Your body is incredibly adaptable, especially when you’re trying something new. When you first start a fitness plan, you will probably see solid results fairly soon.
As you work out more and more, your body will adapt to being exercised. This is great for your overall health, but not so great for your continued “gains.”
These plateaus can be very frustrating. Here are five different things you can try to break through that plateau and get back on the road to progress.
Revisit your diet
If you’re struggling to lose those last few pounds or lift more weight, you may need to look at your calorie intake. Diet plays a major role in weight loss, muscle growth, and your health in general.
If your goal is to lose weight and you aren’t seeing results, you may need to eat a little less. If you want to build muscle, you may need to eat more calories and protein. Be honest with yourself and make the changes to get to that next level!
Add a rest day
This may seem counterintuitive, but there’s a strong chance your muscles need to recover. Being really committed to a routine is great, but your muscles need the proper amount of time to recover.
In general, your muscles need about 48 hours to recover fully before they can be trained again. That’s why we train different muscle groups on different days. For example, if your goal is to increase your max bench press, you shouldn’t bench press every day.
Increase resistance
If you are not progressively overloading your workouts, you will hit a point where you can’t get any better. You have to get the most out of every workout every time you work out. You have to be training to the best of your abilities if you want to get better.
In order to get the most out of your workouts, you should be training close to failure. You can do this by increasing weight or repetitions to give your muscles more of a challenge.
Change your scenery
Mentally, you may need to try working out in a different environment. Sometimes our mind gets bored if we’re constantly in the same place doing the same thing. Try switching up the location!
If you usually work out in the gym, try a few virtual classes and vice versa. The key is to increase variety in whatever way that you can. Maybe try working out outdoors or with a partner. Brainstorm some ideas that would make working out more fun for you!
Try a new workout
Like changing your scenery, you may need to try switching up your workout routine. You don’t have to completely overhaul it, but maybe you need to switch exercises.
If you do the same movement for long enough, your muscles will become too accustomed to that movement. Try replacing some things you find yourself doing a lot. If you do a lot of flat bench pressing, try an incline bench for a little while.
Click here to read more Recovery related blogs.
