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Try These If You Have Hit A Workout Plateau
If you have reached a plateau, the first thing that went through your mind was, probably, changing the workout routine. I know this is a possible solution, but it may not be necessary to do that.
For some, changing workout routine kinda sucks because they’d have to get used to the new exercises. If you are one of those or you just want to get over the plateau without changing the workout plan, then here are some hints and tips for you.
Your diet
You probably know that your diet gives your body resources for it to build muscle after you’ve stimulated muscle growth by working out (if you didn’t know that, then you do now).
The fact is that you start with a certain amount of strength. With that amount you cannot lift heavy weights and not many stimuli are created. For that reason, you don’t need a “heavy” diet (i.e. with many calories).
You’ll be able to go along with this lighter diet plan for a while, but you’ll reach a point that your diet plan will not be able to give your body enough nutrients for it to maintain all the muscles it already has and build more.
By upgrading your diet you may overcome your workout plateau because, then, you will be giving your body resources to evolve again.
How to know if your problem is in your diet plan?
I’m going to be honest with you. I cannot tell you whether your problem is or not in your diet plan. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t have your individual information.
You need to find out information about your body; get a calorie calculator; and see if, for your situation, you are eating enough calories. If not, it’s time to upgrade your diet.
There are formulas out there telling you to multiply your body weight by some factor or 15 or 18, but that is really not accurate and it doesn’t consider many individual characteristics you have that must be considered so that you end up with an accurate value for daily calorie intake.
Your resting
Everyone knows, and it is true, that muscle is built while you rest; not during the workout. The more muscle you have, the stronger you are (supposing you’re natural and is doing everything right).
If you are not resting properly, then you’ll surely hit a workout plateau.
See, if you are not giving time for your body to build muscle, then you won’t get stronger and be able to evolve.
How you should rest
The general rule is: don’t have more than two workout sessions in a row and don’t have more than one workout session per day.
If you already do that, there still are chances of resting being the problem why you have hit a plateau.
There are some individualities (e.g. hormonal issues, how muscular you already is) you should take into considerations when scheduling the days you’ll take for resting.
Did you really hit a workout plateau?
Don’t get me wrong, but you may not have reached a plateau. Try sticking with the workout plan for three to four more weeks and see what happens.
I say this because in the beginning lifters evolve faster and, as months go by, the amount of muscle they build decrease. If you are able to pack 50 pounds of muscles in one year, does that mean you’ll pack 500 pounds of muscles in 10 years? Does it mean you’ll be able to pack 1000 pounds of muscles in 20 years? Of course not.
So you may just be in a phase where this decrease of development is more noticeable. If that is your case, then it is good signal. It means you evolved from beginner to intermediate or from intermediate to advanced.
If nothing else works …
Then there are some tweaks you can do to your workout plan I’ve seen people doing to successfully to overcome their plateaus.
Tweak #1 – Change the order in which you do your exercises
You may get results by changing the order in which you do the exercises. Alternate lower body and upper body exercises.
Some people, in a single workout session, do all the upper body exercises first and only after that they do the lower body exercises. If you do that, they play with the order of your exercises a little. Mix it up!
Tweak #2 – Take a week off
Some people have had success by taking a week off and, after that, going back to the gym but not lifting more or the same amount of weights. They actually started over by lifting less weight.
They went back to the gym lifting only 80% of what they were lifting before taking the week off (propositally) and increasing weights every week until they get back to normal. After that, the didn’t reach a plateau again and were able to evolve normally.
That worked for them to overcome their plateaus. It may work for you too. It’s a little time consuming because it takes from 3 to 4 weeks for you to get back to normal.
Tweak #3 – Decrease reps
Some people, many in fact, have decreased reps and increased weights. What happened is that after increasing the weight, they got stronger and they were able to increase the reps again.
So, if you can decrease the number of reps and increase the amount of weight you lift, that is a possible solution for you to evolve and get over the plateau.
After increasing the weight, you should try to increase the reps back to what they were.
Here is the reason why plateaus happen
It’s possible to not reach plateaus. Plateaus happen to people that are not working out, resting or whatever they are doing correctly.
So if you have information on the topic of bodybuilding you can stop losing time and effort on such things (e.g. plateaus) and spend your time in building muscle.
I’ve gathered some free sources of information and they are in the important pages section of this website. Using them will help you very much in building muscle. You can go there by clicking here.
Related posts:
- How Long To Workout? Discover What Happens If You Workout Too Much.
- Important Facts About Muscle Building Nutrition
- What Not To Do If You Want To Build Muscles
- Two Very Important Tips For Building Muscles Are …
- The Most Fundamental Principle Of All Weight Gain Workouts
October 12, 2009
Tags: articles, plateau, weight lifting, workouts Posted in: Muscle Building Workouts
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