Ep.18 Adapting Your Fitness Regimen

Ep.18 Adapting Your Fitness Regimen
 

[00:00:16] Intro

Hey guys, welcome to the Growth on the Daily podcast, the personal development podcast for athletes. My name is Rey and I'm your host. I'm a former competitive hockey player, passionate about self-growth, and I'm here to support you on your journey to becoming the best version of you. 
Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. Before we dive in, please follow us on Instagram @growthonthedaily to stay up to date with the show.

This week we are continuing on our fitness journey, and we're talking about adapting your fitness regimen. So we're still focused on our physical category in terms of specialties for success. So if you are at a point in life where your fitness routine is just no longer suiting your lifestyle, then this episode is for you.

No Cap All Facts

[00:00:58] Benefits to changing up your fitness routine

 
What are the benefits to changing your fitness routine? Why would we even go about changing your fitness routine? There's actually several reasons why you should change your routine. 

According to a blog post on One Medical, one of the top benefits for changing your fitness routine is it helps you break through fitness plateaus. So if you are struggling to lose weight or struggling to build muscle, it might be due to your fitness regimen. It's also probably due to nutrition and rest. But fitness is definitely a component and it's one that's quite significant. So chaining up your fitness routine can help you break through those plateaus.

It also prevents overuse of injuries. So if you are excessively training and overtraining certain muscle groups, you're more likely to injure them because they do require rest to grow. And if you're not giving it that proper rest and you're getting those injuries, it's also a sign that not only should you reduce your workouts, but it's also probably time to change them up.

Another benefit to changing your workout routine is building new muscles. Your workout routine even if it's compound lift focused, it's still focused on certain muscle groups and ignores other muscle groups that maybe aren't as significant, but it's still good to work on them from time to time. So a great opportunity for you to build new muscles. 

There's also the benefit of just beating workout boredom. I don't know about you guys, but if I stick to a routine for say, two months after that, I'm over it and I need something else, or you will not find me in the gym because it's just the same thing repeated week after week. It's not as fun anymore. So for me, I need that change up and you might too. 

And on that note, that other added benefit is that excitement to work out. When you start something new, it's a new program, new lifts, and it's a different kind of style. You get excited about working out again. And so it's a good motivation booster if you really need one. 

So how often should you change your routine now that we know the benefits of changing your routine? Well, let's say we're focused on strength training, which is what I primarily do, I recommend in the general consensus in the fitness community is around sort of six to eight weeks mark.

So after, you know, two to three months, it's time for you to do some adaptations. Notice how I said adaptations and not just full-on changes. And that is really the focus here because subtle changes to your regular routine, say, you know, swapping out pushups for a dumbbell bench press, that's going to help you achieve those benefits that I mentioned earlier.

Rather than, instead of pushups, now we're just not focusing on chest at all. And the reason I say that is because it allows you to continue to cater to your fitness goals. If you just completely stop, then you're going to lose the gains that you've already worked so hard to achieve. 

So now that we understand that we should be changing up our workout routine every once in a while and that those changes should be subtle, how do we actually go about doing that? What changes should we really make?

Rey's Remedy

[00:03:59] Adapting Fitness for Changing Lifestyles 

My first recommendation to adapting your fitness routine is taking a look at your lifestyle and your fitness goals. One of the biggest challenges that I had is transitioning from a full-time athlete to a regular person who just focuses on fitness. And the reason I say that is there's a difference between working out as an athlete versus working out as a, let's call it veteran or a retired athlete. 

The reason is you don't need those, you know, five to seven days, hard in the gym or training, to perform, right? You simply need to prioritize your overall health. And so your workout routine is going to look a lot different, than what you're traditionally used to. So it's now time to re-establish what your fitness goals are.

I remember in hockey we had to do a two-mile run and we had to have a certain time for that. Now that I'm not a hockey player, I do not do those two-mile runs anymore, and it's for two reasons. One, I don't love to run at all, so I don't do that type of workout. And also I can achieve those benefits in other forms of cardio.

So because you know your lifestyle is changing, you need to recognize that your fitness regimen should probably change too. So take a look at your lifestyle, re-establish those fitness goals, and really focus on what do I actually need to do? What will I enjoy doing? And what will benefit me overall? 

In terms of where you can try new things, there's several sorts of iterations you can make to your workout regimen. One of those things is actually trying a different workout style completely. So maybe you're used to just either working alone at home or working out in a gym alone. Maybe try a workout class or organized sports or things like martial arts.

I personally took up martial arts in September I started, so it's been a few months, and now I'm doing Muay Thai twice a week, along with my fitness regimen that I do three times a week. So I'm in the gym three times a week and then martial twice a week. And that's something that works for me. 
When I was playing hockey, it was more like I was practicing twice a week. Games on the weekend, one dryland training with the team, and then in the off-season I had my own workout, so I was working out about four to five times a week, and that was me in the gym and maybe one or two ice sessions. So that's a lot. 

Obviously, I don't need that now. So now it's adapting to, you know, my current lifestyle and it's, oh, I've always wanted to try martial arts, so I'm doing that for fun and also getting my cardio in, and that's why I don't run. 

But for you, it might look completely different. You might say, take me away from martial arts. I'm running that couple miles, or I'm even running that marathon. If that's what you want to do, great, I support you 110%. And I won't even lie, I'm kind of jealous because I wish I loved running. It seems like such a cool human ability to have, especially those long distances. But I know what I'm built for and I know what I enjoy. And running is not one of them. 

[00:06:56] Evolve Your Fitness Regimen

Another thing you can do to try new things is actually providing variation in your exercises. And I mentioned it before with the pushups and the dumbbell bench press. But there's a lot of elements to it as well. For example, squats. There's so many different variations.

I focus on a barbell back squat, but there's also things like front squats and split squats. You can also do goblet squats, pigeon squats with dumbbells and kettlebells change it up. It's a little bit more exciting and it's good to tailor to those minor muscle groups as well as the major ones.

And then my final recommendation on trying new things is changing your workout style. So if you're focused on strength, maybe you add some time in to now focus on hypertrophy and what that really means, in the simplest terms is going from heavy weights and less reps to a little bit lower weights, but higher rep count. 

It's a different type of muscle you're building. One is for size and the other is for lean muscle. For me personally, I actually have a little bit of both right now. I have a combined routine, which consists of two strength elements and three hypertrophy elements. 

For example, what that might look like is I'll do four sets of squats up to eight reps, and then I'll do a dumbbell press, four sets, six to eight reps. But then I'll do things like a goblet squat or a lunge, 10 to 12 reps, five sets. That's the hypertrophy element. And maybe I'll even super set that with a core exercise.
So you're getting that element of, you know, a little bit of cardio in there, but you're also focusing on that high rep range. And then you get the strength from the low rep range. So there's a lot that sort of goes into fitness regimens, but that's what I found is a sweet spot for me. So you just need to find your sweet spot.

Another way of changing your workout style is actually changing the time you work out. This is something that I struggled with a lot because when I was in university, I worked out in the morning. I used to work out at 6:00 AM every day in the gym. But now that I don't work out in the gym, I work out at home and I'm also working full-time.

I prioritize my sleep and I still love to wake up early, but I'd rather focus on other aspects of my life, such as this podcast or even just having a relaxing morning. Rather than working out in the morning.And I also feel that I need that boost at the end of the workday. So now I work out as soon as my workday's over, the first thing I do is I go in the gym and I work out, and then I can start my evening, it's like a new start to the day for me. 

So that's what works out for me. But I will definitely say it was a gradual change. I started working out a little bit later morning and then afternoon, and then I got it now to the evening. But it's definitely an adjustment. 

And then the final way you can change your workout style is actually working out with a partner or working out solo. So that was one of the elements that I loved about Muay Thai is now that I'm actually, working out with other people, getting in that fitness routine with a community and that's actually an aspect I miss so much with no longer playing hockey. Right. So that's something I highly recommend if you are looking to get back into that community feel.

[00:10:02] Adopting a New Perspective

My final recommendation for adapting your fitness regimen is changing your perspective. I mentioned at the beginning of this that you know, working out as an athlete versus working out as someone who's no longer an athlete, that's already a big change to make. And I think the reason I was able to succeed doing that is changing my perspective.

Before I was focused on performance, right? How can I perform best as a hockey player? And now it's about prioritizing my health. It's how can I best care for my body? And also, reach my limits and my potential as a human being. And so that's what I'm working towards now. 

And that change of perspective has also added new motivation for me because before it was, it's kind of a job, right? If I want to succeed, I have to do this, or I'm not going to perform. But you lose that sort of accountability once you're no longer playing competitively. So I recommend changing your perspective and seeing how that helps you adapt to your new fitness regimen.

[00:10:58] Hold the Mic: Workout Regimen Resources

So I know I mentioned a little bit about my own fitness regimen and how I break that down. So for those of you who need inspiration on how to change up your workout routine or even establish a proper workout structure, I recommend going on legionathletics.com and I'll link that in the show notes, as well as Built With Science.

Built With Science also has a YouTube channel. I definitely recommend them. There's a lot of information on the blogs too about how you should actually cater to physical activity, and fitness routines, nutrition, all of that. But they have great free resources as well, especially in terms of workout routines so highly recommend checking them out. I'll link them in the show notes. 

[00:11:39] Meaningful Mentions: Key Takeaways

I want to leave you guys with three key takeaways. The first is adapt your fitness routine to fit your lifestyle, your lifestyle changes you might be working at one moment, next moment you're a student, next moment you are a pro-athlete, right? You need to alter your workout to best suit your lifestyle. 

Then I would also say evolve your fitness regimen. If you've been doing the same workouts for a while, it might be time to make those subtle changes either to the exercises you're doing, the environment, the people you're doing it with. Subtle ways to just boost that productivity, effectiveness, and motivation. 

And then finally, I would say be open to changing your perspectives and trying something new. Oftentimes we get really comfortable once we know how to do something, and it can be a little intimidating to try something new, but I encourage you to do it because it feels so much nicer to broaden not only your perspective but also your ability to accomplish things as well.

[00:12:43] Quality Quote

So to keep you on track this week, I have a quote for you from Sean Patrick Flannery that says, "Do something today that your future self will thank you for" and I think that's the best way of thinking about a fitness journey. 

It's really the idea that you're not doing this for who you are today, but you're doing this for who you will become. So the way I approach my fitness regimen is I'm thinking about the benefits that I'm going to achieve of living a healthier and longer lifestyle by prioritizing and adapting appropriately my physical health. 

[00:13:14] Outro

Alright guys, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode and committing to Learn, Grow and Thrive. Follow us on Instagram @growthonthedaily to stay up to date with the show and check us out at growthonthedaily.com for more information. Thanks, guys, and I'll see you next week!