How often should you change your weight training programme? Here's what the fitness trainers say

woman deadlifting

Credit: Getty

Strong Women


How often should you change your weight training programme? Here's what the fitness trainers say

By Chloe Gray

2 years ago

2 min read

Variety is the spice of life… and gym gains. Here, we look into how frequently you should switch up your strength training routine.


Fitness journeys can be frustrating. If you’ve recently started on a new plan, you’ll understand why. Pushing through every session when it feels like you aren’t getting stronger, faster or fitter can make you want to throw in the towel. But that doesn’t mean you should stop altogether. We know that it often takes longer than you think to see results from gym work. 

Saying that, one reason you may not be seeing much return for your hard graft could be that you’re stuck in an exercise rut – doing the same thing over and over again. While that may feel comforting, it’s not doing your body much good. 

So, just how often should we be making changes to our exercise routine, and what changes should they be? 

How often should you change up your workout routine?

“I would say revise it every four weeks, but don’t make any drastic changes until the six week mark,” says PT Tess Glynne-Jones. “If you get to six weeks and things are going well – and you’re still making progress – keep things consistent until you reach eight weeks.”

Trainer Caroline Bragg is keen to stress that, as with anything fitness-related, it all depends on your goals. “If you’re just looking to maintain fitness, you can change it up as much as you’d like really, but if you’re looking to gain strength, I would be sure to develop every single session.”

That means doing similar exercises but looking at your rep range and then adding more load. “Then every eight weeks, you should probably have a little check in and change what you’re doing. It’s good to have a complete shake up every so often and do a week of something you wouldn’t normally do.”

Woman lunging with weights

Credit: Getty

Why should you switch up workout plans?

The issue, Gynne-Jones, is that people tend to start plateauing. Keep doing deadlifts with a 50kg bar, and you’ll quickly stop building muscle; you need to keep upping the weight or increasing the rep range in order to keep getting stronger. Or you might want to introduce different kind of movements, like a single leg deadlift.

Meanwhile, Bragg maintains that eight is the magic number: “Eight weeks is when we tend to see adaption. When you hit that point, look at changing the variants: maybe change the time under tempo or number of reps or foot positioning in your moves. 

“Your body does get used to stuff, but bare in mind that if you’re doing key moves like squats, lunges and deadlifts, there are only so many variations of them.”


Images: Getty

A weekly dose of expert-backed tips on everything from gut health to running, plus receive our 8-week beginner’s guide to strength training.

By signing up you agree to occasionally receive offers and promotions from Stylist. Newsletters may contain online ads and content funded by carefully selected partners. Don’t worry, we’ll never share or sell your data. You can opt-out at any time. For more information read Stylist’s Privacy Policy

Thank you!

You’re now subscribed to all our newsletters. You can manage your subscriptions at any time from an email or from a MyStylist account.