How to avoid a plateau

As I learn more about bodybuilding I see the importance of progression in terms of anything you do. The body adapts to the stimulus you provide it, whether it be your calorie intake or your weight training. The body does this to SURVIVE it doesn't know you're trying to gain mass, nor does it know you're trying to burn fat. You cannot control how your body responds to the changes you make in your routine, but you can manipulate it so that you have a reasonably accurate guess of what it's going to do.

Types of training


As I've discussed previously there are SO many methods of training. Some will work better than others for you, so It's best to really get to know your body. What feels right etc, so that you can train optimally for yourself.

A scenario often people find themselves in (and I have too) is this overtraining thing. It's not just how many times you go to the gym that determines your recovery. It's the sheer volume of your training, if you we're going to the gym for 2-3 hours a day, training to exhaustion, and really taxing your central nervous system you'll find you need more time to recover. Not only this, if you're headed to the gym, and to adapt and grow, you're providing a larger stimulus through increasing the volume of your workout then it's only going to have to get longer. Meanwhile, your central nervous system is not recovering between your workouts, you're not growing, you're actually losing mass. This type of thing, and leaves the person always fluctuating in weight. Not making consistent gains, making gains then losing them. This is normal, the body is NEVER at a constant state, it's always changing processes..fat burning, protein synthesis etc. The solution here, up your intensity! not your volume, make those muscles adapt, but don't spend too long at the gym, get home to rest and recover.

The key is here, to get to know your body, track your intake, stick to a plan and see how your body responds. Time consuming stuff, but once you've found it, you've got it and you can really make your body do what you need it to.

Fat loss 

The same applies for trying to lose fat, say you decided one day that you wanted to cut down, lose a little fat for one reason or another. A lot of peoples first instinct is to go RIGHT well, I need to up my cardio by say 30 minutes everyday, this way I'll lose fat quickly. So yes, initially you will lose fat quickly but your body isn't stupid. It won't just allow you to continue to lose fat, it will try and reserve it as much as it can in order to survive. So then you hit a plateau, and you think well I'll up my cardio to say..45 minutes a day? Your body will respond just as fast, if not quicker and you'll hit another plateau. Meanwhile, you've reduced your calories in order to speed up the fat burning process, an over reduction..slowing your metabolism and again inducing this plateau. Too much too soon. If you're wanting to lose fat, and your body is currently maintaining its weight at your current exercise level/intake. Add a little cardio, lower your carbs a little bit. You will burn fat, and when you stop burning fat, maybe drop them a little more but do this PROGRESSIVELY.


Your regime: making a plan 

So if you think about it, when you hire a coach or trainer and they provide you with a plan. They are pretty much giving you a plan or baseline for your body to adapt to. When your body has adapted, they can go from there. Say you wanted to gain they'd set you at the maintenance, see how your body responds and up from there.

In terms of doing your own, my advice would be to hit a macro calculating site, enter in your info and get started.The same applies with your training, make a plan, stick to it, then progressively increase the intensity of your plan.You should find that as the intensity of you workouts increase, your muscles will grow and adapt with it.