Fitness Plateau? Here's Your Solution.

10/13/2011 12:47:00

I have a problem with the word ROUTINE. At least as it's applied to fitness. How many times have you heard/said "I'm doing this workout I saw in XYZ Fitness magazine, it's great!" Is it? Maybe for now, but my guess is that it won't be producing results for very long. Here's why...

The human body is remarkable in it's ability to cope and adapt to stress. In this case I'm referring to physical stress(exercise) not psychological stress. I'll give you an example: Lets say you decide, "I need lose to lose weight so I'll start running on the treadmill". At first, a slow jog for thirty minutes is pure suffering. Fast forward two weeks and your cardio-respiratory system has adapted. Now that thirty minute slow jog is so easy you can watch TV and update your Facebook status while your doing it. So what would be the next logical step? Run faster, longer, or both...right? Wrong.

See, when you introduced the new stressor(running) your body had to make an adaption, and fast. This is a good thing. The problem is that over time, your body gets more and more efficient. Remember "homeostasis" from high-school Bio? Your body is always trying to maintain homeostasis(balance) and eventually you will reach a point when the benefits that you receive in the form of fat-loss/strength/endurance are not proportional to the time you spend doing them. After several weeks, your body has made 80-90% of the adaptions for that particular activity so spending more time and energy trying to eek out that last 10-20% is probably not going to be worth it. Not to mention the strain on ligaments and joints from repetitive movements. That 10-20% is where most people start getting injured. Show me a dedicated athlete that doesn't cross-train and I'll show you an athlete that has a recurring injury. The human body does not like specialization and will punish you for trying.

One of the philosophies that I preach and train my clients by is called Undulating Periodization. You can click the link for details, but it essentially means that you're changing one or more variables every workout and never repeating the same workout twice. In my experience, the bigger the change in variables, the bigger the adaption.

Here are 5 things you can start using NOW to add variety.

1. Time Yourself

Use time instead of reps. One minute per exercise, no rest in between exercises.

2. Descending Sets.

Pick two exercises(one upper/one lower body). Start with 10 reps each and drop a rep every set until you reach one. No rest between sets.

3. Do 3-4 mini circuits(10 min each) of 3-4 exercises.

4. One to One Intervals

Run or Stationary Bike at a very fast pace(not quite a full sprint) for two minutes. Then rest two minutes. Do 3-6 Cycles.

5. Suicide

If you really want to challenge yourself...combine the intervals above with a plank. Instead of two minutes rest, you'll be holding a plank for two minutes. This restricts breathing and makes recovery between intervals very difficult. Do 3-6 Cycles.

Hope you enjoyed the post! You can learn more about me and my lifestyle in Brandon's Bio. If your interested in training with me, or having me design a custom program for you, please go to Start Training.

My Blog

Fitness Plateau? Here's Your Solution.