Anyone that has been lifting weights for at least a year will undoubtedly have experienced the dreaded PLATEAU!
You know what I mean…..
You lift and lift, week on week, and can’t seem to get even 1 more rep at a certain weight. Is all hope lost?
Certainly not!
The answer given to this dilemma is usually something along the lines of…
CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE!
But there is much more to it, and there are some reasons that most people simply overlook (or don’t want to admit).
Here are my thoughts on the REAL reasons you plateau and how to ensure that you never do again…
(1) You Aren’t Using Optimized Form. Sure, being all rigid is what your personal trainer will tell you to do and you’ll progress for a while. BUT sooner or later the fact that you aren’t using supporting muscles on movements like barbell curls, will result in a big stinky plateau. Loosen up my friends, it’s what the body wants!
(2) You Are lifting A Weight You Were Never Ready For! When you are ready to increase weight on an exercise, do it in small increments. Large load increases always end in tears.
Instead of moving up gradually week on week, you load on another 5 kilos onto your bench press, or 2.5 kilos onto your dumbbell bicep curls. In 20 weeks you are STILL lifting the same weight and wondering why.
It’s no mystery, just lighten the weight. You may think this is a regression, but it is a PROgression as you can now start moving forward and building some lean muscle.
(3) You Ignore Certain Body Parts. For example, some guy wants big arms and a big chest but completely ignores his back and shoulders. You’ll know by now that these muscle groups assist in working the arms and chest; leaving them undeveloped will inevitably impede progress on the muscle groups you want to develop.
A familiar saying comes to mind here, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. Us ‘Optimized formers‘ recognize this and allow body parts to work in harmony with each other as is perfectly natural.
Devote some time each weak to ALL your body parts.
(4) Your Diet Sucks! It’s very simple; you can bust your ass in the gym, but if you’re not eating enough to meet your body’s needs for growth, you won’t grow or get stronger. Result: PLATEAU!
(5) Your Workouts last Too Long! Short workouts with low set volume work best for the natural guy, just ask Jeff Willet!
(6) You Don’t Rest For Long Enough Between Sets. Optimal recuperation is at around 2-3 minutes between sets. Any less and you severely reduce your strength on successive sets. Read ‘Total Anabolism 2.0‘ for more on this.
(7) You Don’t Rest Enough Between Body Parts. Give each body part a week between intense workouts. Be aware that in THT each muscle gets both 1 direct workout per week, BUT ALSO 2 or more indirect, and less intense, workouts by becoming the supporting muscles for some other body part. Read ‘Total Anabolism 2.0‘ for more on this.
(8) Change Your Routine! Now to the conventional wisdom. THT training does encourage you to change:
- the actual exercises used e.g. replacing barbell curls for EZ bar curls
- the order of exercises performed
- using a lower rep range for a couple of weeks
but THT does not recommend some of the other gimmicks like:
- shorter rest periods
- supersetting
- quick drop sets
- half reps
- forced reps
Stick to the basics.
Apply ALL the tips in this article and you shouldn’t be reaching a plateau in the first place!
Train Intelligently My Friends!
Mark McManus
image credit: marcelgermain
Great article Mark! I find your rule about incrementing weights very slowly the best advice I have ever heard for avoiding plateaus and haven’t had a plateau since.
Also as you mentioned before that a good way to overcome a plateau is before the one week break, do sets with high weights and low reps that way after you come back from the break it will allow you to plow through that plateau.
While plateaus can be difficult to overcome, it’s often times a very small change in your routine or diet that can help you blast through the hard times. I’ve also found that I hit plateaus more often when my mind is not completely focused in on a specific target and when I’m not paying enough attention to my diet.
Hi Mark I have been following your training plan now for around 20 weeks and initially had some great results after busting my balls for months previous and over training ad not getting anywhere fast. Since starting THT I have put 1 inch on biceps, 2 inches off the waist line, what more could you ask for in proof this works. I do have a question though and that is…. I have been using PR of course and each week added a small amount of new weight (only when I hit the 12 rep mark though with good form) now I am still adding eight when required and hitting failure around 8-10 reps but I am not feeling the burn anymore in my muscles like I used too. When I have finished my sets even though I cant literally lift anymore without bursting a blood vessel of giving my self a nose bleed or at least feeling like I will, I just dont get the burn or trembles as before. About 5 – 10 minutes later I feel ready to hit the whole lot again. I dont as I know I will end up over training (possibly) but the temptation to repeat it all there. Is it normal to loose the burn the sensation when you get to a certain point.
What are your thoughts on using negatives for a week to change the routine and get past the plateau?
Hi Mark,
Well timed post for me this – I’ve had an injury (sore wrists) and feel that my body fat loss has stalled. I have not lost motivation however as I am confident in the methods here!
For my injury I took some time away from weights (very hard to do) and have started back dropping each weight by a small amount. This has actually worked out well as I am more conscious of my Biomechanically Optimsed form – I also don’t want to risk injury again.
Just need to give my fat loss a boost now!
Cheers,
Chris
Dear Mark,
I find it strange that you would call supersetting a “Gimmick” I respect your views but shocking is always the best way to growth. One must always remember R&R for recovery and a good mindset
Cheers
Damo
hey mark,
just a quick question: you say that increasing by 2.5kg for curls or 5 kg for bench press is a bad thing, but what if those are the smallest increments availible?
i work out at our apartment block’s gym, and i use fixed dumbells, but when above 10kg the dumbells only go up by 2.5kg, there arent any in between weights, so what should i do?