How does your body adapt to exercise routines (requiring you to change your workout routine to prevent plateaus)?
In: Biology
Your muscles respond to stress. If you lift a weight that is heavy, your muscles will get stronger and eventually that weight will not be heavy to you anymore. You must make a change to reintroduce stress if you want that muscle to continue getting stronger. This concept is called progressive overload.
You do not need to change your routine to continue making progress. You can adjust the exercises in the same routine to make them harder. This might mean lifting a heavier weight or lifting the same weight but doing it slower or pausing at the hardest part to remove momentum. It could mean running faster, running farther, or running the same speed and distance but doing it on an incline instead of flat ground.
Assuming your current routine is working all of the muscles that you need worked, the only reason to change that routine is out of boredom. Your bicep knows that a stressful load is being places on that muscle. It does not know if that load is coming from a dumbbell curl, a barbell curl, or a chin-up. The stressful load is the only thing that matters, and progressively overloading that muscle is how it gets stronger.
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