Breaking Through A Gym Plateau: What, Why, and How
Hitting a plateau in the gym can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re dedicated to your fitness goals but feel stuck despite your best efforts. It’s easy to get disheartened when progress stalls, but remember that plateaus are a normal part of any fitness journey. With the right strategies, like avoiding burnout from exercise, you can break through and continue making progress.
What Is A Gym Plateau?
Imagine you're watching an intense football game, and your team is playing hard but seems stuck in a pattern. They’re moving the ball down the field, but no matter how much effort they put in, they keep getting stopped by the opposing defense and can’t seem to score. The playbook isn’t failing, but the team’s progress feels stagnant.
This is similar to hitting a gym plateau. You’re putting in the effort—practicing, training, and playing hard—but you’re not seeing the progress you expect. Just like a football team that needs to adjust their strategy to break through a tough defense, you need to shake things up in your workout routine to get past the plateau.
Let me paint a clearer picture:
What You’re Experiencing:
Let’s say you’ve been lifting the same amount of weight for a while. At first, you saw great progress, stronger muscles & better endurance. But now, no matter how many times you lift, you’re not getting any stronger or lifting any more weight. This is known as a gym plateau.
Why It Happens:
Your body adapts to repetitive workouts, causing muscles to stop growing and improving. It’s like taking the same road trip every day—eventually, it becomes too familiar, and you stop discovering new challenges. This adaptability can lead to a gym plateau.
Other Factors:
Sometimes, it’s not just about the workout. Other things like not getting enough sleep, not eating the right foods, or even not resting enough between workouts can contribute to hitting a plateau.
As I’ve mentioned, hitting a plateau can be both frustrating and disheartening. However, setbacks are a natural part of any journey toward self-improvement. Whether working with a personal trainer or managing on your own, the key is to stay persistent and adjust your training. Here’s how to effectively navigate a gym plateau and keep moving forward:
1. Refresh Your Workout Routine
Why It Works: Your body adapts to repetitive stimuli over time, which can lead to a plateau. Changing your routine can help by introducing new challenges and stimulating different muscle groups. Here are some tips on how to switch up your routine to beat the plateau.
Alter Exercise Variations
Why? As mentioned, plateaus often occur when your body becomes too accustomed to a particular routine. Changing angles, replacing certain movements with others or even switching equipment can introduce a new stimulus, helping to break through mental and physical adaptation by challenging your muscles in new ways. Implementing these changes in your workout can help activate certain muscle fibres that would have otherwise been left out.
Example:
Adjust Volume & Intensity
1. Progressive Overload
Gradually increase the weights you lift to continuously challenge your muscles. This could mean adding a small increment of weight or reps each week to push past your previous limits.
Why? Gradually increasing weight or resistance ensures muscles are constantly challenged, preventing muscular adaptations and plateaus.
2. Training to Failure/Fatigue Training
Perform sets until you can’t complete another rep with good form. This technique can maximise muscle stimulation and promote growth. However, use it wisely to avoid overtraining and ensure adequate recovery.
Why? Greater metabolic stress. Training to failure often results in greater metabolic stress, which can contribute to muscle growth through various mechanisms, including the buildup of metabolic byproducts like lactate. For detailed research, refer to this PubMed article.
Metabolic Stress: In terms of exercise, metabolic stress happens when your muscles work really hard and use a lot of energy. This can make your muscles feel tired and sore, but it also helps them grow stronger over time.
Metabolic Byproducts: The buildup of metabolic byproducts during exercise includes substances like lactate, hydrogen ions, and other waste products. These byproducts can lead to muscle fatigue and discomfort, but they also signal your body to adapt and improve its efficiency over time.
3. Strength Training
Incorporate sets where you lift close to your maximum capacity (e.g., 85-90% of your 1-rep max) for a few reps. This can stimulate muscle growth and strength improvements.
Why? Strength training stimulates the release of growth hormone and testosterone in both young and older adults.
4. Tempo Training
Adjust the tempo of your lifts to increase intensity. For example, using a tempo of 4/1/2.This controlled tempo increases time under tension, enhancing muscle engagement and fatigue.
Why? Prolonging the duration your muscles are under tension can enhance muscle hypertrophy (growth) and endurance. For further details, check out here.
What Is 4/1/2? 4 second eccentric (negative phase, lowering), 1-second pause at the bottom (stretched position), 2-second concentric (positive phase, lifting)
Incorporate Different Training Styles
As is the theme so far, the reason that we want to incorporate different training styles is to provide a change in stimulus and to challenge your muscles so that they grow and adapt regularly.
1. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
If you’re on a weight cut and realize that the long-distance runs are not doing it for you anymore, you can try out HIIT training. Here are some of the benefits:
Calorie Burn: HIIT workouts can boost your metabolism and keep burning calories long after the session, thanks to the afterburn effect. Research shows that sprint interval exercise (SIE) leads to a higher excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) and greater total energy expenditure compared to steady-state exercise (SSE), resulting in more significant calorie burn post-workout.
EPOC: EPOC stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. In simple terms, it’s the extra amount of oxygen your body needs to recover after a workout. Think of it as your body’s way of "catching its breath" and repairing itself, which helps you burn more calories even after you’ve finished exercising.
Time Efficiency: HIIT workouts are typically shorter in duration but can be highly effective due to their intensity.
Cardiovascular Health: Improves heart health and aerobic capacity.
Example Workout for HIIT:
2. Functional Training
Alternatively, if you want to enhance your body’s performance with exercises that mimic daily or sport-specific movements, functional training might be your best choice. This type of training focuses on improving overall movement patterns, stability, balance, and coordination.
Improved Daily Activities: Enhances your ability to perform daily tasks with ease and efficiency.
Core Strength: Emphasises core stability and strength, which is essential for overall fitness and injury prevention
Sports Specificity: Helps athletes improve performance by mimicking movements relevant to their sport.
Exercise Examples for Functional Training:
3. Circuit Training
Circuit training involves performing a series of exercises (or stations) consecutively with minimal rest in between. Each circuit targets different muscle groups or fitness components (strength, cardio, endurance).
Muscle Confusion & Adaptation: Circuit training keeps muscles challenged by constantly varying exercises, preventing gym plateaus. By targeting different muscle groups in quick succession, it enhances overall muscle endurance and strength.
Versatility: Circuit training is adaptable to any fitness level or goal, whether it’s building strength, improving cardio endurance, or overall fitness. You can modify exercises, intensity, and duration, using anything from bodyweight moves to resistance training and cardio intervals.
Example Workout for Circuit Training:
By integrating these strategies into your routine, such as varying exercise angles, adjusting volume and intensity, and incorporating diverse training styles like HIIT, functional training, and circuit training, you can effectively break through plateaus, stimulate new muscle growth, and maintain an engaging and dynamic workout regimen that continually challenges your body and drives progress.
2. Prioritize Nutrition & Rest
Why It Works: Hitting a workout plateau can signal that your body isn’t recovering well or that your nutrition isn’t supporting your training needs. Proper recovery and balanced nutrition are essential for muscle repair, growth, and overall fitness progress. Without adequate rest and the right diet, breaking through gym plateaus becomes challenging. For more on the importance of recovery and nutrition, check out this study.
Improve Your Sleep Quality
Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night. During sleep, your body releases growth hormones, repairs muscle tissue, and restores energy levels. To enhance sleep quality:
Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule: Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day to regulate your body’s internal clock.
Create a Restful Environment: Ensure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet. Consider using blackout curtains or a white noise machine if needed.
Limit Screen Time Before Bed: Reduce exposure to screens at least an hour before sleep to avoid disrupting your circadian rhythm with blue light
Reevaluate Your Diet:
Your diet plays a crucial role in supporting muscle repair and overall training performance. Ensure your meals include:
Adequate Protein: Protein is essential for muscle repair and growth. Incorporate sources like lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, and plant-based proteins.
Healthy Fats: Fats support hormone production and overall health. Include sources such as avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.
Carbohydrates: Carbs provide the energy needed for intense workouts and recovery. Opt for complex carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Hydration: Staying hydrated is vital for muscle function and recovery. Aim to drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially during workouts.
Consult a Nutritionist: For personalized advice and a diet tailored to your specific fitness goals, consider working with a nutritionist. They can help you design a meal plan that optimally supports your training regimen. At FITFAMCO we provide nutritionist services to help you make the right choice for your diet.
Incorporate Active Recovery
On rest days, engage in low-intensity activities such as walking, stretching, or yoga to promote circulation and muscle recovery. Here is what active rest can do for you:
Promote Blood Flow: Gentle activities like walking or light cycling increase blood flow to the muscles, which can accelerate the removal of metabolic waste and deliver nutrients for repair.
Reduce Muscle Soreness: Activities such as stretching or yoga can help alleviate muscle stiffness and improve flexibility.
Enhance Recovery: Low-intensity exercises stimulate muscle repair without putting additional strain on your body, helping you to feel refreshed and ready for your next workout.
By enhancing your sleep quality to ensure restorative rest, optimising your diet to provide essential nutrients for muscle repair and energy, and incorporating active recovery strategies to facilitate circulation and reduce muscle soreness, you significantly boost your body’s ability to recover, grow stronger, and overcome training plateaus, ultimately propelling you towards achieving your fitness goals with renewed progress and resilience.
3. Set New Goals & Track Progress
Why It Works: Setting new goals and tracking progress are powerful strategies to overcome a gym plateau. When you hit a plateau, it often signifies that your current routine or approach is no longer providing the stimulus necessary for growth. Introducing new goals can reignite your motivation and give you a fresh sense of purpose. Meanwhile, tracking your progress provides the data needed to assess what’s working, what’s not, and where adjustments are required.
Define Clear, Achievable Goals
Short-Term Goals: Aim for specific, immediate targets like increasing your deadlift by 10 kilograms within six weeks or adding 10 more minutes to your cardio sessions. These provide quick wins and boost motivation.
Long-Term Goals: Set broader objectives such as running a marathon or achieving a certain body composition. These offer a sustained vision and keep you engaged over a longer period.
SMART Goals: Ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of "get stronger," set a goal like "increase my squat max by 10 kg in the next two months.
Track Your Workouts
Log Details: Use a workout journal, fitness app, or spreadsheet to record exercises, weights, sets, reps, and notes on how you felt during each session.
Review Data Regularly: Analyse your logged data to identify trends, track improvements, and spot areas needing adjustment. For instance, if progress stalls in a particular exercise, consider modifying your routine or focusing on accessory exercises.
Seek Feedback
Work with a Trainer: A personal trainer can provide expert advice, refine your technique, and suggest modifications to help you break through plateaus. Here at FITFAMCO we provide services such as personal training to aid you in your journey towards a better you.
Join a Fitness Community: Engage with a fitness group or online community for additional motivation, diverse perspectives, and accountability. Sharing experiences and strategies can offer new insights and keep you committed.
By defining clear goals, meticulously tracking your workouts, and seeking constructive feedback, you can break through fitness plateaus and continue making progress. These strategies not only help in maintaining focus and motivation but also enable you to make data-driven adjustments to your training, ensuring that you remain on the path to achieving your fitness objectives.
Summary
Hitting a plateau in your fitness journey can be tough, but it's a chance to refresh your routine by prioritizing nutrition, rest, and setting new goals. Remember, plateaus are normal; breaking through them takes creativity, persistence, and strategy—keep experimenting and stay motivated, as your next breakthrough is just around the corner!
For personalised advice and support, consider working with a fitness professional or joining a community of like-minded individuals. At FITFAMCO, we’re here to help you every step of the way. Whether you need personal training, nutritioning advice or rehabilitation to get your body back in the groove to train hard, we’ve got you covered.