There is a saying in the world of fitness gurus the world over:

Everything works, but for only so long.

It's not just modern exercise physiology either. Even the ancient Greeks knew the importance of mixing things up.

Our bodies are super adaptable and without regular new challenges it will not get stronger, allow you move faster or burn any fat.

Once it has adapted to the stress of a particular workout why would it do anything else?

If you keep doing the same thing over and over you will be no better in 5 years than you are now.

The real key to a successful workout that transfers onto the pitch is progress: finding ways to keep stressing your body to prevent stagnation.

Strength and conditioning coaches use the following six different types of adaptation, and you can do the same even without a sport degree, or access to a weight room (although it's worth considering if you don't).

Increase weight

The more weight you add to the bar the more you progress. For example, if you front squat 70kg for 5 reps one week, aim for 72 or 75kg for 5 reps the next week for the same number of sets and reps.

Increasing weight is more difficult with bodyweight workouts. One option is a weighted vest or if you are desperate you could even put heavy stuff in a backpack. Anything that increases the amount of weight you have to move against gravity will do the job.

The limitation of this method is that you can't keep adding weight forever. If you are a beginner you may be able to add more every workout, more advanced trainers will find they get stuck on a certain weight eventually (often called a plateau). This can be got through by progressing in one of the other ways.

Increase number of repetitions

You can also keep the weight the same and increase the number of repetitions per set instead. So going back to our front squat example, moving from 70kg for 5 reps to 70kg for 6 reps is a progression.

This makes bodyweight progression much easier. If you did 10 press ups one workout, aim for 11 the next time.

A word of warning with this method. As you change the number of repetitions the training effect also changes. A general rule of thumb is that low repetitions (1-5) increase strength and power without a great deal of muscle gain, medium repetitions (6-12) increase muscle size with less strength improvements and high repetitions (13+) improve endurance in the muscle you are exercising.

Bear this in mind when deciding what type of strength you need to work on. For cricketers it is usually strength without excess size so increasing repetitions has a limited benefit.

Increase number of sets

Another method to progress is to increase the total amount of work you do. For example, if you are doing three sets of 5 repetitions simply increase this to four sets. This will increase the total amount lifted so counts as progress.

On the downside, each extra set adds time to your workout as you need to factor in both work time and rest time between sets. If you have extra time, extra sets will allow you to progress further.

Decrease rest time

The opposite of adding sets is to reduce rest time. If you are waiting two minutes between sets, simply reduce this to one. This stops your muscles from recovering as well and forces you to work harder.

This is not a good strategy for increasing strength and power as you need a full recovery to develop these elements of fitness.

However, if you are looking to increase muscle mass or burn fat as a training goal you could look to this method. Generally speaking it's best not to play too much with rest times, but good to have as an option.

Use free weights

There is a tremendous debate about free weights vs. machines for fitness. Whichever side of the argument you lay on there is no doubt that free weights recruit more muscles than the equivalent machine. This is because you have to stabilise the weight with muscles that are not used with machines.

If you are using machines for strength training, simply switching to the free weight equivalent will challenge your body and therefore progress your workout.

Increase speed

It takes more force to bowl at 90mph than it does at 75mph. The weight of the ball does not change; you simply apply more acceleration to it. It's the application of enough force that makes bowling faster more difficult.

The same can apply to your training. The faster you move a weight, the harder you have to work to move it.

This is almost impossible to measure accurately, but if you are moving weight slowly increasing the speed by feeling alone will be progress. There is also a greater transfer to cricket movements as batting and bowling are often about speed of movement.

You can even do this progression with bodyweight training for example changing from squats to squat jumps or press ups to clap press ups.

Each of these methods has different benefits and costs but all have the same aim: To keep your workout progressing so you get better on the field.

Photo credit: lollyknit