Every dedicated athlete, at some point in his life, comes face-to-face with a progress plateau. The athlete’s trainer understands that the key to maintaining client satisfaction and retention lies in his ability to help his clients break through barriers. Recognizing a plateau early, and acting on it in a timely fashion, plays a crucial role in helping the client overcome it effectively. Read on to learn about the causes of most plateaus, and the physical/psychological ways to take clients to the next level.
What Causes a Training Plateau?
While every client comes to his personal training with a variety of individual goals, the reasons for bumping into a sticking point remain fairly universal. Consider the following ~
- Adaptation: Over time, the body gets accustomed to the stress imposed by a specific workout routine; this leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of the exercises, causing progress to slow down or halt altogether.
- Nutrition: If client’s nutritional intake does not align with his fitness goals, it can lead to a plateau. Insufficient protein intake, inadequate caloric consumption, or imbalanced macronutrients can all contribute to stalled progress.
- Overtraining: Pushing clients too hard without allowing adequate recovery time can lead to overtraining, which hampers progress and may lead to injury /burnout.
- Mental and Emotional Factors: Stress, lack of motivation, or mental fatigue can impact one’s physical performance and contribute to a plateau.
Trainers must always remain vigilant for signs of a client experiencing a fitness plateau. Here we present some strong indicators ~
- Stagnant Progress: If a client’s performance metrics, such as weight lifted, running speed, or endurance, have not improved over the course of a few weeks.
- Lack of Enthusiasm: A noticeable drop in motivation or enthusiasm can indicate that a client failed to notice the expected progress – in body composition or muscularity – which can lead to frustration.
- Physical Fatigue: Persistent exhaustion or difficulty in recovering from workouts can indicate potential overtraining.
- Increased Injuries: Frequent minor injuries or persistent soreness can indicate the need for a change of routine.
- Poor practice quality/effectiveness: Repeating tasks without focus, determination or challenge.
In the body of this article, we will expand upon the following key aspects of blasting through plateaus, and how to incorporate them into a client’s lifestyle:
- Establishing goals
- Reviewing training data/reworking program
- Limiting 1-rep max attempts
- Focusing on quality training
- Enhancing recovery/taking time off when necessary
Reassessing Goals and Progress
Conducting regular assessments and goal setting with a client proves beneficial in identifying and overcoming fitness plateaus. Review client’s current progress: analyze his performance metrics, body composition, and overall well-being. Setting clear, achievable goals helps keep clients regain motivation and provides a roadmap for continued progress. Ensure these goals follow the following mnemonic: specific, measurable, attainable/achievable, relevant/realistic, and time-bound (SMART).
Introducing New Exercises
Sometimes simply introducing new exercises into a client’s routine can foster great strides in overcoming a fitness plateau. Variety prevents the body from getting “too comfortable” with specific movements or exercises, thus continuing to challenge different muscle groups, or the same muscle groups but in different ways. If the trainer designed a workout incorporating barbell back squats, for example, after a few weeks he might opt for making a shift to front squats for a period of time. Incorporating unilateral quad exercises like split squats can also challenge the muscle in different ways.
Altering training variables like sets, reps, and intensity can provide the necessary stimulus to overcome a plateau. For instance, if a client engaged in a 3-week cycle of 3 sets of 10 reps, switch it up to 4 sets of 6-8 reps with heavier weights, or 2 sets of 15-20 reps with lighter weights. Adjusting the intensity with such varied techniques as drop sets, supersets, or pyramid sets can also reignite progress.
Limit One-Rep-Max Testing
Even though the sport of powerlifting sometimes measures its prowess by the amount of weight one can clean & jerk for a single repetition, it need not serve as the centerpiece of a training plan. When experiencing a plateau in strength, pushing harder in that direction may not prove productive and could lead to frustration or injury. Plateaus in max-effort strength, while common, will not last forever. Avoid the temptation to test too regularly. Walking the fine line between not pushing too aggressively, while still trying to challenge the client, takes practice!
Recovery
If a dedicated client seems stuck in a severe-enough plateau, a trainer might have to suggest taking a break from weight training for a period of time. Reassure the client that the strength gains he has already made will not wither away.
It behooves us to remember, and point out to clients, that strength training stems from the mind as much as the body. In the sport of weightlifting, one cannot work effectively without the other. Training should feed the body and the soul, not generate emotional stress.
All athletes, regardless of their fitness levels, require adequate rest/recovery/quality sleep in order to progress to the next level. Incorporating recovery techniques – stretching, foam rolling, and yoga/Pilates – can help reduce muscle soreness and improve flexibility, allowing the body to adequately recuperate. In addition, seeking out different training styles such as High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), strength training, or circuit training can keep workouts exciting and effective.
A 1998 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that athletes who engaged in cross-training experienced significant improvements in their primary sport performance. By integrating cross-training and functional training into a client’s routines, trainers can enable him to break through plateaus and achieve a more balanced level of fitness.
Motivational Techniques
Setting short-term, achievable goals can provide clients with a sense of accomplishment and keep them motivated. Celebrating small victories, such as increasing weights lifted from week to week, or achieving a personal record, can boost confidence and maintain enthusiasm.
Keeping workouts fun and engaging helps build long-term adherence. Within the workout sessions, incorporate elements that the client enjoys, such as outdoor workouts, group dynamics or upbeat music. Regularly changing the workout environment or introducing new fitness challenges helps keep things interesting.
Positive Reinforcement and Mindset Coaching
Positive reinforcement and mindset coaching, both powerful tools in overcoming plateaus, require trainers to encourage clients with positive feedback and remind them of how far they have come since beginning their fitness journey. Discussing techniques such as visualization, goal-setting, and stress management can also help maintain that necessary positive mindset.
A growth mindset encompasses the belief that one can cultivate abilities with effort, learning, and persistence. Embracing this mindset can transform how both trainers and clients approach fitness challenges. Instead of viewing a plateau as a failure, see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. As part of the process, we must recognize plateaus and then use them as motivation to push harder.
Visualization, a powerful psychological strategy that involves picturing oneself achieving fitness goals, can increase motivation and improve performance. Encourage clients to spend a few minutes each day visualizing himself breaking through a current plateau; think of this exercise as a mental “dress rehearsal” for a successful performance of the actual lift.
Fine-Tuning the Brain to See Obstacles Differently
Sometimes a plateau may present itself simply as a function of how the brain “sees” an obstacle. Does it interpret the plateau as huge, bright and ugly? Holding onto this interpretation can only lead to negative emotions, which reinforce thoughts of never successfully breaking through the plateau, regardless of the effort put forth. Escaping this cycle requires altering the way we view the problem.
The strategy requires several steps in order to work. The trainer can guide a client through the following steps ~
- See the obstacle in your mind.
- Pay attention to the feelings it invokes.
- Shrink the mental picture to a more manageable size.
- Remove any color assigned to it.
- Revisit emotional feelings.
- Visualize the desired outcome in bright vivid colors.
Repetition of these visualizations, as often as needed, will ultimately re-program the mind to “see” the body breaking through the plateau.
The Weight Loss Plateau
Weight loss plateaus, like weightlifting stagnation, can likewise cause clients a considerable amount of frustration. As trainers, we should remind our clients that the number on the scale fails to represent the whole picture. To truly assess a client’s fat loss progress, trainers can consider factors such as body measurements and strength gains in addition to the scale.
Fat loss from more exercise and prudent eating may inadvertently lead to moving less throughout the day. The component of metabolism known as NEAT stands for non- exercise activity thermogenesis and accounts for the regular day-to-day functional movements.
This part of the metabolism totals a massive amount of caloric expenditure each day. To help a client break through a weight-loss plateau, ensure that he fully understands the need to increase his NEAT expenditures to further facilitate weight loss and progress toward his goal.
Kicking Things Up with a Metabolic Finisher
Adding what experts call a metabolic finisher to the end of a client’s workout can also help boost his results and help him break through a plateau. A metabolic finisher refers to an activity at the end of a workout session that incites a highly cardiovascular peak– it revs up heart rate and can serve as the “cherry on top” of a results-focused program. Placing a metabolic finisher at the end of a strength training session can boost results by sending fresh, oxygenated blood to the muscles precisely when they need it. This can help promote a faster recovery as well as set the client up for a higher rate of calorie burn while at rest. While any number of activities can serve this purpose, here we focus upon a specific routine known as the 6-12-25 Workout.
For this protocol, the numbers 6-12-25 represent the number of repetitions in each set, so the workout appears as follows: 6 repetitions at a heavy weight, 12 reps at a medium-level load, and finally 25 reps at a light weight. This approach, more complex than a traditional drop set, involves switching the exercise and the weight with each successive set.
Each exercise should target the same muscle group— on chest day, for example, a client may perform a compound move (bench press) for the six-rep exercise. An accessory exercise, a move that complements the initial compound, like a push- up, goes in the 12-rep position. Finally, an exercise that isolates the targeted muscle group, such as a dumbbell incline chest fly, works for the 25-rep set.
By performing three sets in succession, the client achieves complete muscle fatigue. The quick speed at which one performs a 6-12-25 set needs to deliver something of a shock to the system; to that end, the client does not rest between exercises, except for the 10-15 seconds it takes to move from one exercise station to the next between sets.
Upon completion of the three sets, most clients will require a two-to-three-minute break, having just finished close to 50 repetitions attacking the same muscle. The ranges come with different effects, bringing variety to the system—the set of six brings strength; the set of 12 builds muscle; and the set of 25 creates endurance to foster greater weight loss.
Final Thoughts
Science writer Joshua Foer outlined a vital concept to consider upon hitting a training plateau: “In the 1960s, psychologists identified three stages that we pass through in the acquisition of new skills. We start in the “cognitive phase,” during which we’re intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to perform better, and end by arriving at the “autonomous stage,” when we turn on autopilot and move the skill to the back of our proverbial mental filing cabinet and stop paying it conscious attention… the OK plateau…The way to get better at a skill is to force yourself to practice just beyond your limits.”
Florida State University’s Anders Ericsson and his team of performance psychologists found that the single most important factor for overcoming the OK Plateau lies in reaching the truly exceptional level at a particular skill. Foer continues, “When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend. … Regular practice simply isn’t enough. To improve, we must watch ourselves fail, and learn from our mistakes.”
The brain’s ability to change and adapt – known as neuroplasticity – means that the possibility of growth always exists. With the right strategies and steady effort, all clients can continue busting through plateaus and making progress.
References:
https://www.anytimefitness.com/ccc/how-to-break-through-a-workout-plateau/
https://barbend.com/break-through-weightlifting-plateaus/
https://upsidestrength.com/blog/psychological-strategies-for-overcoming-fitness-plateaus/
https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/10/17/ok-plateau/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3588896/
