How To Break Through a Plateau

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Plateaus are an event that plagues a bodybuilder’s life, and as we all know, there is nothing more aggravating than not being able to add mass or weights. Even though plateau’s occur quite often, most people do not know how to go about giving their training a kick-start again. A plateau can occur for various reasons, but no-matter what the reason is (whether it be from your CNS or your diet) they can be overcome. Here I will outline 10 things that you can do to get past this new plateau.

1. Review Your Diet/Nutrition
Diet/Nutrition is probably the main reason that a person will reach a plateau. What is important is for the person to recognize if this is where the problem lies. To adjust your diet, you should a) increase your daily protein intake; b) increase daily caloric intake; c) remove all junk food from your diet; d) make sure that you are taking in enough of each vitamin and mineral. Increasing your protein intake will allow your body to use the protein for rebuilding muscle fibers. Increasing your caloric intake will allow your body to provide you with more energy during workouts. Removing all the junk food from your diet will remove calories, but those are essentially empty calories that do nothing for you. This is where step b fits in. Step d is very important because vitamins and minerals are easily depleted when your body is trying to rebuild muscle fibers. Vegetables hold large quantities of these vitamins and minerals, but one or two multi-vitamins will also help (this will be covered more in depth later on).

2. Switch up your Training Methods
Your training method will have vast effects upon the frequency that you plateau. The first thing that you must remember is that everyone’s body is different. This means that the routine I use and grow well off of may do nothing for you. If the routine you are currently using is a high volume – low frequency, switch to a low volume – high frequency routine. If you use a customized routine that you developed for yourself, consider rotating exercises every few weeks, even if you haven’t yet reached a plateau on that exercise, it may sound crazy, but it will keep your body guessing. Another thing that you can change is the days and body parts you work on. If you are doing a Monday, Wednesday, Friday split, consider breaking your muscle groups into a 4-day split.

3. Review your Cardiovascular Exercise
As we all know very well, cardio is an important part of this sport, because it allows you to keep your bodyfat percentage down. But it is possible for you to be doing too much cardio, and not getting enough rest. It is important make sure that you are doing this at the correct times, and that you are also getting the most benefit from your cardio.

4. Take a Short Vacation
Some bodybuilders look at a day out of the gym as if it is a sin, and if they were told to spend a week or two out, they’d probably flip out on you. But you must understand that every once in a while, your body does need a break. Giving yourself a break for a week or two can be very beneficial for not only your body, but also for your mind. During this time you can catch up with doing things you haven’t had time for, while your body repairs itself, and relieves stress. Something that is often overlooked is that fact that extreme duress can negatively affect the body’s ability to repair itself.

5. Vary Your Reps
Yet another thing that can be done to overcome a plateau is to put variations in your rep. You can do this in a number of ways: a) vary the number of reps done per set; b) use supersets; c) use per-exhaustion supersets; d) use cheating reps; e) use forced reps; f) use descending sets; g) use burns; h) use negative reps; or i) use psycho sets.

6. Vary Your Time Between Sets
Varying the time between reps will also help you overcome a plateau. If you allow yourself to rest for 2 minutes between sets now, the next three weeks should be done at a slightly lower weight (but gradually increasing as normal), and for the same number of sets and reps. But for those three weeks, only take 1 minute rest between the sets. At the end of the three weeks, increase the rest period between the sets back to the 2 minutes that you originally had it at, and I guarantee you’ll see an amazing increase in your weights on the exercise, and as we all know, with strength comes size.

7. Determine Whether You’ve Actually Reached a Plateau, or If You’re Just Overtraining
This happens more often than you would believe, people actually mistake reaching a plateau for overtraining. This is why it is important to monitor your volume very closely and determine exactly what type of training your body responds best to, and just how far you can go. Remember that there is a fine line between growth and overtraining, and you must remember to push yourself far enough, but not too far.

8. Keep Your Focus/Determination
While in the gym, it is very important that you keep your focus and determination, so that you can put everything you have into your lifts. Bodybuilding is like any other sport; you have to “keep your head in the game” so to speak. This is where choosing the proper workout partner comes into play. The person needs to be someone who you can talk with easily, and has to be someone who has the same desires as you. But, the two most important features in a workout partner are trust, and motivation. You must be able to trust your workout partner in all circumstances, because when you are bench-pressing near your max weight, you cannot afford to have the weight lying on your chest and your partner/spotter laughing at you. Also, your workout partner should be a source for motivation, and not a distraction. Having friendly competition between you and your spotter is one way to keep your focus better while in the gym.

9. Stay Hydrated
The most overlooked part of any sport is proper hydration. You must keep in mind that if your muscles are not given enough water, you will lose strength. This means that you need to drink water often throughout the day, because if you are thirsty at any point, you are already dehydrated. But, keep in mind that drinking large amounts of water all at once is the worst thing you can do. Because, the body will respond to a sudden sharp increase in water by releasing diuretic hormones to excrete as much of the excess water as possible, further dehydrating you.

10. Consider Supplements
I want to start by saying that there is no magic supplement to break a plateau. There are some supplements that will help you do it, but none that do so on their own. Three that will help you the most are creatine, glutamine, and nitric oxide.

	Supps

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