One of the biggest things that contributes to you having a long and healthy life is staying physically active. Focusing on fitness helps strengthen your muscles, maintain your agility, and can even help your body protect itself from disease. However, there are some reasons you may want to switch up your fitness plan every once in a while.

Major Goal Changes

It’s normal for your fitness goals to grow and change as you progress. If you hit a plateau in your progress or reach your original goal, changing your goals can help you to continue to grow. These can come in many forms. Perhaps you had an original, smaller goal to lose 10 pounds, and you’ve reached your goal. You may be ready to lose another ten, or focus on building muscle instead of losing fat. Perhaps you decided you’d like to run a marathon or complete a triathlon. Each of these new goals will require a new fitness routine. Adjusting your fitness goals can help you gain muscle, become stronger, and learn new valuable fitness skills.

Pregnancy

Another great reason to update your fitness plan is if you are pregnant. Pregnancy is a lot for your body to go through, and you may find yourself needing to adjust your fitness routine during this time. It’s important to remember that everyone’s pregnancy is different, so don’t compare your fitness with another pregnant individual running five miles every day. Your body is using a lot of energy to create the person growing inside of you. Any physical movement that feels good to you will help you stay fit during pregnancy. Some light exercise while you’re pregnant can help reduce your stress. Now may be a good time to go back to basics and find new, adjusted ways to move your body.

Injury

Unfortunately, an injury is likely to afflict everyone during their lifetime. Whether it is exercise-related, like shin splints, or caused by something else entirely, you’ll need to adjust your fitness routine until it is healed. Continuing to use an injured part of your body can cause greater damage and leave you in a lot of pain. However, being injured doesn’t usually mean that you need to stop working out altogether. Find new ways to stay fit without pushing yourself or injuring yourself further. There are many types of movement that can allow you to still get your heart pumping without hurting yourself.

Developing a fitness routine keeps you healthy and strong during your life. However, there will be times that this routine needs to be adjusted or revamped to continue toward your goals. These are just a few of the reasons why you may want to change up your fitness routine, but feel free to change it up at any time to keep things interesting and keep yourself motivated. 

Check out this article on what you should know before hiking this spring!