Mark’s answer is spot on about changing workout routines every six weeks, or so. To reiterate what he said, if you’re lifting 3 sets of 12 reps, it’s probably time to increase your resistance.

Regarding marathons — good for you for training your body to that. That’s awesome. If you want to keep running marathons, it’s important to keep doing exercises that will help you stay in shape for that. That said, if you want a good running workout that will burn extra calories, try running intervals once a week. Run at about 90 percent of your maximum, then jog or walk briefly to recover. A ratio of 1:2 is good place to start, so if you’re running for 30 seconds, walk/jog for a minute to recover. After doing that for a few weeks, try increasing your ratio to 1:1.

Let us know if we didn’t answer your questions. Thanks for reading, and I hope you keep checking out the new information we post.

Exactly. Inefficiency, muscle confusion, perturbation — they’re all different names for the same thing. Adding variety or changing your workout are good ways to make sure you’re consistently getting good results. Even if you’re not looking to burn calories, forcing your body to be inefficient can help build muscle.

Thanks for reading. Hope you keep learning from our posts.

Here’s a good article I found that you may want to check out.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=78814

Training cycles probably should last somewhere between 1-2 months, but a 4-6 weeks is the sweet spot I’ve found success with. I wouldn’t be worried if someone was mixing it up even more often than that.

Many trainers will tell you to keep your body guessing. I read once that ‘everything works, but only for a while.’ Try some work out classes like yoga or pilates, tabata exercises, interval training. Do some variations of the exercises you currently do. Meeting with a certified trainer can help you make sure that your new workouts are safe and that you are doing them correctly.

Thanks for reading Tom!