My name is Ben Jepson, I am a senior at Wamogo High School and have been involved in sports all of my life. I was captain of the varsity soccer team this year and was voted onto the Berkshire League first team. In my opinion, success in any sport is built on physical fitness, not size of your body, but how efficient it is. If you want to outrun you opponent, or simply feel good about your body, my fitness tips over the next few weeks will help you reach your goals.     

          To start off this series of fitness and health related columns, I will be focusing on ways to beat plateaus for both calorie burning and mass gain. When any person first starts hitting the gym or running they begin to see results because their muscles are going through a learning process and anything will get results. However, these results seem to taper off and the great start you had begins to turn into frustration.      

          This leveling off happens to all of us and we can be pushed away from the gym and give up on the eventual goals that we set. There is one major mistake that everyone makes when working out, and fixing this mistake can lead to great results.      

     The common mistake that people make is that they complete the same motions over and over again. Our bodies adapt quickly to repetitive movement, such as running, and the gains we experienced drop off as our body adapts to the movement.  In fitness training, when you first start you workouts you will see results almost immediately, however over time these results will begin to flatten off and gains will slowly decrease. This effect is called a plateau.    

      While it seems effective, and people have told you that it is, scientists seem to have a different opinion. The major calorie burners in our body are “fast twitch muscle fibers” according to science teacher Nicholas D’Andrea. The way to activate these fibers is with a more explosive workout.      

       Interval training has been proven to combat the plateau by constantly introducing you body to new tasks and confusing it. Complete short bursts of intense activity followed by a brief rest. The act of confusing your body will beat your plateau and get you the results you crave.