on why you’re exercising, you can create a SMART goal (one that’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive).

2. You’re not challenging yourself enough
You don’t need to be on the brink of exhaustion after every sweat session, but you won’t see results with your daily exercise routine if you’re constantly breezing through your workouts.

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Solution:

To ensure you’re pushing yourself hard enough, experts suggest creating mini-goals, like setting a weekly cardio target or increasing the amount of weight you lift by 5 percent each week.

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Another strategy is to wear a heart-rate monitor, says Amanda Dale, ACE-certified trainer, and sports nutritionist. “If you think you’re working hard [during a high-intensity cardio session], but you’re not seeing heart rates above 80–85 percent for at least 10 minutes of the effort, you may not be doing as much as you think.” 

 

3. You do the exact same thing every day
In a similar vein as the point above, doing the same exact daily workout routine (down to the number of reps) day after day and week after week is a surefire way to stall your progress.

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“Once you become efficient at something, you need to add a new stimulus to keep your body adapting and improving,” explains Braun. “The stimulus could be weight, speed, apparatus, or rest,” he says.

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Solution:

Try adjusting the amount of weight you lift, changing your number of reps, reducing your rest periods during HIIT workouts, or adding sprints to your cardio session. You can even alternate the days you work certain muscle groups, suggests Kelley.

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4. You jump from one workout type to the next
And now for the opposite problem: too much change. Bouncing from Pilates to circuit training to running all within a week -  and then something entirely new the following week - may seem like the smartest way to shock your body into shape (and avoid boredom), but this strategy can actually backfire.

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“If you change your workouts too often you won’t give your body the chance to improve upon those exercises and movements, so very little adaptation happens,” Braun says.

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Solution:

Exercise ADD is real, but if you want to see significant progress, stick with a consistent exercise routine (for example, strength training three days a week and biking 2 days) for a minimum of four weeks.

“This will help you stay committed to the workout you are doing, [while] setting an optimum time to jump to a new workout routine,” Kelley says.

5. You’re not sleeping enough
Getting adequate sleep is critical to improving your fitness. “Without [sufficient] sleep, your muscles never fully repair or grow stronger, meaning you lack energy for your next workout and you can’t perform your best,” Dale explains.

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If you sleep fewer than seven hours a night and feel fatigued or foggy on a regular basis, you probably need to make some adjustments.

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Solution:

Set a regular bedtime and aim for a minimum of seven hours a night to allow your body and mind an opportunity to rejuvenate, Dale says.

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She also recommends developing a nightly ritual if you have trouble winding down: take a hot bath, drink a cup of herbal tea, meditate, or read a book. Natural sleep remedies can go a long way toward helping you get a solid snooze.
 

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source: BODi Blog

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