Have you Reached a Weight Plateau? Break Out of It Now!Well, my friend, you’ve reached a weight plateau! You know this if you’re lifting the same amount of weight as your last microcycle (or last month) for the same number of reps without being able to add any weight. For example, last month you were doing 12 repetitions of bicep curls at 35 lbs while today you’re still doing the same weight and reps! This can really put a damper on motivation and is one of the reasons why people end their program! The key to busting out of this plateau phase is to change your workout. Variety is key! Your body is an extraordinary machine that works it’s hardest to maintain homeostasis (or a state of equilibrium). If you continue to do the same exercises in the same order and in the same time of day, then your body will not need to “adjust” to your training. In other words, by continuing with the same exact routine, you’ve removed the original stimulus that allowed you to begin building muscle in the first place. Have no fear, all those muscles you’ve built are still there and working, but they’ve reached a point where they no longer need to adapt to a different stimulus. The bottom line: unless you change your workout in some way, a plateau is guaranteed to happen. How do you go about doing this? Well, any appropriate workout scheme should have some variation to it in order to evade this weight plateau. Always avoid having similar workouts in consecutive weeks or days. Further, never work out the same muscle groups on consecutive days! Skipping just one day still pushes the envelope in my opinion. For more information, check out the article I wrote about starting your own strength training program. I would recommend not working the same muscle groups within 2 days of each other. For example, if you worked your arms and back on Monday, wait until Thursday before you work those muscles again. One of the most successful ways of avoiding plateau is to implement a periodization workout plan. Studies have shown significant results over other training programs. It can be useful to get out a sheet of paper, a journal, or even a word processor and list categories of exercises based on body parts and muscle groups. For example, under the category “chest” you would have bench press, flys, pushups, etc. It can also be helpful to put these items at the front of your strength training log so that you can vary your workouts accordingly. Some other techniques include changing the order in which you do your workouts, lift less weight (with more repetitions), perform the reps more slowly, or maybe you’d want to slightly increase the weight (doing fewer repetitions). Heck, you may even find that you can do more repetitions at a higher weight! Remember that bottom line? Anything you can do to change the makeup of your workout will only help you break through that weight plateau. Reaching a weight plateau can cause and result in overtraining. Working out too much, too often will not give your body a chance to adapt to its new surrounding. Give yourself a rest! I know you’re excited to build as much muscle as quickly as you possibly can, but the best way to do this is to periodically mix in some rest. This rest is what allows for continuous muscle growth. In short, do not overtrain! If you workout too much, your muscles will actually start to break down. Avoid overtraining, vary your workouts regularly and make some serious gains!
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