Break Through That Plateau!
Break Through That Plateau! Are you having trouble increasing the weight on your lifts? You’ve probably hit a plateau. Since I’ve been focusing a lot on strength in my recent articles, I’m talking about a strength plateau here. After all, we know that progressive overload is King, and you should be able to make significant strength gains throughout your lifting career. So how do you break through that plateau? Let’s jump right in and find out!
A Quick Recap
| Training Plateau | Causes | Fixes |
| Your progress has come to a stop | Not Recovering | Deload Week |
| Poor Sleep | Have a Plan Post-Deload | |
| Not Eating Enough | Mix It Up – Temporarily | |
| Stress | Review Your Nutritional Plan | |
| Too Much Volume | Review Your Supplement Program | |
So What Is a Training Plateau Anyway?
A definition of a training plateau, or in this case a strength training plateau, is when you get stuck at a certain weight on your lifts and stop seeing progress. We’re also talking about this being a problem for an extended amount of time. I assume you’ve been using progressive overload. If you can’t move past a certain weight, and it can be on all your primary compound lifts (think squat, bench press, deadlifts, overhead presses), or just one, you’ve hit a plateau. (1)
What Causes a Training Plateau?
There are any number of reasons why you might get stuck in a training plateau. These include the following:
Poor Recovery
You should have several planned recovery days worked into your training week. It’s a hard pill for many lifters to swallow, but the truth is you make progress when you allow yourself to recover. You have heard me say that countless times for one simple reason – it’s the truth!
So make sure you have enough recovery days planned (I suggest working out for 2 days in a row then taking a recovery day). Also make sure you’re resting on your off-days – you should limit physical activity (have you added some physical event to your recovery days? Maybe you should rethink that), you should be eating well, and drinking plenty of water.
Sleep Problems
How have you been sleeping? If you’ve been having problems falling asleep or getting a good night’s sleep, it’s time to revisit your sleep schedule:
- Are you sleeping in a cool, dark room?
- Is your environment quiet?
- Are you staying up too late?
- Are you drinking caffeine too close to bedtime?
- Are you stressed?
The answer is to fix the problems you’re experiencing, and I would also suggest the use of a natural sleep aid, such as NOW Sleep. You will find it can make a difference, and you won’t wake up the next morning feeling groggy .
How’s Your Stress Levels?
Piggybacking off the last point, excessive stress can disrupt recovery and promote the release of the catabolic hormone cortisol. Bringing stress under control ensures full recovery and keeps cortisol levels in check. To help control stress, I suggest adding Golden Himalayan Organic Ashwagandha to your program. It is a potent adaptogen that helps your body cope with stress.
How’s Your Nutrition?
You should be following a nutritional plan that aligns with your training goals. For example, if strength is your goal, you need plenty of protein and carbs. I get that many lifters may be trying to keep fat under control by limiting carbs, but you must eat enough in the hours leading up to your training to promote ATP energy, and your post-workout program must include enough carbs to restore glycogen levels.
To that end, I suggest at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight for all serious lifters. I also suggest spreading that out over your day so you can reach your daily protein goal.
As hinted at above, don’t shortchange your carbs! I suggest consuming roughly 50% of your total daily carbs in the hours that surround your workouts. This includes a post-workout shake. This also is the timeframe when you should be eating the day’s simple, sugary carbohydrates.
Casein Night Feed:
This is a great idea for any serious lifter. Consuming slow digesting protein at night will help keep your body out of a catabolic state and promote anabolism.
So, roughly 30 minutes before bed, you could consume one serving of Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese, or you could drink a protein shake that contains slow digesting protein. For this I suggest PEScience Select – a delicious protein powder that provides 24 grams of high quality fast and slow digesting proteins from milk protein (which provides both casein and whey), whey concentrate and leucine peptides.
Have You Been Adding Sets?
Let’s be real here, many lifters jump at the chance to add more volume because they think “more is better”, and because they fail to understand the critical importance of recovery. Do not add more sets! Focus on making the most of the sets and reps you’re doing now! It’s not about junk volume, it’s about the quality of execution.
To that end, I suggest making sure your rep performance and form is 100% spot on. Make sure you’re performing a full rep, explosive on the concentric and slower and under control on the eccentric. Be sure you’re keeping your form tight right up through the last rep of your last set.
How to Break Through a Training Plateau
Beyond what I have already suggested, here are some more tips to help you break through that plateau!
It’s Time For a Deload Week
The point of a deload week is to reboot and give your body and mind a training break from your typical routine. Sometimes all your body needs to get through a workout stall is a little time off. Rest weeks allow for full and complete recovery, give your CNS a break, give you time to let aches and pains heal, and are great for recharging and coming back full of focus, motivation and energy. So make sure you eat well and rest well.
You can still hit the gym, but follow this approach:
Warm up over 2 light sets for 12-15 reps.
- Set 1: 150 lbs x 10 reps (Rest 60 secs)
- Set 2: 165 lbs x 8 reps (Rest 60 secs)
- Set 3: 180 lbs x 8 reps (This is keeping things light and mainly focused on blood flow.)
- You’re done!
Have a Plan!
Once you come back from your deload week, don’t just jump right back to where you were, incorporate an accumulation week. This means you should use weights that are 5% lower than what you used the week before your deload. You should also up your reps to 10 per set for this week. This is a linear periodization approach, and in essence you’re starting a new ‘Block” (or training cycle). (2, 3)
Then, going into Week #2 from your deload, use the same weights you did before your deload. For Week #3, add 5 pounds to every set, and you should hit a new PR!
For Example
Before Deload
Set # 1 – 290 x 10 (rest 60 seconds)
Set # 2 – 308 x 8 (rest 60 seconds)
Set # 3 – 325 x 6 (rest 120 seconds)
Set # 4 – 335 x 5 (rest 120 seconds)
Set # 5 – 350 x 3 (rest 180 seconds)
Deload Week
- Set 1: 150 lbs x 10 reps (Rest 90 secs)
- Set 2: 165 lbs x 8 reps (Rest 90 secs)
- Set 3: 180 lbs x 8 reps (Rest 90 seconds)
Accumulation Week
- Set 1: 275 lbs x 10 reps
- Set 2: 295 lbs x 8 reps
- Set 3: 310 lbs x 6 reps
- Set 4: 320 lbs x 5 reps
- Set 5: 335 lbs x 5 reps
Week # 2 After Deload
Set # 1 – 290 x 10 (rest 60 seconds)
Set # 2 – 308 x 8 (rest 60 seconds)
Set # 3 – 325 x 6 (rest 120 seconds)
Set # 4 – 335 x 5 (rest 120 seconds)
Set # 5 – 350 x 3 (rest 180 seconds)
Week # 3 After Deload
- Set 1: 295 lbs x 8 reps (We’ll drop 2 reps here to save energy for the heavy sets)
- Set 2: 315 lbs x 6 reps
- Set 3: 330 lbs x 6 reps
- Set 4: 340 lbs x 5 reps
- Set 5: 355 lbs x 3 reps – a PR!
Switch From An Ascending Pyramid to a Reverse Pyramid
The typical approach used by many lifters is an ascending pyramid – you add weight and drop reps. This has benefits, but it also has a major shortcoming. By the time you’ve reached your top sets, you’re fatigued. There’s a very good chance you might not be able to lift as heavy as you would have liked. That’s where the reverse pyramid comes in.
In this case, you’ll do 2-3 easy warmup sets (a light weight for 12-15 reps), then go right into your heaviest set first while you’re still fresh. From there, you can drop weight systematically and keep your reps the same or close to the same.
For Example
- Warmup Set # 1 – 125 x 15 reps (55% 1RM – rest 60 seconds)
- Warmup Set # 2 – 125 x 12 reps (rest 60 seconds)
- Working Set # 1 – 355 x 5 reps (rest 120-180 seconds)
- Working Set # 2 – 345 x 5 reps (rest 120 seconds)
- Working Set # 3 – 335 x 5 reps (rest 60-90 seconds)
Mix It Up
I’m not a fan of the “Muscle Confusion” concept, I believe if you keep making radical changes to your routine “to keep your muscles guessing”, you’ll never gain strength because you won’t be doing any one exercise long enough to consistently add weight to it.
However, if you’re stuck in a training plateau, doing something different for 1-2 weeks can help (but return to your routine after that and get back to using progressive overload). So, for example, you can use completely different exercises, up your reps, and toss in intensity techniques such as drop sets or rest pause.
Supplement Suggestions
Beyond the supplements already suggested, I recommend the following:
- Hi-Tech Precision Protein – As anyone who reads my articles knows, this is the protein I always recommend. It is one of the most innovative protein powders on the market today. It features 25 grams of hydrolyzed whey protein per serving. It also uses a special technology that releases the EAA/BCAA l-leucine (the most powerful of any amino acid) in the first phases of protein synthesis, which is a direct trigger of muscle growth.
- Gorilla Mind Gorilla Mode – Here’s the upstart Pre that came out of nowhere and started the citrulline dosing wars. It’s an incredible pre-workout that features clinically studied, high dosed ingredients (Including some patented ingredients), and an open label. You won’t find any underdosed prop blends here!
- NutraBio Base – Are you someone that’s looking for more of a value-minded pre-workout? In 2026, many of us are. I suggest NutraBio Base, a streamlined but very effective Pre that works with your budget.
- AllMax Nutrition Creatine – There is no doubt that creatine monohydrate works and works very well. There is no other supplement that has been tested and proven effective to the extent creatine has. AllMax Nutrition Creatine features patented CreaSyn® micronized creatine monohydrate for the ultimate in both purity and quality.
- AllMax Nutrition VITASTACK – Don’t look past the benefits of a good multivitamin/mineral. VITASTACK will make sure you have your fundamental nutritional needs taken care of.
- Hi-Tech Halodrol – This is a hardcore step to be sure, but you can bet it will help you break through that plateau! Just make sure you fully understand how to use it, and also make sure you have a well planned PCT program in place.
Summary
There you have it! In this article we’ve defined what a training plateau is, the causes behind it, and how to fix it, plus we’ve seen my nutrition and supplement suggestions. All you need to do now is stop by illpumpyouup.com and stock up!
References:
- Gelman, R., Berg, M., & Ilan, Y. (2022). A Subject-Tailored Variability-Based Platform for Overcoming the Plateau Effect in Sports Training: A Narrative Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(3), 1722. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031722
- https://blog.nasm.org/periodization-training-simplified
- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/periodization-training