Say you go to the gym and pick up the same pair of dumbbells you always use. You do the same three sets of 10 reps of one exercise, move to the next and then repeat the routine a few days later. For a few weeks, that consistency can help you build strength. But when you do too much of the same thing, your body adapts and you'll eventually plateau — or just get bored.
Mixing up your workout can make you stronger and perhaps healthier in the long run than sticking to your same old routine. One common way to add variety is to structure your workouts in blocks over weeks or months, each with a different goal.
Competitive athletes do this to be in the best condition for a competition, but you can do it to build strength or power while making exercise more fun. Coaches and trainers often call it periodization.
"It's pretty much the difference between doing random hard workouts and purposeful hard workouts," said Andre Crews, a personal trainer in Jersey City, N.J. "You don't get stronger by doing random stuff."
This approach may also reduce your risk of injury by avoiding repetitive stress, and it can help beginners build confidence by trying new exercises, said Kati Billow, a running coach in New York City.
Here's how to mix up your workouts to get the most out of them.
Change up your strength routine.
The simplest way to periodize strength training is to break it up into four- or six-week blocks, Mr. Crews said. Each block has a different goal, like building a foundation of strength, maximizing strength and developing endurance or power. Each period should include different exercises, repetitions and levels of intensity.
For example, take the squat, which is a staple of any strength training habit, but can quickly become a slog. So, try starting with a base-building phase, with perhaps eight to 12 reps of a goblet squat, holding a dumbbell to your chest that feels moderately challenging.
After six weeks, right when your body is used to the routine, switch to maximizing strength. Drop to three to five reps and increase the weight. By the last rep, you should feel like you're working around 80 percent of your maximum, or with two repetitions left in the tank.
After another six weeks, pivot again, maybe this time to building power, which means you need to go fast. Reduce the weight to around half of what you used during the strength block. For each rep, go as slowly as you can down, then explode up.
Do something similar with other exercises in your routine, like presses, rows or lunges. Mr. Crews said you should aim to regularly include the six fundamental movements for daily life: push, pull, hinge, squat, lunge and carry.
Between each block, take one or two weeks to "de-load," said Leada Malek, a physical therapist in San Francisco. Take time to recover, but don't stop altogether. Reduce the your weight and total sets to about half. Or add in more mobility work or stretching.
Change up your aerobic routine.
You can apply a similar approach to walking or running workouts, varying your mileage and intensity over each block.
For walking, start again by building your base: Slowly increase your time or distance by 10 percent each week for two months or so. Then, over the next couple of months, introduce faster segments. After that, you might set a distance goal or add hills.
For running, Ms. Billow said, you might spend the first few months gradually increasing your weekly mileage, while adding in a few higher-intensity speed workouts, like interval training or tempo runs. After that, push the distance a little farther each week. If your longest run in the first block was three miles, aim for four the first week and five the next. Many runners use a structure like this to prepare for a short race, like a 5k, in the spring and a longer one, like a half marathon, in the fall.
Each block should last several months so your body has time to adapt to training. Every fourth week, take a lighter de-load week and cut your mileage by 20 to 30 percent, Ms. Billow said.
"It's not just giving it a hundred percent every time you go out the door to run five miles. It's pulling back and going slower," she said.
Sometimes the simplest way to switch up your workouts is just to follow the weather.
During the winter, it's easier to hunker down in the gym, but in springtime, get outdoors and run, cycle, play tennis or hike. When you change up activities, you maintain muscle without overloading your tissues the same way year-round, Ms. Billow said.
Mr. Crews said that it's still important to maintain two strength sessions per week, but rucking, kayaking or climbing can also build strength outside of the gym.
Or just run up a flight of stairs or do some split squats after a walk. "There are a lot of different ways you can use nature as your background," Mr. Crews said.