Avoiding the dreaded PLATEAU

IM BACCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Did you miss me?

The reason for my long exile was, well to be honest no topic lit my writing fire and I didn't want to force it with babbling rubbish. I could of done the cliché review of the 2012 Olympics, writing about what an inspiration it was to see amazing results being achieved with super human efforts by the athletes. I went against that as I didn't want to insult your intelligence as you all don't need me to tell you that hard work and dedication can result in anything you want to achieve, you know that right? DON'T YOU?


Anyway back to the topic at hand which has once again got my health & fitness brain ticking..... Avoiding the dreaded PLATEAU.

The reason I've decided to tackle this topic is due to the sheer volume of people I see in the gym on a daily basis, week to week, month to month, year to year doing the exact same routine and looking exactly the same. They're in a dead rut & in need of a fitness intervention. Our body has been created perfectly to adapt to the stresses & vigour we put it under, the day after your first tough effective workout when the aching sets in is the very moment your body begins to adapt. What happens during a workout is you create micro tears in the muscles, during sleep & rest days your body begins to repair itself, the muscles rebuilding stronger to avoid the repeat of the tearing.

The ache is not a bad thing, "embrace the ache" I say, its a sign of an effective workout, you want to force the body into adaptation mode, its only then that you will see a physical transformation. Like I said earlier we are wonderfully created so the adaptation period won't last long at all, only taking 2-3weeks before the body is fully acclimatised to your routine and screaming out for a new challenge. At this moment is when plateau begins to creep in and you need to take action to continue your progress towards physical transformation. I choose not to repeat the same exact session with my clients more than twice, constantly tweaking and adding new stuff to further challenge my clients. Every time you add something different to your workout you force the body to change, keep your workout the same and face your body staying the same.

My advice to you in avoiding plateau, after 2weeks increase the intensity of your workout by 5% so maybe increasing the reps or the weights that you do. After maybe 6weeks completely change your workout, confusing the body & again forcing adaptation. So for example if for 6weeks you've focused your training on building muscle, lifting heavy weights, mix it up with starting high intensity circuit training which is more cardio based working the muscles in a different challenging way, again forcing adaptation. Vice versa if you've done 6weeks of cardio introduce some heavy weight lifting, confusion works the body best and through that you'll attain the best results.

A body transformation programme should last 12weeks minimum.

Written by

Erron Dussard

Founder 

STONEiMAGE Management

Follow me on twitter: @STONEiMAGE