How to avoid plateaus and reach your goals instead
Hitting new PRs (personal records) is always an exciting time! And when you do it for one exercise, skill, or anything else, you usually get a few others! It makes your time in the gym so much more exciting and it can feel even more meaning full! However, hitting plateaus can mean the exact opposite. It’s annoying, and get people discouraged! You’re putting in all this hard work, but haven’t seen any changes in weeks! You start to wonder if it’s your program, nutrition, mindset, or if you just plain suck at what you are doing!
I know it may suck when this happens. It has happened to me in the past both in the gym, and for my sports. It’s just part of the process sometimes, and it is something that happens to everyone! Luckily, through researching studies, and self trial, I discovered what can cause plateaus, and how to push through or even prevent them!
It’s called the Progressive Overload Principle (POP), which is an extended plan of progressively increasing your volume and/or intensity over your training weeks. This is something most everyone does. However, they don’t usually take into consideration proper rest and tapering back at the right times!
To avoid plateaus, you can usually continue pushing forward and increasing your weight, volume, and intensity for a month or two. At that point, taper back a little bit. This doesn’t mean take the whole week off and forget about the gym! That would suck, and you wouldn’t see the end results you want.
Pulling back when needed to achieve better future results
What I mean by tapering back is slightly decreasing your training intensity for a couple of days and even up to a week if you really need to! This allows your body to catch up on the needed recovery and help you reset, and push through your next PRs! Once that “light week” is over, start back up where you started before the “light week” and continue progressing!
This will help progressively excel your results and keep you hitting PRs more often, and avoid the dreaded plateaus! It will also help avoid getting burnt out, which will keep you on track, focused and excited about reaching your goals!
Chart below is related to any lifting or sport (not just miles) but should give you a better understanding
