If you’re trying to get in shape, you’ve probably encountered a plateau in your growth. You’ve been working out consistently and pushing yourself, but all of a sudden the scale won’t move. You either stop gaining muscle mass or find it difficult to continue losing weight.
It can be discouraging to reach this plateau, but know that you’re not alone. This plateau that many fitness enthusiasts encounter occurs frequently.
The favorable tidings? There exist established strategies for surmounting these obstacles and regaining direction. Are you curious about how to get past this obstacle?
Join us as we teach you how to overcome the dreaded workout plateau.
Top Strategies to Beat Workout Plateaus
Despite your steady training routine, you’ve noticed that you’re not making the same progress you did at the beginning. Why am I not getting more muscle, you might be asking yourself. Or, why don’t I continue to lose weight? Put otherwise, you have reached the dreaded plateau in your fitness.
A workout plateau frequently happens when your body has adjusted to the demands of your regimen; in other words, you have made progress, but the absence of new challenges has caused your trajectory to flatten. The initial improvements you experienced won’t continue to occur if you perform the same workouts repeatedly over time. Even worse, you can begin to observe a decrease in your calorie expenditure and muscle growth.
Here are a few indicators that you’ve reached a fitness plateau:
- Your exercises seem effortless.
- You don’t have much energy.
- You’re not driven.
- It’s possible that your muscular tone is declining.
- You’re either growing or losing weight.
Overtraining, using inefficient training methods, being inconsistent, and getting too little sleep are some other causes of plateaus. Any one of these elements may cause your progress to plateau.
However, don’t give up—not a single fitness expert has never encountered a plateau in their training. Here are six strategies to get past it and resume your journey.
1. Track Your Progress
If you don’t monitor your progress, how will you know when you’ve reached a plateau? There are other methods to keep track of your fitness improvement, such as taking pictures of your development and journaling about your exercises with information like the weights you used and the number of repetitions you achieved. Measuring can also be more beneficial than looking at the scale, as this depends on a number of other things. You can create a detailed and well-informed fitness plan to assist you in reaching your next level by keeping track of your progress and identifying the key areas that require improvement.
2. Add Variance in Your Routine
It’s possible that you’ve grown accustomed to your current routine and are dreading the thought of starting a new one, but nobody said you had to alter it entirely. You can keep doing the same exercises, but since your body needs challenge in order to advance, you can try to gradually increase the intensity by altering the following aspects of the same workouts:
- Increase weight:For the purpose of building muscle and improving muscle endurance, any strength training program should involve a steady increase in weight. Every time you work out, try to increase the weight a little bit (even a quarter of a pound will make a difference!). If you do this, your plateau will soon return to steps!
- Increase reps: As an alternative, you might progressively increase the amount of repetitions in your weightlifting sets, based on your fitness objectives.
- Increase intensity and/or duration: The same guidelines hold true for aerobic activity as well! If you typically run for an hour, consider mixing in quick sprints in between your jogging sessions.or simply sprint a little bit further each time.
You may give your exercises the extra tension they require to help your body get stronger and more fit by making these minor adjustments. Another important component that shouldn’t be disregarded is consistency. For instance, if you have been working out seven days a week, you may be at a plateau due to overtraining. To help your body heal and grow, you should think about reducing your activity to five days and resting for two days. This is covered in more detail in point #4.
Also Read: EXPERT TIPS FOR BALANCING CARDIO AND STRENGTH TRAINING
3. Be Open to Something New
Give your body and mind new tasks to overcome. They might be more pleasurable for you and your body than what you were previously using. Thus, if the majority of your exercise regimen consists of using machines, try free weights or enroll in a Pilates or martial arts class. If you enjoy working out at a high level, swimming is a great way to improve your endurance. If you’ve just done yoga for years, try strength training and watch how your fitness changes as a result of the new regimen.
4. Rest and Recover
Many professional athletes used to follow this regimen of intense training and little recuperation in the past. But actual growth occurs when your body is sleeping and resting, according to study. Now is the period when your body rebuilds and grows the muscles you have been working so hard to build, as well as refilling your energy reserves to allow you to keep going and get better. A 2017 study found that muscle strength and sleep quality are positively correlated. The male subjects who slept for 7-8 hours had stronger muscles than the ones who slept for less than 6 hours. Furthermore, a 2019 study demonstrates that getting enough sleep is essential for elite athletes since it enhances mood, response time, sprint timings, and other aspects of athletic performance. Make sure you have the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep each day.
Apart from getting enough sleep, planning your weekly workouts to give every body component the time off it needs to recuperate can also have a significant impact. Instead of overtraining the same areas for days on end, which can cause a plateau, switching up your upper and lower body workout days can assist allow each muscle group to grow and heal.
5. Keep an Eye on Nutrition
A key component of any fitness journey is nutrition. You won’t likely experience growth if your strength training plan consists of constantly tearing down your muscles without sufficient nutrition and protein intake to rebuild and repair the muscles. Additionally, you won’t have the energy or stamina for your training. Additionally, stay away from fad and low-calorie diets because you need to eat enough calories to maintain a healthy metabolism. To gain muscle and heal fast, this entails consuming unprocessed, complete foods that are high in protein, good fats, carbs, and minerals. In order to reap the greatest benefits from your exercise, you must develop a nutritious diet.
Note: If you combine all of the above with heavy drinking, your efforts will probably be undone. Excessive alcohol consumption and dehydration have been shown to negatively impact growth, performance, and recuperation. Therefore, it’s recommended to avoid alcohol and stick to water (or at least use it occasionally) if you want to see effects.
6. Try Working With a Trainer
It could be quite beneficial to have someone to help you break through your plateau and advance toward your goals with professional counsel, even though it would be ideal for it to originate from inside (and better for your pocketbook). After all, the most of you who are having trouble hitting a fitness plateau are probably searching the internet for precisely that professional guidance.
Engaging in fitness with an expert who tailors your regimen to your objectives can push you beyond your comfort zone and point you in the direction of the right changes to stay on course. They can also make sure that you are utilizing your energy effectively and lowering your chance of harm while trying anything new. A competent trainer will motivate you to complete the final rep and raise your weights at the appropriate moment to help you break through the plateau.Above all, pay attention to your body. When a change is needed, you can tell by how it reacts to exercise. Honor your progress and plan for a fresh celebration by making the necessary adjustments to soar to new heights. Recall that growth never occurs in your comfort zone. Furthermore, implementing the required changes to your training and way of life will undoubtedly assist you in overcoming the dreaded workout plateau.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires getting beyond fitness plateaus. It necessitates a diverse strategy that includes altering your exercise regimen, implementing progressive overload methods, seeing a personal trainer, and placing a high priority on nutrition and rest.
