Toned bodies have a varied lifestyle

It has been said that in most cases if you have been doing the same routine in the same way for more than 6 weeks, your body gets used to it. This is one of the main reasons why we see great progress to start with and then plateau off.

It makes sense then; if you want to tone up faster and without the plateau-ing off, you need to vary your routine a little. Actually I think you need to vary your routine - A LOT. But that's because one routine repeated daily is not only boring, but believe it or not your muscles don't get a rest.

Yes, you did read that correctly.

Muscles need a day off between strenuous exercise sessions to heal and to grow.

If you would like to exercise on a daily basis, consider doing something very different on your non-gym days (assuming you go to the gym of course).

• Go for a bike ride
• Climb Jacobs Ladder
• Paint a wall or three
• Mow the lawns
• Play a round of golf or get your tennis racquet out of the cupboard
• Strap on your roller blades
• Do laps in a pool

The more you enjoy the variety of exercise and what we can incidental exercise (house-work, ironing, walking to and from the shops, climbing the stairs etc) means you will tone up faster and you shouldn't plateau out either.