Destroy Your Strength Plateaus
Plateaus suck. The longer they last, the more discouraging they become. No one likes putting in work day after day and feeling like they’re spinning their wheels.
Training plateaus are part of the process. You can’t avoid them. They’ll last longer than you think, and the more experienced you are, the longer they’ll last. Multi-year plateaus aren’t uncommon, especially when injuries and other life stresses are involved.
If you’ve been dealing with a plateau for a long time, relax. You aren’t broken and you aren’t an idiot for not figuring it out yet. You’re normal and human.
However, plateaus shouldn’t last forever. If you’ve just been doing the same thing over and over again and expecting things to change, you’re wrong. It’s time to analyze what’s going on and get you back on track toward your goals.
Review Your Training Log and Look for Trends
Your training log will tell you more about your own body and response to training than any textbook. If you haven’t been logging your training, why? Start now. You’ll need at least a few weeks or months of data to even start making decisions about how to break your plateau.
Start looking for trends. Have one or two lifts stalled while others are still progressing? Is everything just crashing and burning? Are you constantly beat up and sore, or do you always feel great but your lifts still won’t progress? Are certain training sessions or days of the week always worse than others? If so, can you figure out why?
The missing piece most people forget is logging very basic info about life stress, sleep, and nutrition. These factors affect training enormously. Even if you don’t have it written down, think about what’s been going on in your life since you plateaued in the gym. If one or more areas are off for an extended period of time, start by trying to improve it before changing your training. That may be all you need to spur more progress.
Make Small Changes and Monitor Results
After you’ve identified your problem areas, don’t dump your whole program. Instead, examine the details and make one or two small changes. Here are some things to try that I’ve seen work with both myself and clients:
Add or subtract a set – Adding a set or two is usually necessary if you’ve been following the same set/rep scheme for a while and just adding weight to the bar. Back off the weight by 5-8% and add a set. You can also work up to a heavy set and then do multiple lighter back-offs. Adding weight in a linear way works for a little while but is impossible to sustain long-term. You need more volume to continue getting stronger
Slightly alter the load – Is every set an absolute grind? Back the weight off for a while and see if you can start making progress again. More than likely, you’ll also need to add a set like I’ve previously discussed. Conversely, if you’re doing a ton of submaximal volume but your max isn’t improving, you may need more training with heavier weights to develop the neuromuscular coordination to lift heavy. Add one heavier but still submaximal set before your volume work, and see if you can work that up over time.
Train more or less frequently – I see this error all the time and may be a good place to start if time allows. Training a lift once per week is probably not optimal for you. It’s great if you’ve never devoted significant time to strength development, but eventually you’re going to need more. To make it as painless as possible, take your current sets of a given exercise and just split them over two days. For example, take your 3x5 and do 2 sets on one day and 1 set on another day. Then work up over several weeks to doing 3x5 on both days. You will probably have to reduce the weight on at least one of the days, but that’s normal. On the other hand, if you’ve been training one exercise multiple times per week, it may be time to incorporate more variety and reduce the frequency of that specific lift.
Alter your exercise selection – If you’re a strength athlete, don’t eliminate your competition lifts. Variations are used to address weak points, allow you to train more frequently without beating yourself up, and alleviate boredom. instead of only training your competition lifts, add a variation instead. If you’re a general strength trainee or training for a job, you can use a wide variety of exercises to make progress. Use new bars, bands or chains, pauses, new grips, and different bar positions to challenge yourself. Just don’t change everything at once.
Alter your rep range – If you’ve been training in the same general rep range for a while, change it up. Use higher reps to increase volume and build muscle, or lower reps to develop maximal strength. Both are needed at various times. The longer you’ve been doing the same thing, the more you probably need a change.
Sorting this all out is challenging. A coach can help, but no matter what, don’t get discouraged. Training is a learning process that never ends, and there is no perfect program. The longer you train and the more you pay attention, the more in-tune with your needs you’ll be and the better decisions you’ll make. It won’t be perfect the first time.
If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me