Breakthrough a Workout or Weight Loss Plateau!!

Feeling stuck and stagnant with your fitness journey?

Do you feel like you’ve stopped making progress?These workout tips can help you to get your groove back when you’ve reached a fitness or workout plateau. 

If you feel like you have hit a roadblock on your fitness journey, don’t despair — this happens to most people!

Once you understand how your body adapts to training, you can make the changes to break through the plateau, continue making progress and start enjoying exercise again. 

What is a workout plateau?

A workout plateau occurs when your body adjusts to the demands of your workouts. During a workout plateau, you may start to feel unmotivated, bored with your workouts.

When applied to an exercise program, the term “plateau” refers to a sudden and dramatic decrease in the noticeable results of your regular workouts. This can manifest itself in both strength and cardiovascular training, as well is in weight loss.

The human body is a master at adaptation, capable of quickly adjusting to meet the demands of any workout. If your workout is not continually evolving to keep up with the increases in strength and endurance that your body is making, plateaus will occur.

When you start any new form of training, it can take around six to eight weeks for the brain and body to learn to complete new exercises efficiently. Once these neural connections have adapted, the workouts should feel easier. This isn’t a workout plateau, as you can continue to build muscular strength and endurance. 

Why Have I Hit A Plateau?

A plateau is when our bodies become accustomed to the stresses we place upon it throughout weight training. It can also become accustomed to a certain caloric intake.

The reason behind most plateaus is lack of strategic modifications in training programs, nutrition plans and listening to your biofeedback. Those are all high level views of why you have hit a plateau.

When you don't give your body a reason to grow anymore, it won't! When you don't adjust your caloric intake after your metabolism requires more calories to fuel your body for more muscle growth, you will plateau!

Another common cause of a plateau is overtraining.

Getting proper rest and recovery is just as important for your fitness progress as hitting all of your workouts. When you train too often, or too long you begin to enter overtraining syndrome (OTS) which always leads to a plateau and frustrations.

It’s also important to pay attention to what you do between your workouts. You can stop making progress if you don’t get enough rest, drink enough water or eat healthy food to support your training

What should I do when I hit a plateau?

What you do when you reach a workout plateau will depend on what your goals are. 

For some, a plateau isn’t a problem. If you are happy with your current level of fitness, keep going with your current exercise routine to maintain fitness!

However, if you are frustrated with a lack of progress, don’t despair.

There are actions you can take to overcome this fitness plateau.

Steps to overcome and Bust Fitness Plateaus :-

Make small changes to your routine

Making small changes regularly encourages your body to continue building strength using the same exercises. Consistently and strategically changing your workout will keep your body from adapting, therefore helping you to avoid hitting training plateaus.

The exact methods that will be best for you will depend heavily on your individual goals and fitness level.

Plateaus in cardiovascular endurance training can also be busted by varying the type of your workout. If you commonly run, switch to biking or utilize a different track to emphasis hill-running or speed. Classes, such as spinning or aerobics will also give you a change of pace while helping to improve your cardiovascular endurance.

Because the root cause of training plateaus is adaptation, be sure to continually challenge your body by making use of several different methods.

Track your fitness progress

You can’t be sure you’ve hit a plateau unless you are tracking your progress.

Here are some ways to track fitness: 

▪️Record your workouts — including the number of reps and weights used — in a journal.

▪️Take progress photos.

Tracking your fitness can help you identify whether you are in a plateau, and what you can change to overcome it. 

The number on the scale might not be going down and we get so obsessed with that that we don’t realize we feel stronger, we’re more toned, where there was once a solid layer of fat we’re now seeing muscle definition.

So, If you are using just one tracking method, you may feel like you’ve hit a plateau. Using more than one can help you see that you are still making progress in other areas! 

Add strength Training

Resistance training, or strength training, improves strength, endurance and size of skeletal muscles while protecting your joints from injury during other activities. 

Muscle burns more energy than fat, so building lean muscle can help boost your metabolic rate

Strength training can help you to achieve other goals such as running faster, building lean muscle and feeling confident in your body. 

To encourage increases in muscle size and strength, the solution may be increasing the intensity of your workout, without necessarily making the workout any longer. Changing the order and type of exercises you perform may also be effective, such as replacing the bench press with push-ups or dumbbell presses.

Focus on nutrition

Nutrition also plays an important role in your fitness progress, and to keep improving, you need a nutrition plan that supports your training. This means getting enough protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats and the micronutrients you need to build muscle and recover quickly. 

Drink more water

Good hydration plays a critical role in muscle performance and recovery. It also plays an essential role in your heart health and your digestive system.

The easiest way to make sure you’re hydrated is to drink two to three litres each day — it can help you to feel your best and power through a workout plateau.

Make time for rest

Rest days allow you to take a break from training and allow your body to recover. During rest, your body begins to replenish its energy stores and when it gets to work repairing the muscle tissue used during your workouts. This is an essential part of the process to help your muscles grow bigger and stronger.

You should allow at least one day for rest each week. This isn’t something to feel guilty about — use it as an opportunity to catch up with friends, spend time with family, read a book or watch tv, whatever you enjoy! You may find that after taking a rest day you have more energy for your next workout and your performance improves.  

A workout style you enjoy is the best possible form of exercise!

Doing exercise that you enjoy is the key to a healthy lifestyle and long-term results! 

When your exercise program fits your lifestyle, and that you can stick to!!!

How have you overcome a workout plateau? Let us know in the comments below!