By Arun Chase
One of the most common complaints I hear from you folk, involves hitting a plateau. Plateaus come in all different shapes and forms and are when your results suddenly slow down or even drop dead NO MATTER WHAT YOU TRY OR DO!
I know bad, huh, and trust me, when I say it is a complete pain in the a**, I really do mean it! You really don’t want to go there, because its not easy to get out of…but that’s another post for another time!
So…What Are The Different Types Of Plateaus?
Let me show you…
> Slowed down or zero muscle growth occurring anymore (Muscle growth plateau)
> Slowed down or no more fat loss occurring anymore (Fat Loss Plateau)
> Not being able to increase on the weight you are lifting for weeks (strength plateau)
> Not being able to do any more reps on an exercise for weeks (endurance plateau)
Do these sound familiar to you! Well I know when I first started out, without any knowledge what so ever, I think I faced each and every one of these. God I wish I had the information I’m about to share with you NOW! Would have saved me a whole lot of hassle and money!
So why do these ANNOYING Plateaus Happen?
Well there are 3 main reasons:
A. Over-training
B. not varying your nutrition or exercise routines up enough
C. Ignoring your weaknesses (so not training in a way that will strengthen your weaknesses).
You need to prevent this…Now this may sound simple enough, but there are 10 secret rules you can follow, which can stop these menacing plateaus from happening to you. And today, I want to share them with you!
The 10 Ways To Stop Plateaus From Happening To You
If you’re ready, let’s start!
#1- Vary your nutrition regularly
This is so your body doesn’t get used to eating the same foods, number or types of calories etc. So for example cycle between eating a low number of calories and a medium number of calories.
#2- Change your weight training exercises every 4 weeks and include set variations like negatives, pre-exhaustion sets, giant sets, super sets etc (I explain how to use these in my full bodybuilding program)
By doing this, your body can’t get used to your routine, so you are always shocking it to grow! That means that you not only get maximum muscle gain, but prevent plateaus from happening.
#3- Vary your weight training routine in phases and stick to a phase for a number of weeks.
You should have a strength building phase(2-6 reps during the phase), endurance building phase (more than 12 reps during the phase) and muscle growth phase (varying the reps between 6-12 reps during the phase). This will allow you to shock your muscles and prevent your body getting used to a specific routine or rep range. It will be like taking 1 step back to take 2 steps forward.
#4- Vary your cardio routine types (Use interval training AND training at the same intensity throughout (ideally in the fat burning zone) and make sure use different exercises regularly)
Similarly to the above, you shock your body with multiple different routines. This not only keeps your body guessing but also forces you to burn more calories and hence more fat!
#5- Take a full weeks rest every 8-9 weeks. Yes that means no training for a full week!
Taking a week off allows your body time to recover from the hard workouts you’ve been treating it to. This is great for growth and healthy for your muscle fibers.
Then just as your body starts to get used to not going to the gym, you shock the muscles again when you go back.
#6- Always EVALUATE to find any muscle imbalances or weaknesses (e.g. your triceps giving way first before your chest in the bench press) and look to try and strengthen them up
If you are doing compound exercises, where you use multiple muscles in an exercise (e.g. bench press uses shoulders, chest and triceps), then if one gives way, you are forced to stop. This prevents the other muscles in that exercise from getting a proper workout, which really stunts growth! e.g. if your triceps give way in the bench press before you chest.
So to ensure you don’t face this, you need to check for muscle imbalances and weaknesses to make sure you can get rid of them, before they cause problems later on!
#7- Do NOT train longer than 50 minutes per session (and more than 30 minutes when doing interval cardio training)
Training longer than this just burns away your muscle, so it actually out does all the hard work you just completed in the first 50 minutes of your training routine!
#8- Do NOT do high intensity exercise EVERYDAY (like interval training or weightlifting). Make sure after 2 consecutive days you have at least one full days break and make sure you never train the same muscle group 2 days in a row.
Your muscles grow when you rest, and NOT in the gym! So if you don’t do this, you don’t allow your muscles that time to grow or recover!
To make matters worse, training everyday can damage your fibers, which can prevent any muscle growth happening in the future!
#9- Push yourself hard so you lift the heaviest weights you can whilst sticking to your rep ranges.
Sometimes we are scared to push outside our comfort zones, and this immediately leads to a plateau. By constantly driving yourself to lift the heaviest weights you can, where you exhaust and tire out in the rep ranges you set, you will see a massive difference to your results, and also find you are improving week in, week out.
#10- Do NOT try and loose fat and build muscle at the same time.
Unfortunately, if you do try, your nutrition and cardio workout programs will contradict each other. This just means you won’t get results EITHER way! And you’ll just be stuck without any results!
So focus on one or the other, and do one goal at a time!
There You Go…
My top-secret routines cover these rules and give you maximum growth. If you’ve bought my full system, you know what I’m talking about. You can get my system by clicking the link below:
=> http://www.bodybuilding4idiots.com
In the meanwhile, you can now start living a plateau free life, by implementing these 10 rules above, starting TODAY :)!
Good luck!