3 STEPS TO BREAKING A PLATEAU

Nobody enjoys being the same. At least nobody that takes training seriously. It's literally the reason we train...we are trying to change the body, whether that be get bigger, fitter, leaner, or stronger.

Plateaus are part of the game if you train long enough, but it doesn't mean we should welcome them with open arms. When you reach a plateau, here are 3 tips to bust bust through them:

1) Take Advantage of Variety as a Training Variable

Variation is often a training variable coaches or trainees neglect when designing a plan.  Typically, plans fall into one of two categories, either too much variation or not enough variation.  Let’s take a look at both sides:

a) Too Much Variety

These people are often presumed to have training ADHD.  They feel the need to do something different every time they step into the gym.  You need to “confuse” the muscle, am I right?  Sure…if you want to lead yourself down the path to stagnation.  You won’t get anywhere because every time you reintroduce a novel stimulus, the muscle and nervous system perceives a completely new stimulus that it needs to recover from and signal to the body to adapt.   

The body needs to know (up to a certain point), what you’re trying to tell it to adapt to and prepare itself to withstand in the future.  Not only that, if you introduce a new movement every time, the body needs a session to get accustomed to the exercise and the movement pattern to be able to fully maximize it.  The comfortability of the movement and the learned motor pattern are typically the cause for an increase in load from Week 1 to Week 2, and the reason why increasing the load from Week 2 to Week 3 is much more difficult as you “maxed out” the learning aspect. 

Think of it this way, you wouldn’t learn German too well if you the teacher teaches you German one day, Spanish another day, and French the next day.  Same applies to training.  Don’t pull the body and nervous system in all different directions because they won’t know which direction to follow.

b) Not Enough Variety

It drives me nuts when someone asks for a program and then just disappears with it for months because I know exactly what is happening.  They think that because they have a program and that they make progress over 3 weeks, they can just run the program over and over again and still make progress.

Sorry folks.  That’s not how it works!

Why?  The Law of Accommodation.

This law essentially states that if you do something repeatedly over time, the body becomes accustomed to the stressor that the stimulus is no longer perceived as a stress, and therefore does not signal the body to adapt or become stronger.

This, however, does not only apply to movements or exercises, but also to strength qualities.  For example, if you’ve spent a lot of time training for adding muscle mass, take 6-9 weeks and focus on getting stronger rather than bigger.  That way, the next time around, you’ll be able to use heavier weights than what you were doing before, and thus create a stronger stimulus for growth.

In general, my recommendation would be to switch things up every 3-4 weeks.  This doesn’t necessarily mean changing all the exercises.  Simply changing the tempo, rest period, number of sets and reps, even the exercise order, can all be great ways of adding variety to your training.  The frequency and magnitude of variation depends on your training experience, with less experienced needing much less variation, while more experienced need more frequent changes.

2) Don’t Forget to Cruise

I love to train hard and heavy.  Deload weeks and days off are pretty boring to me.  However, I’ve learned over time that they are necessary to make progress IF YOU TRAIN HARD ENOUGH.

Many of the past and present training philosophies incorporate these “lighter” training periods as a means of recovering.  However, what many don’t understand is that it is during these periods where we are getting stronger!  Wait, let me rephase that a bit…We are bringing ourselves CLOSER TO OUR STRENGTH POTENTIAL.  When we train, we stress the body to get stronger, but our fitness levels or ability to express our potential are lower because fatigue levels are high.  Once we allow fatigue levels to drop during these lighter periods, we bring ourselves closer to our peak performance. 

Since we bring down fatigue and increase our levels of preparedness, this will ultimately allow us to lift more weight in subsequent training phases and create a stronger stimulus for progress.  Some training styles that implement these phases are DC Training (created by Dante Trudel) and Fortitude Training (Dr. Scott Stevenson).  In the programs, there are phases of training that are meant for “Blasting” (pedal to the metal) and phases meant for “Cruising” (putting on the breaks).  In the book Fortitude Training, Dr. Stevenson recommends including an “Intensity Cruise” that lasts approximately 1/3 of the length of the Blast.  Following this Cruise period where intensity and/or volume of training are reduced, you should very likely be hitting personal records on all your lifts in the next Blast phase.

IF YOU TRAIN HARD, including a 1-week de-load/down-load period after a hard 3-weeks of training will lead to substantially better progress long term, as well as a reduced risk of injury or burnout.

NOTE:  Cruising does NOT mean easy training.  If you prefer training hard and heavy, simply reduce the volume (number of work sets) by 25%.  If you feel your joints and nervous system need a rest, reduce the intensity (load) by 25%.  If you feel terrible, reduce both volume and intensity by 25%.

3) Make Sure You’re Doing the Right Things OUTSIDE the Gym

Many people on the outside believe that the training is the hard part.  They don’t realize that the 60–90-minutes of training is actually the more enjoyable part of the day.  The hardest part is making sure that we do the right things outside of the gym to help us perform in the gym.

If you feel like your progress in the gym is stalling, take a look at life outside of the gym.

How’s your sleep?  Are you getting a quality 7-9 hours?  What about your nutrition?  Supplementation?

How’s your stress level throughout the day?  Are your relationships or is work causing stress?

Are you staying active or just sitting at a desk all day?

These may seem small, basic factors, but they can have a significant impact on your recovery and ultimately your progress.

Make sure you’re eating an adequate amount of good quality food, getting sufficient high quality sleep, and managing stressors in your life.

Use these 3 simple tips and watch yourself bust through your plateau!

Train hard folks.

Coach Max