Things are constantly changing in life and in your personal fitness.
The truth is you are either improving or deteriorating in some way (especially as we age).
That is why the notion of working out to "maintain" a certain degree of fitness is somewhat of an untruth.
How many people do you know who are fit who just workout to "maintain"? I would hazard to guess not many if any.
People who are fit need to be motivated.
A large part of the cycle of motivation is having a goal and attaining that goal.
This kind of work/reward cycle is motivating as you get a pay-off for the work you have done.
It is satisfying to reach a goal.
The journey to that goal becomes a challenge you look forward to taking on rather than a chore, which is the way many people view exercise.
When creating a fitness workout routine you are really devising a strategy to achieve a goal.
That goal at first might be to simply lose 10lbs.
Once you reach that goal you should set another goal and change your workout routine to achieve this new target.
The body naturally will become accustomed to any fitness workout routine so it is important to change your routine every 6 to 12 weeks to keep your progress from getting stuck on a plateau.
As you continue to improve you might cycle your training to have lower and higher forms of intensity over the course of several months or a year to achieve personal bests, then rest and recover, and then attempt to beat your personal bests again.
Examples of personal bests may be to time how fast you can run 400 metres or see how much you can bench press or how many chin ups you can do in a row.
Think how boxers approach their training.
They might start out 3 or 4 months from a fight and slowly ramp up the intensity of their training so that the night of the fight they are in tip top shape.
After the fight they rest and then slowly begin to prep for the next fight again starting from a lower level of intensity and ramping it up over a few months.
Powerlifters and Olympic lifters do the same approach to competitions, slowly ramping up the weights they use so they are at their strongest on the day of the competition.
Then they start it all over again as the next competition approaches.
In each case the athlete is seeking to reach a new personal best in performance with each new training cycle.
In your own personal way, you should approach your own fitness challenges in the same way.
Put together 3 month/12 week fitness routines to hit a target.
Maybe after a while you are no longer concerned with leaning down any more (as you have become lean) and you are more concerned with sculpting your body or getting stronger.
Whatever the goal approach it the same way, create a strategy (a fitness workout plan), follow the strategy to a "T", determine how well it worked (did you hit your goal?), and then begin all over with a new goal and a revised strategy.
These kinds of approaches to different fitness routines will keep it fun, interesting, and motivating.
When you realize the power and control you have over your body, different fitness challenges can empower your daily life.
The truth is you are either improving or deteriorating in some way (especially as we age).
That is why the notion of working out to "maintain" a certain degree of fitness is somewhat of an untruth.
How many people do you know who are fit who just workout to "maintain"? I would hazard to guess not many if any.
People who are fit need to be motivated.
A large part of the cycle of motivation is having a goal and attaining that goal.
This kind of work/reward cycle is motivating as you get a pay-off for the work you have done.
It is satisfying to reach a goal.
The journey to that goal becomes a challenge you look forward to taking on rather than a chore, which is the way many people view exercise.
When creating a fitness workout routine you are really devising a strategy to achieve a goal.
That goal at first might be to simply lose 10lbs.
Once you reach that goal you should set another goal and change your workout routine to achieve this new target.
The body naturally will become accustomed to any fitness workout routine so it is important to change your routine every 6 to 12 weeks to keep your progress from getting stuck on a plateau.
As you continue to improve you might cycle your training to have lower and higher forms of intensity over the course of several months or a year to achieve personal bests, then rest and recover, and then attempt to beat your personal bests again.
Examples of personal bests may be to time how fast you can run 400 metres or see how much you can bench press or how many chin ups you can do in a row.
Think how boxers approach their training.
They might start out 3 or 4 months from a fight and slowly ramp up the intensity of their training so that the night of the fight they are in tip top shape.
After the fight they rest and then slowly begin to prep for the next fight again starting from a lower level of intensity and ramping it up over a few months.
Powerlifters and Olympic lifters do the same approach to competitions, slowly ramping up the weights they use so they are at their strongest on the day of the competition.
Then they start it all over again as the next competition approaches.
In each case the athlete is seeking to reach a new personal best in performance with each new training cycle.
In your own personal way, you should approach your own fitness challenges in the same way.
Put together 3 month/12 week fitness routines to hit a target.
Maybe after a while you are no longer concerned with leaning down any more (as you have become lean) and you are more concerned with sculpting your body or getting stronger.
Whatever the goal approach it the same way, create a strategy (a fitness workout plan), follow the strategy to a "T", determine how well it worked (did you hit your goal?), and then begin all over with a new goal and a revised strategy.
These kinds of approaches to different fitness routines will keep it fun, interesting, and motivating.
When you realize the power and control you have over your body, different fitness challenges can empower your daily life.