Plateau Symptom: Fitness Fatigue
Symptom: The workout that used to leave you huffing, puffing and sore for days barely makes you break a sweat.
Underlying cause:
Your body has become more efficient and requires less energy to do the same activity.
“When you get accustomed to your exercise program, it stops stressing your body,” says Dr Bell-Wilson. And when you stop stressing your body, you stop seeing results.
The Fix: Add weights, advised Dr Christine Gerbstadt, national spokesman for American Dietetic Association.
Strength training at least twice a week increases your lean body tissue, metabolic rate and fat burning potential. In fact, a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that women who trained with weights twice a week for 12 weeks reduced their body fat by more than 2.5per cent and increased lean muscle mass by 2kg - even without restricting calories.
Increasing the duration and intensity of your workouts is also a good idea. So, instead of logging in your regular 30 minutes on the treadmill at a steady pace, try the treadmill’s interval training program, or hit the road and take advantage of changes int he terrain.
Run in the sand or up hills and use landmarks to signify a sprint or a slow down. And squeeze in extra calorie burning whenever you get the chance, says Dr Gerbstadt. Getting up to change the television channel instead of relying on the remote control; pacing while you’re on the phone; and doing squats while you wait for your food to heat in the microwave.
