Repeating the same exercise routine over and over again could spell disaster for your new year fitness kick, according to experts.
In fact, hitting the gym day in, day out could also be detrimental — with scientists recommending taking a full week off intensive fitness every four to six weeks.
Sticking to the same routine won’t stress the body enough to elicit physical changes, like muscle building and weight loss, according to exercise professionals at Anglia Ruskin University.
That’s because, after a short period of adaptation, the body gets used to the same level of exertion and needs not grow new muscle tissue or better utilise oxygen to cope with the requirements.
Instead, you should change your routine every month to encourage what the experts call ‘homeostatis disruption’ — the process by which your level of fitness improves.
Writing in The Conversation, the experts — including Professor of exercise physiology Dan Gordon — explain: ‘When we physiologically adapt, we adjust our homeostatic ‘set point’.
‘This means the minimum amount of stress our body needs to induce a fatigue response increases.
‘So, in order to continue improving our fitness levels, we need to start changing up our workouts to continue causing our body stress and fatigue.’
Although consistency is key when it comes to getting into shape, experts say you probably shouldn’t do the same hard work out on repeat every day
There is now evidence that just 20 minutes of physical activity per day slashes the risk of cancer, dementia and heart disease.
This involves either ‘boosting the intensity’ of workouts every four to six weeks, as well as ‘doing a mix of different activities including cardio and weight training’.
‘Workout intensity is considered the primary driver of adaptation,’ they add.
‘To increase the intensity of your workouts, you can either increase the demands of the exercise or manipulate the recovery period — such as by decreasing recovery time between workouts.
‘Track your fitness so you know when it’s time to change your workout again.’
Switching up routines has also been shown to keep gym-goers motivated to continue with regular exercise.
The team also highlighted the importance of an adequate recovery period as it’s while resting between exercises that bodily adaptations occur.
‘If you do increase the intensity of your workouts, aim to make them shorter overall to avoid exhaustion,’ they advise.
Rest is so important that, according to some experts, banning all intensive fitness for a week or so may actually bring benefits.
A week off exercise, or toning down the intensity of your workout, roughly every six weeks, gives your body time to recover from heavy training, explains Daniel Brayson, a lecturer in Life Sciences at the University of Westminster.
‘If we train without adequate rest we can cause the muscle to be in a semi-permanent state of being slightly damaged,’ he wrote.
‘The inflammation doesn’t go away — leading to negative changes — such as our muscles being less able to use oxygen efficiently and poor performance.’
But the amount of rest you need depends on how intense and frequent your work out sessions are.
If you are training for a marathon or ironman you should be scheduling in rest days and ‘de-load weeks’ where you do less strenuous exercise, Mr Brayson suggested.
However, for the majority of people who do less intense workouts between one to three times a week, rest days between workouts should be sufficient for recovery.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, being physically active can help you live a healthier life.
Exercising can reduce your risk of major illness, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
According to the NHS being active can also lower your risk of early death by up to 30 per cent.
The NHS recommends adults aged 19 to 64 do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week.
This could be 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Alternatively, you can do 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week.
It suggests doing a mix of strengthening activities, such as yoga, weigh lifting or carrying heavy shopping bags, moderate activity that raises your heart rate such as a brisk walk or a bike ride and vigorous activity such as a run or a swim.
