Avoiding The Dreaded Plateau
Avoiding the dreaded plateau, do you even know what this means? Plateau is a taboo or forbidden word in the fitness (and even weight loss) industry. It refers to a point in your workout where you no longer see results. Maybe you can’t get past the current weight on your dumbbells curls. The term can also be used in the diet industry. Naturally when you first change your eating habits and begin to eat more healthy the weight drops off, but inevitably there will come a time when your body refuses to shed another pound.
You have hit the dreaded plateau. The solution is simple – do everything in your power to avoid it. If you are not sure how to do this then this article is for you. Why do you hit them? The human body is very amazing piece of machinery; it easily adapts to the stresses that are placed upon it when exercising and becomes much more efficient, which in turn allows it to burn less calories. Not the ideal situation for someone who is trying to lose weight. As stated above the best thing to do is avoid hitting one, this can be accomplished in one easy step – never let your routine stay the same. Applying the following suggestions to all of your workouts should help you avoid the dreaded plateau or even get you out of your current rut. Use a variety of equipment. If you are like many of us, you have your favorite piece of equipment and you use it faithfully for every workout. Whether it is a dumbbell or the fly machine at the gym, you must vary the use of your equipment. Just as your body adapts to the exercise so does it to the type of equipment. Try changing out a different piece of equipment every other workout. Change your exercises frequently. The whole reason you hit the plateau in the first place should make this the easiest change to put in effect. If you are trying to hit personal bests with some of your exercises then you would want to change them only about every 4 weeks. If you are not trying to break any records then each week change something around. Overuse or plateau? Sometimes the body not responding is its way of saying it needs a break. Rest and recovery is very important. The body needs time to recover after a workout. This leads us into our next tip active rest. Your body sometimes needs a break from certain forms of exercise but not necessarily total rest. For example if you have spent the past 8 months doing nothing but weight training you have become very strong. Your muscles may need a break from the weights. Try cycling or the elliptical machine for 2 weeks. Try interval training instead. Rather than just jogging on the treadmill at the same speed for 60 minutes, throw in some intervals. One example is to change up the speed for 1 minute and then recover for 2. The other great thing about upping the intensity on the treadmill is you can lower the amount of time spent on there and still burn more calories. Proper nutrition must also be maintained. Proper recovery foods must be utilized after each workout to help the muscles repair. Little tricks. Love your routine right now and really don’t want to swap out exercises? Change the order of your exercises, start from the bottom and go to the top or start in the middle. You can also change your rest periods or even turn some of your exercises into supersets. Bottom line – change, change, change everything you do all the time. Do not let your workout become stale and boring and you too should be able to avoid the dreaded plateau.
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