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Sometimes, despite intense training, the body stops changing, and the weight stops leaving. This is the “training plateau”. How to get off of it?
When you first started exercising and started dieting, everything was great. Standing on the scales or trying on old clothes, you repeatedly noted with satisfaction: the weight decreases, the extra centimeters go away. But the moment came – and the process slowed down. You are still doing everything right: you are doing fitness, you don’t allow yourself too much food, but the arrow of the scales is on the same division … The body has ceased to change for the better! If weeks and months of training pass, but you do not see the same progress as before, but, on the contrary, feel tired and depressed, you are “stranded”, that is, you have reached the so-called “training plateau”.
What is this plateau?
Our body is a wise self-regulating system. He constantly adapts to the conditions in which he has to exist. When you start to actively engage in fitness, it is a kind of stress for the body, which it tries to overcome, to adapt to these new conditions. Reacting to constant training, the brain mobilizes all the forces of the body so as not to perish from exhaustion. The task of the body is to adapt to stress as quickly as possible, so you see the most noticeable results at the beginning of classes. But then the body “gets on” with the stressful state and no longer reacts to it intensively. This is how a training plateau arises – a state when the body stops changing under the influence of physical exertion.
You can get the situation off the ground. There are several ways to help you do this.
1. Avoid the same loads
If you come to the gym every day, week after week, pedal a stationary bike for 40 minutes, then start strength exercises, repeating the same exercises as yesterday, and end with traditional stretching, the body will quickly get used to this, and a “training plateau “.
Try to diversify your activities. It is good to intersperse strength training with cardio loads. Alternate workouts in the gym, such as jogging, brisk walking, pool swimming.
2. “Fool” your muscles
Muscles accustomed to certain loads can be “fooled”. There is even a name for this technique of getting rid of the plateau: “cheating”, from the English cheating – “cheating, deception.” Cheating is practicing familiar exercises with a little help from the accessory muscles.
This is not the first day you have been practicing, so you probably have a good feel for which muscles work with this or that exercise. Add other muscles to them. For example, while pressing the bar, help yourself with the movement of your torso or legs.
3. Do a different number of repetitions.
Often, in an effort to achieve a result as soon as possible, we set ourselves a very high bar and try to perform the maximum number of repetitions of an exercise in each lesson. The body gets used to high loads too. Vary the number of repetitions. For example, in one lesson, take lighter dumbbells, but do more repetitions, and on the other – on the contrary, fewer repetitions with a slightly greater weight.
4. Change both the exercises and their order
Even by changing your routine of exercise, you can help yourself overcome your plateau. And if you slightly diversify the exercises themselves, things will go even faster. It is not necessary to radically alter the entire training plan, just small changes. For example, on the bench, vary the angle of its inclination, and when doing push-ups, put your palms either narrower or wider.
5. Work at different speeds
Another easy way to combat boredom and overcome plateaus is to change your workout speed. Try alternating slow and fast sets.
For example, when working with dumbbells, do one slow, “thoughtful” set 15 times, followed by one fast, and slow again.
RџSЂRё changing speeds is also helpful. This type of cardio workout is called interval workout. For example, first you run very, very fast, with all your might, for 10 seconds, and then 20 seconds at a more relaxed pace. Interval training, by the way, burns 9 times more fat than classic cardio, but it should be borne in mind that basically the process of breaking down fats does not occur during, but after such a workout, therefore, after finishing a lesson, it is better not to eat for 1,5 hours.