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Most people like to try something new every once in a while, but most of the time, routines are comforting. They’re especially nice if you enjoy what you do, like if you’re passionate about your workout routine. You may love the challenge of your exercises and the feeling of accomplishment that follows, but at some point, you’ll wonder if you should switch things up.
The workout you love may have felt great for some time, but now you don’t make progress like you once did. Whether you wanted to bulk up or tone down, your exercise routine doesn’t seem to do anything for you anymore.
This is often when people wonder if it’s bad to do the same workout every day. Should you stick with what you know or break your routine? Read on for some helpful clarification that will break this topic down for you.
To better understand your exercise routine, you need to know how it currently affects your body. Every time you exercise, your body experiences a high level of stress. Your muscles generate lactic acid to produce energy when your oxygen runs low. It leads to the familiar cramps or aches you might get after you leave the gym.
When you do the same workout every day, like going for a run or lifting weights, you stress those muscles in the exact places as the day before. In addition to leaving your muscles overworked, a repeated workout zaps glycogen from those muscles without giving them a chance to refill during recovery time.
Maybe you’re one of the many active people who feel like they waste a day when they don’t work out. You understand that recovery is essential, but shouldn’t you push yourself to keep going with your exercise routine to see the progress you’re looking for?
The truth is that recovery days are just as important as the days when you workout. Your body needs glycogen to fuel your daily energy levels, which your body stores in your muscles. Without the chance to recover from a workout, your muscles won’t replace that glycogen in time and your performance will suffer.
Unrecovered muscles lead to plateaus or trigger other physical pains because your body can’t keep up with your routine. It won’t begin to heal until you undo your laces and relax with a glass of water or a cold shower. As your heart rate slows, your muscles ease back to their normal state and repair any tears or overworked parts of your body.
If you’re thinking about how you sometimes give yourself rest days but still don’t see any progress, you might not get enough sleep. Sleep is a critical part of your physical recovery. While you drift through your sleep cycles, your body can focus on conserving energy and building the muscles that your workout tore or damaged.
People often wonder if they can do the same style of workout every day. You might only enjoy exercises where you lift weights or run on a treadmill, which makes you disinterested in trying something completely different.
The good news is that while you still shouldn’t work out every day, you can stick with the same exercise style as long as you differentiate the workouts. Instead of running ten miles every day, you might do interval sprints for a shorter ten-minute session in-between days where you run multiple miles.
The same thing goes for strength training. Mix up the weights you use so you stay in active recovery on lighter days. You can also throw in some bodyweight workouts to switch things up, like if you try an exercise ball or do pilates in your living room.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is supposed to be short sessions of maximum effort followed by rest periods. If you’ve been doing HIIT routines every day or think you can, you’re likely doing the moves wrong. This type of exercise targets fat by utilizing energy long after you finish the workout, but it also leaves your body more exhausted than traditional routines.
When you do HIIT workouts every day, you run the risk of overtraining injuries and muscle tears that can ruin your form and performance. Trainers recommend that athletes wait 24 hours between HIIT sessions to get the most out of your routine.
It’s not smart to do the same workout every day, but even if you vary your workouts, remember to listen to your body. Let it rest and recover when it needs to and then get back to the exercises you love. You’ll find a happy balance and see better results because your exercise routine isn’t repetitive.
