keeping your fitness resolution this year

Fitness addicts are aware of the dreaded exercise plateau—despite regular exercise, your body no longer performs as well as it did initially. The plateau occurs as an abrupt halt to progress in weight loss or muscle gain, and working hard without seeing progress can make you feel discouraged.

The good news is that plateaus are just the result of your body's impressive ability to adjust to change and stress. To trick your body into becoming efficient once more, try a completely different exercise routine. Here are a few up-and-coming exercises to do just that.

HIIT

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, involves workouts that burn calories fast by alternating intense bursts of high-intensity exercise with short periods of rest or less-intense activity. For example, you might run as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walk for 2 minutes. Repeat this 3-minute interval 5 times for a 15-minute workout. You can choose any type of exercise to incorporate into a HIIT workout, such as:

• Cycling
• Boot camp
• CrossFit
• Pilates
• Swimming

HIIT workouts can be done anywhere, not just at a gym—no equipment is necessary. HIIT exercise is more efficient at burning more calories, it increases your body's metabolism, and it is good for your heart.

Pound

If you love drums or just pounding the air with drumsticks, then Pound exercising is perfect for you. During a Pound session, you use 2 weighted drumsticks to mimic drumming, which helps distract you from the high-intensity and duration of the cardio, conditioning, and strength training in the workout. By shifting your focus to volume and rhythm, you improve your speed, endurance, coordination, and timing. In addition to increasing your workout, you will also:

• Experience less chronic pain
• Have lower blood pressure
• See a boost in your immune system
• Acquire better mental focus

Rowing

Spinning enthusiasts, or anyone else tired of their same fitness routine, are jumping the boat to try their hand at rowing. Rowing machines evoke images of using only arms, but in reality this is not true. Unlike spinning or cycling classes that use 95% legs and only 5% upper body, rowing uses 60% legs and 40% upper body.

Rowing is among the most efficient of exercises because it uses nearly every part of the body.  Forget abdominal crunches—even your core gets a workout. Typically you will burn 2 to 3 times the calories that you would spinning, which just provides resistance in only one direction. The motion of rowing provides resistance both forward and back, making you stronger.

To get off of your fitness plateau and reach a higher level, switch up you routine with something new like HIIT, Pound, or rowing.