Breaking Through Plateaus! The next time you go to the gym take a look around at the people that have been working out for multiple years. The majority of these people haven’t physically changed since the first few months they started training. They go to the gym 3-5 times a week, using the same routines and the same weights that they had when they started. These poor folks have already reached their plateau and were never able to get past it.
You on the other hand will have a different story. When you reach your plateau you will not bow down to it, but you will attack it head first. NO MERCY. You will train harder, faster and with more intensity. Your diet will be full of healthy high protein meals and will be the precise amount of calories for your goal. You will not only scale over your plateau but you will crush it so there will be no turning back.
Training Plateaus
A very common problem with bodybuilders is the training plateau. If you are not making gains on your current program, chances are you are doing something wrong. Unfortunately, a big mistake many lifters make is that they faithfully stick to a program that is not producing results. If you are not seeing results on a monthly basis, you need to reassess your training protocol.
Write Down Your Goals
As with any other endeavor you can not achieve greatness haphazardly. You need to have specific, objective goals that are recorded to check for progress. Bodybuilding, which is esoteric in nature, is a sport that focuses on the individual, and you need to be scientific about all aspects of your training. You need to formulate specific goals, keep a training journal and periodically check your body composition.
If you do not set specific goals, and if you do not monitor your progress toward those goals, then how can you accurately determine if you’re making progress? Once you have a specific timetable and a specific goal, then you need to assess the two aspects of bodybuilding: nutrition, and the training itself.
Are You Eating Enough?
Many lifters do not have a solid understanding of how their caloric intake relates to their energy expenditure. In order to sustain muscular growth, you need to supply your body with an appropriate number of calories. If you take the BMR of a 150-pound bodybuilder (150/2.2 *24) you would find that his minimum daily caloric requirement would be 2455 calories per day (BMR *1.5). Muscle is metabolically active tissue undergoing catabolism and anabolism on a daily basis.
A pound of muscle requires 25-30 calories a day to maintain, and 100 calories a day to build. In order to gain one pound of muscle our 150-pound bodybuilder would need to increase his calories by 2500 calories per week (2500 calories = a pound of new muscle) or 357 calories per day. If he experienced good gains for about ten weeks, he could increase his total body weight to 160 pounds.
Don’t Forget Supplements!
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Causes Of Training Plateaus
This is one common cause of the training plateau: his new daily caloric requirement would be based on his current weight of 160 and needs to be adjusted for gains to continue. The same is true for bodyfat loss. To lose a pound of fat, this same 150 pound bodybuilder at a daily caloric requirement of 2455 calories per day, would need a caloric deficit of 3500 calories per week (3500 calories = a pound of fat).
After 10 weeks, if he were to drop to 140 pounds his new daily caloric requirement would be based on his new weight. It sounds relatively simple, but many bodybuilders do not take this into account. A growth plateau generally means you need more calories, which should come from protein first, then complex carbohydrates. If you make the needed nutritional adjustments, then the next aspect to focus on is your training.
Plateaus And Your Workout
The other possible problem if you hit a plateau could be your training. Your problem could be associated with overtraining, under training, or improper training intensity. This is why the concept of progressive overload is so important to your training progress. As with your nutrition, you need to make the appropriate adjustments as you increase or decrease in body weight. You need to make a concentrated effort to progressively increase your intensity to meet your overall goals.
This is where having a specific goal with a specific timetable is important. Also, as with your nutrition, you need to keep a training journal or you will not have any basis to compare against to gauge if you have indeed made progress.
Progressive Overload
Your training style has to be conducive to your intended goal, whether that be muscle growth or strength gains. You can not train using the same weight for an extended period of time and hope for gains. Try to add weight to the bar every other workout, no matter how small. Spend more time focusing on the eccentric phase of the exercise rather than the concentric phase.
The bottom line is that you need to emphasize the basic exercises, train hard, train to failure, and progressively lift heavier weight.
In Conclusion
You need to assess your current program as far as your nutrition and training if you want to break through your training plateaus. You need to formulate specific goals, keep a training and nutritional journal, and periodically check your body composition to accurately gauge your progress, or lack thereof. Have the courage and foresight to change your nutritional and training program and you will blast through your plateaus.