Dr Anna Rolleston The Cardiac Clinic

How are your 2016 goals progressing? Fitness and weight-loss goals are great because you can easily gauge your progress. The fitter you get, the easier exercise becomes and the longer or faster or stronger you get. The results are obvious. Weight-loss is the same, there is an obvious improvement.

And then, after all your hard work a flat patch comes. You are still doing what you're doing, but change starts to slow down, and then cease completely! The plateau has happened. Our bodies are super adaptive to things we do and exercise is a great stimulus to change our physiology.

However, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, your body gets used to it and doesn't think it's a stress anymore. Stress from exercise is the stimulus for change, so if your body doesn't feel stressed so much, then not so much change happens. The plateau is upon you.

Physiological adaptation to exercise takes about six to eight weeks if you do it three times per week consistently over that period. Once you've hit eight weeks, to prevent the plateau, you must change what you are doing to keep your body guessing.

So if you are at the gym, you need a new programme. If you are a walker or cyclist you need to figure out what you're going to do that is different. Maybe add some hills or speed work or go for shorter duration and higher intensity. It doesn't matter what you do differently, it only matters that it is different.