Everybody will inadvertently hit a frustrating plateau in their training at one time or another. You’re cruising along for a while, getting strength, losing fat, looking better, and then all of the sudden it hits. Suddenly, you find yourself actually weaker than before on your lifts, or perhaps you find that you’ve gained back a couple of pounds. It happens to everyone. Most of the time, these plateaus happen because people hardly ever change their training variables with time. Lots of people stick to the same types of exercises for the similar basic sets and reps and rest periods with similar boring cardio routine. Well, I hope to open your thoughts and bring some creativity to your workouts on this article! There are many methods you can strategically modify your training variables to assure that you maximize your fat loss and/or muscle building response to exercise. Many people only think about modifying their sets and reps performed, if they even think about changing their routine at all. However, other variables that can dramatically affect your results are changing the order of workouts (sequence), exercise grouping (super-setting, circuit training, tri-sets, etc.), exercise type (multi-joint or single joint, free-weight or machine based), the number of exercises per workout, the amount of resistance, the time under tension, the base of stability (standing, seated, on stability ball, one-legged, etc.), the volume of work (sets x reps x distance moved), rest periods between sets, repetition speed, range of motion, exercise angle (inclined, flat, declined, bent over, upright, etc), training duration per workout, and training frequency each week. Sounds like a lot of different training aspects to consider in order to obtain the best results from your workouts, doesn’t it? Well, that’s where a knowledgeable personal trainer can make sense of all this for you to make sure that your training doesn’t get stagnant. Listed below are examples to get your mind working to come up with more creative and result producing workouts. Many people stay with workouts where they do something along the lines of 3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise, with 2-3 minutes rest between sets. Booooorrrrring! Here are a few samples of different methods to spice up your routine.