After weeks and months of meticulous training, it can be demoralizing to find yourself stuck in a rut. Training plateaus happen to everyone regardless of fitness level. It’s tough to determine an exact cause since the reasons vary. However, the only important thing is how you break free from it. Here are some of the ways you can overcome those troublesome training plateaus.
Change up Your Training
Once we’re in the habit of exercising, it really does turn into a habit. We train the exact same way on the exact same days week after week, month after month. What this routine can do is cause our body and mind to become stagnant to actual progress.
Variation is important for improvement. First off, a switch up can alleviate any potential boredom and give a good boost of motivation. This can keep training exciting and interesting, and this can be the incentive you need to shatter that roadblock.
Try changing the type of exercises now and again too. Implement some medicine balls if you don’t normally use them, or go for something different on the pull up bar. This encourages muscles to adapt and aid in strength gain.
Remember though that too much change can be just as bad. Don’t be the one doing something different every time you enter the gym. Your muscles will never get the chance to properly adapt that way. Give your body time before you switch things up.
Address Your Weaknesses
We all have some kind of imbalance in a specific area of our muscles or weakness somewhere. A lot of that is due to an injury whether it’s new or pre-existing. It can largely affect the way we train, and it can contribute to those frustrating plateaus by keeping us from meeting our goals.
If we ever lose sight of our weaknesses, we allow them to continue on. A bad shoulder won’t fix itself, and if you just focus on everything else, you’re letting the muscles and joints around the area to become weaker as well.
Address these areas through ways such as proper warm-up or deep tissue massages in order to strengthen them.
Proper Rest
There comes a time when that plateau is telling you that you’re spending too much time training and not enough time giving your body a chance to recover from it all. Adequate rest is vital for any training program. Not only does this give your muscles the time they need to recharge, but it helps reduce the risk of injury and burnout.
Don’t want to stop training completely? Then think about introducing a couple of weeks into your training routine where you lower the intensity. This way, you’re resting while remaining active and still giving your body what it needs to recover.
These are just a few of the ways you can overcome training plateaus. Depending on your situation, one way may work better than another. The worst thing you can do is ignore the slump, however. Tackle it head-on, and you’ll find yourself back on track.
Jason Maine is the founder of FullContactWay, a blog dedicated to provide best martial arts advice and information. Jason helps his readers with martial arts training by sharing personal tips and thorough research. Check out fullcontactway.com to get more about Jason’s work. You can find him on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
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