You exercise regularly, eat right, and even throw in some extra-intense workouts to boost your results. But all of this working out has no results (or not the results you’re looking for) when you weigh in. You don’t feel any healthier, any more energetic, more flexible, or stronger.
You keep at it a little more. But your workout is not working, so you quit. It’s a real story that’s not out of the ordinary. Fitness scientists have long suspected that everyone is a “non-responder” to some exercise, and that unsuitable methods of working out may show no results. But fresh research suggests that non-responders may need only to change the type of exercise they perform to start seeing those long-sought-after results.
The Beginnings of Fitness Research
Only in 2001 did researchers begin to publish information based on the suspected existence of the non-responder. Researchers Bouchard and Rankinen sifted through mountains of fitness data. They looked on a granular scale at the responses of individuals to diet and exercise plans.
The data had concluded that, on average, people’s bodies respond to endurance training by increasing endurance thresholds. But Bouchard and Rankinen found that the average had been decided from sets of wildly varying data. Subjects often appeared at one of two extremes: either they responded enthusiastically to endurance training, or they didn’t respond at all and saw no results from working out.
Subjects who were members of a family also exhibited similar responses to that of family members, which suggested that a weak response to exercise could be genetic. The “non-responder” characteristics can also apply to those who participate in strength training exercise, not just an endurance exercise.
However, researchers had yet to test whether different forms of exercise could elicit differently, and possibly more robust, responses from those struggling with workouts that are not working.
Testing Types of Exercise for Non-responders
Researchers at the University of Ottawa and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in Canada published a new experiment in PLOS One’s December issue. This experiment dove into the possibility that non-responders may achieve better results from one exercise as opposed to another.
They began the experiment by measuring initial fitness before any exercise programs began. Participants underwent each training plan for three weeks, then took a long break before beginning a new one so their fitness levels would return to baseline.
Subjects alternated between endurance training and high-intensity training. When researchers measured the results, they found that, unsurprisingly, the group had improved their fitness tremendously. However, results measured on an individual level again showed extremely disparate results.
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| High-intensity training is one option for people looking to switch up their workout routine. Source: state.gov |
The Non-responders Respond
About one-third of participants were working out with no results and little fitness improvement through endurance training, and another third improved only marginally through high-intensity training. Some participants reached a lower level of fitness post-workout.
However, and perhaps most telling, all participants improved their fitness by participating in either high-intensity training or endurance training, if not both. Those who did not improve through endurance training improved through high-intensity workouts and the opposite proved widely true for the others.
Switch Your Routine to Find a Fit
If you have given up on fitness in the past because you’ve noticed no results from working out, try a different type of workout routine. You may find the most profound results come from muscle training routines, high-intensity cardio workouts, long distance running or cycling, or maybe a combination of a few different types of exercise. Trial and error is the key to discovering your ideal exercise regimen.
Measure your resting heart rate before you begin a new exercise plan and again after about a month of disciplined workouts. If your heart rate is slower by one month and your workouts feel better and easier, you have likely found the type of exercise that works for you.
