Top 10 workout shake-ups

By Daniel Williams

Dawn or predawn is my exercise time of choice. Consequently, six days a week my alarm goes off between 5.20 and 6am. My point? I know all about fluctuations in the will to train. In more than 20 years I’ve never stopped training, because it’s a habit . . . or an addiction. But there have been times when I may as well have pulled the sheet over my head and gone back to sleep, because what I managed in the weights room or on the streets those mornings amounted to no more than sweeping leaves in a gale.

What all guys who work out soon realise is, aside from illness and injury (and hangovers), the biggest enemy to training with the kind of intensity that produces results is sameness. Same exercises, same loads, same rest periods, same running routes, same training partner, same clothes . . . Collectively, these constants erode the drive to push yourself, flatlining your progress.

The good news is, you can reclaim your mojo by making simple changes to your regimen. It’s unlikely all of these shake-ups will work for you – training’s a personal thing. But at least some of them will. And they all come with the endorsement of athletes and fitness coaches who know exactly how it feels to be stupefied by repetitive training. Incorporate them into your schedule, even if just for a while, and blow the cobwebs off your tired act.

May 22, 2012