Are you one of those people at the gym that is still using the same old tatty gym programme card, doing the same thing you’ve been doing for what seems like ages?

I see it quite a bit,  you pick your card up, look at it, sigh, shrug the shoulders think ‘here we go again’, then do the same exercises at the same weight you’ve been doing for the last 6 months then wonder why your body isn’t changing.

A good PT or Fitness Instructor should spot this and see the signs, come over to you and offer the opportunity of a new programme and/or fitness assessment to keep the motivation and enjoyment going.

Generally a programme should be periodised,  every 6-8 weeks is quite a popular time frame but during those 6-8 weeks you should be seeing progress and constantly trying to improve week in week out, this doesn’t mean increasing the weight or time spent on a machine EVERY session but a gradual improvement should be seen over this time. If you are not monitoring and writing down your weights or times then how are you going to see progression?

After this time it can be beneficial to change it up a bit, wether its a case of different exercises/ rep ranges/ different tempo/ rest times etc, there are lots of variables we can use to keep your mind and body stimulated.

Don’t let it get to that stage of boredom and apathy towards the gym, when you feel like that is about to happen go and speak to your friendly (at least I hope they’re friendly!) fitness professional to get you back on track.

Remember its all about Motivation, Progression and Results….Im sure I’ve seen that strap line somewhere !