Weight Lifting Plateaus...and How to Avoid Getting on One

You have recently discovered the wonderful world of weight lifting.  Just down the street from your home is a wonderful gym that is open twenty-four hours a day to accommodate the long hours you spend at your place of employment.  For the first six months you have were working through a fat-loss/muscle mass gain program devised for you by the trainer at the gym.  Your BMI (body-mass-index) has shown a dramatic drop and the girth of your upper arm has increased substantially during this period.  Then …Wham!...for the last month you have been unable to post a substantial change in any of your goals you set when you started. My friend, you are experiencing your first exposure to a weight lifting “plateau”.  Your body has quit responding positively to the challenger you are giving it and something needs to change.

The biggest effect of a plateau is that it will kill your motivation.  If this is allowed then you have wasted those last few months as well as those coming as you still fail to achieve your goals.  You have hit this plateau because your muscles have become accustomed to the workload you demand and they just do not need to grow to get by.  It is time for your weight training program to experience its own growth…it is time for a change.  Experienced bodybuilders incorporate changes into their routines before reaching a plateau and it is this change that allows them continued growth.

This is a good time to review the three essentials to increasing muscle mass.  You first must stress the muscle through an exercise routine.  This stress is accomplished by constantly demanding more and more from a muscle group until it reaches a limit.  If your exercises do not make this demand then they need to be changes.  Alter the amount of weight you lift in order to achieve this limit.  Remember, you no longer want your body accustomed to a routine but you want to “raise the bar” until you achieve the desired effect.

Your workout should be strenuous enough that your body screams for a break.  Rest is of utmost necessity when working to improve muscle mass.  Upper arm curls, bench presses or squats; it does not matter.  When you fatigue a muscle group through any lifting technique it is imperative that you allow time for recuperation.  This allows the muscle to grow into the demands that have been made and <u>come back for more</u>! So if you are not getting needed rest (sleep!) you should increase time allotted for this purpose.  You will not be able to bypass this plateau until you change your rest cycles.

Now is the time to talk about those skinless chicken breasts and plates of sirloin steak.  Nutritious food is the key for muscle growth.  A proper diet is simple to design and implement and should be of primary concern to your workout programs.  When you reach a plateau and no longer are able to log any improvements then you should redesign your menus. More protein?  Maybe more carbohydrates?  Is it possible that your fat intake is not where it should be?  Any of these can affect your ability to gain muscle mass when working through your program.

So do not be afraid of reaching a plateau in your weight training life.  The best way to bypass a plateau is to not get there in the first place.  Educate yourself early in your bodybuilding career and constantly change your methods to keep you growing.  However it you do reach a plateau there is still plenty of time for education that will help you work your way out of the situation.