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You are giving your 100 % but not seeing any progress! This does not mean you should give up, it just means that you are facing an issue known as a plateau in workout. Plateau is a stage where there is no change in any performance level and/or in terms of your body appearance. You are aiming at weight loss or building muscles but you are stuck at a particular progress level and are not seeing the desired results. So the challenge is how to get rid of this obstacle or how do you break the plateau? This is a common question asked by many individuals, whether male or female. Everyone reaches this stage at some point when you see no results. Here are some of the tips on how you can break away from this state and progress towards better results.
First thing is to increase your intensity levels that is you have to track your training techniques and your training performance. Take for example, while doing strength training, you can reduce the weight that you are using to do the exercise and increase the repetitions. Say you are lifting a 45-pound bench press and do around 8 to 10 repetitions of this. So now what you have to do is to drop down the weight to 25 pounds and keep on increasing the repetitions. This will help you to improve endurance level which is the load-bearing capacity of that particular muscle which you are training. Remember you have to this continuously for a week and post that you have to again attempt to lift the same amount of weight that is 45 pounds and you can easily see that you would be crossing more than 10 repetitions.
So this is essentially training your endurance level to push the same amount that is 45 pounds for more number of repetitions. Those extra reps will bring about the change in your body because now you have created a new muscle memory. The muscle had a memory of lifting 45 pounds for a particular number of reps but now since you have trained the endurance level by pushing a lighter weight for more number of reps the muscle would require to perform extra by pushing for 3-4 more reps. That is where the change happens to your muscle. Earlier you were pushing 45 pounds and 8-10 reps and now you are pushing 45 pounds and around 15 reps those extra 5 reps will bring about the change over time. This is one method of dropping the weight and increasing the reps which are new to the muscle.
The second method to beat a plateau is you can just keep on increasing the poundage from 45 to 55. Here the change that will happen is the reps will drop down to 4-6 but the poundage has increased. That small increase in poundage which will be again new memory for the muscle, that is why it will react differently. So the idea here is that you have to tweak the intensity level either by increasing the repetitions or increasing the poundage.
Another very important thing that you have to keep in mind is you nutrition aspect. You have to measure what are the macros that is the carbohydrate and protein intake throughout the day. So it could be designed in a way wherein if you are training legs on a day, which is the beginner muscle of the group, you need to have maximum carb loading one day prior.
So the prior evening you would keep on adding complex carbohydrates that would be used as fuel in the next workout as now the body needs maximum energy to break down the leg muscle and that carbs is where the energy is taken. A common mistake that happens is that people usually keep the same diet pattern for all the workouts which is a standardized nutrition plan.
But to Break a Plateau you have to alter the diet as per the training pattern. The days when you are training large muscle groups like chest, legs, back, and shoulders, you need to increase the intake of carbohydrates which will give you energy and with the help of that energy, you will be able to break down the muscle to the maximum level.
If there is a maximum breakdown in the muscle, the protein which you take will repair the muscle in a better way and that is how it will hypertrophy and grow. Also, keep in mind, you have to reduce the intake of carbs when you are training the smaller muscles like your biceps, triceps, calves, and abs and also at the time of focusing on cardio.
I would recommend that while doing cardio you should be empty stomach and the best time to do cardio workout is early morning immediately after you wake up. The reason being, your body’s second source of fuel is fats which is like a reserve of petrol in a vehicle. So you have to open that reserve knob by not providing any meal to the body.
If your body is depleted of energy, it will use the energy from fats and that is how fat is used or metabolized into training and you will get fat loss effects from a cardio workout. Unfortunately, the mistake that most people make is to visit the gym at regular set timings for strength training and/or cardio which is not right. If you are doing cardio it should be early morning for maximum fat loss benefits and if you are doing strength training then it can be anytime between afternoon to evening. You have to plan your workout and nutrition intake for better results.
The last but most important aspect to break a plateau is rest and recuperation. It is very important to provide enough rest to your body. By rest we mean, the muscle which you train should not be rested for the next 72 hours. If you are working on the chest, so you should not train the chest or any other muscle supporting the chest like shoulder and triceps for the next two days because the chest has already been tired along with that the supporting muscles of the shoulders and triceps. As a result, you won’t be able to give your 100%.
Your next immediate selection for the workout should be legs, which has no connection to the upper body. You can also opt for cardio. The planning or exercise scheduling should be such that the muscle group should not be repeated for being trained in the next 72 hours and 1 day of the week should be complete rest to the body where you can opt for some therapeutic massages or therapies that will help your body to relax and improve the blood circulation.
This will provide the right nutrients to the muscles and improve the recovery process. You can also do basic yoga. Yoga can be done on the rest day as part of the healing process for the body. When you decide your off day, these are a few things which you have to keep in mind and implement if you want to beat the plateau and achieve your desired results.
(The writer is a fitness expert with Gold's Gym, India. Views expressed are personal)