You know the drill, girls. Start a class, or a routine, and the weight seems to just drop off and the wobbly bits all get a bit firmer.

Result!

But a couple of weeks later everything seems to slow down, you don’t see any much improvement. Then, a few more weeks later, you give up on exercise, disheartened.

Why does this happen and what can you do to prevent it?

It happens because your body has adapted and the more your body adapts, the less fat you’ll burn.

As much as I love my classes, when this happens it is very hard to push past this plateau as you can’t dance faster than the rhythm, or make a hard move harder to advance the difficulty level.

What’s a fox to do?

Change things up, take on a new challenge to make your body work differently and keep those gains coming.

Do intense rather than steady.

We’ve talked about your muscle fibres before, the fast twitch and slow twitch. High intensity work targets the fast twitch, which burn a lot more energy when activated.

Oxygen debt is paid in fat.

When the body exerts itself without a decent supply of oxygen, it trains anaerobically, and to get back in balance when you’re resting, it replenishes all that used up oxygen, and, most importantly, it consumes fat as well! Typically, your body will burn more fat than usual for the next 38 hours or so.

Train full body.

Usually cardio for women in the gym is the cross-trainer, treadmill or step machine. What are all of these missing? Your upper body! Try a full body conditioning session – rowing machine, kettlebells, ropes, a good HIIT class, or, if you’re lucky enough to get your paws on one, a Prowler 🙂

Train hard.

I get it, I really do. We don’t want to look sweaty, we don’t want to pull workout faces (registered trademark, Meanfitfoxes) and we don’t want to look anything less than perfect, because y’know, someone might be looking…

The thing is, 45 minutes looking sweaty and dishevelled will mean you look hot for 4 – 5 days after. I know which option I’m choosing!