How to Effectively Break Through a Workout Plateau
You have been consistent in your workout routine, you’re eating correctly, and watching your sleeping patterns religiously. Yet, time passes and you don’t feel you are actually making as much progress as you used to. The pace at which you lose weight or gain muscle has slowed down or even stopped altogether. In some instances, you may feel like you’ve even gained a little weight back or you struggle to lift the weights you used to. This is a very familiar scenario for most of us –and a very common one for fitness enthusiasts of all levels. The dreaded fitness plateau has kicked in and it upends your whole progress and motivation unless you take swift action.
Luckily, there are many ways to break a workout plateau and continue to progress. It's true, that hitting a fitness plateau can be a frustrating experience when you don’t seem to understand what happening to your body but once you understand the dynamics behind it, it's easy to take action. Fitness plateaus are thankfully not permanent – they’re just your body’s way of telling you you’ve made progress!
What is a fitness plateau?
A fitness plateau is just another stage in your progress and a sign that your body has gotten used to the demands of your current fitness routine. You may feel that your typical workouts feel easy and less demanding and offer no actual improvement over the days. You may even start to gain some weight or lose muscle tone despite how hard you try. You may be at a standstill when it comes to your maximum reps or the weight you lift regularly at the gym.
According to diPulse expert and fitness trainer Tor Åhman, a plateau is a very common occurrence amongst fitness enthusiasts who train towards a bigger goal. “The human body normally doesn't like challenges, it likes to settle. When it gets accustomed to a number of repetitions, or a specific workout, it doesn’t get challenged enough anymore and starts to settle. Therefore, you don’t see continual changes.” he notes.
How do you know if you have hit a fitness plateau?
A fitness plateau can happen to anyone: a professional athlete, a bodybuilder, or a newbie fitness enthusiast with only one month into a gym subscription. In short, you have hit a plateau when you no longer experience the same changes as you initially did from doing your regular fitness regime. You are exercising as hard but you don’t see further results, you are just maintaining your previous gains.
If you have reached your goal, it's fine, but if you haven’t, it can be very demoralizing. On top of that you may notice that your recovery sessions have become longer or that you feel more fatigued despite taking your usual rest. All the above are sure-fire ways to tell that you have hit a fitness plateau is up your alley.
Why does a fitness plateau happen?
A workout plateau occurs when you do the same workout routine or the same type of activity for an extended period of time. Over time, your body gets accustomed to it, and it adjusts accordingly. When this happens, you may burn fewer calories and build less muscle by doing exactly the same routine that got you results in the previous time.
According to science, the body has a natural tendency to adapt to whatever it experiences, a concept widely known as General Adaptation Syndrome. It suggests the body is most stable in homeostasis, a state of little or no change - a period of preservation- and thus resists any change, even those which we know are for its own good. Overtraining and bad recovery techniques can even cause a fitness plateau. In fact, studies have shown that by exercising for a long period at a continuously extreme level , you are more likely to see a plateau.
How to break out of a plateau
According to Tor Åhman, working your way out of a fitness plateau is based on challenging the body again, in a new way. “There is just one significant change that will get you out of the dreaded plateau, provoke changes in exercise so to achieve another reaction from the body” he notes. An important key to breaking through a results plateau, as well as avoiding them in the future, is to keep your body guessing with a varied routine, whether it’s trying a new activity altogether or making adjustments to your current routine. Maybe you need to switch workout routines and perform the movements you used to do in a different order.
“If you're doing bench press only, you might want to switch around the equipment. So go for dumbbells instead, do kettlebells, do floor presses instead of whole bench presses. In short, switch around the movements to get another adaptation from the muscles. This way you can return to seeing results faster” advises Åhman. “This principle is applicable to everything you do from strength work to conditioning. Create a workout program for six to eight weeks. Once that's accomplished, switch it around for another six to eight weeks, and then switch again to another six to eight weeks. This way you’ll keep your body guessing.” he concludes.
Another trick that can get you back on the road to results is to switch the type of training altogether for some of the days of the week. For example, a runner might decide to switch up to kickboxing or skiing for a change. Or a weightlifter might sign up for a marathon race and start a new training regimen for it. This will push your body to readjust and get it out of the plateau.
“You really need to play around so the body doesn't adapt to the weights or the sets or the type of fitness regime”, advises Åhman. “If you plateau, you may need to start something different that will place new stress on the body and push it towards results. In short, you need to place greater-than-normal and unfamiliar demands on the muscles if you want them to grow”. Without this progressive overload, no adaptation occurs, and thus, no growth. The way out of a fitness plateau is to keep your body constantly guessing, constantly challenged.
