18 May Five tips to change up your workout routine

Whether you’re a weekend warrior, stay-at-home mom or competitive athlete, anyone’s workouts can become stagnant.
To help people break through their plateaus, or to get re-invigorated, here are five tips to change up your workout routine:
1. Change your workout length – If your workout normally last 45 minutes or an hour, change it up every few weeks by shaving 15 minutes off the time.
Increase the intensity and amount of weight used for sets, but do fewer sets and take less time between exercises. This will create muscle confusion, force you to step up your effort and make it more interesting because it will be different. And the best part is you’ll get done a little bit quicker.
2. Change your workout time – If it’s getting harder and harder to stay motivated to work out, consider changing what time you exercise for a week. If you usually exercise in the morning, try working out at night after work a few times. Maybe you’ll like one better than the other, but a change even for a few days can make a difference in the quality of workouts.
3. Change your music – A small, but sometimes helpful tip is to change up the music you’re listening to. Take some time and think of songs that will get you pumped up to work out. If you don’t usually listen to music, then consider putting a CD on that will get you moving a little quicker.
4. Switch up your exercises – There are almost a countless number of ways to do presses, squats, rows, curls, extensions and more.
Take advantage of that versatility by tweaking the way you perform lifts of certain body parts. Find a different way to work out the different body parts.
5. Have a ball – One new trend is to sit or lay on an exercise ball instead of a traditional flat bench when doing certain exercises. Give it a try. An exercise ball base will change things up for you and also give an additional workout to strengthen your core. An example is to lay on an exercise ball to do chest presses instead of on a standard flat bench.
At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com