Body Plateau
What is body plateau in bodybuilding? Body plateau is reached when your muscles stall. They no longer grow or gain. This is stagnation in muscle building where you feel no motivation or have no energy to continue.
What are the major types of body plateaus?
The two major body plateaus are:
- The muscle-building plateau is reached when you don’t grow any new muscle or increase any weight after a workout. This is the level you reach and you feel you can’t go past the limit.
- The weight loss plateau is when the intention to lose weight is halted. This means you no longer lose weight for some time. You realize that losing fat has stalled for like 3 weeks. Very frustrating, right?
How do you realize you have hit a Plateau?
You can know you have hit a plateau if you experience the following:
- When you realize every day you feel less hunger, then you have hit a plateau. The loss of appetite means your body responds to the need of repairing muscles rather than building.
- When you feel no urge to continue workouts or you have no drive to go beyond the limit.
- When there is no progress in your exercising. When no more muscle grows or develops. The muscle stops buildup for like 2 weeks then that’s a plateau.
- When you realize that as you start your workouts you lose energy fast. That is a sign of fatigue and is a sure way of hitting a plateau.
Breaking through the Plateau
- Train with Intensity
By increasing the intensity of your exercises, you retain muscle mass. Muscle mass rewards you with resistance required past plateau. Resistance burns more calories and in effect gets you to lose weight.
For muscle building, the intensity helps when you increase your overload. The overload means to increase the number of sets you do in a workout. It also refers to increasing the weight you are lifting. Check out 310 shake vs 18 shake.
If you have to go past the plateau, then increase the load. The muscles will be burned more requiring your body to grow more.
- Modify your Routine
The cause of plateau can be when you do the same exercises continually. Modifications in exercising create a bit of excitement to the body. It is a new challenge to avoid boredom.
When you vary the exercise routine, ensure you change to exercises doing the same function. The exercise developing a certain muscle should be replaced by another doing the same.
You can also vary the exercises by changing the routine. Take multiple workouts instead of singles.
- Get More Rest
Remember your workout is to burn more calories to lose weight or tear those muscles to replace and grow others. But muscles are grown during rest
Allow your body to rest during workouts, this leads to regaining energy for another workout. Also, take time to recover after exercise.
If you have hit a plateau, take 2 to 3 weeks to allow your muscles to grow.
Also, sleep enough when exercising. Allow yourself to sleep 7-9 hours for relaxation, regaining, and growth.
- Improve Nutrition
Nutrition should be relooked when you have hit a plateau. Reduce unnecessary carbs and increase proteins, vitamins to your diet.
Eating is not just eating rather for the growth of muscles and not unnecessary fat. Then reduce anything in your diet that causes stagnation. Get more proteins for muscle growth and development.
Fruits for vitamins are vital in the healing of damaged tissues in case of overloading.
- Ignore some Exercises
When you realize that your routine exercises lead not to building muscles, ignore them. When you are a newbie, there are exercises that you routinely start with but are not intense. But as you continue to exercise remember to ignore the first exercises because you have outgrown them.
Start loading yourself more. The loads can be added in bits but don’t stop till you start building your body again. The more loads you add, the more calories you burn, and the more muscles your body requires.
How to avoid the Plateau
To understand how to avoid the plateau, first look at the causes. Remedy on the causes and you won’t get that plateau
The following are the causes and how to avoid not getting there
Poor Nutrition
Bodybuilding is not about eating any food but rich in proteins, vitamins, and calories. When your body is calorie impaired, then you will hit a snag. There will be no enough energy to push through your exercises.
From the start get your nutrition right. Know the correct food to consume and ensure it gives a lot of energy. Let more proteins be there to increase the production of cells in repairing the damaged tissues and muscle during workouts.
Poor Work-outs
Some aggressive individuals push from one plan to another without order. Bodybuilding exercises are deliberate and progressive. You have to follow your plan.
If you move from one exercise to another as you feel like, then you will hit a plateau sooner.
Develop a deliberate routine from the start. Have steps that will ensure every time your exercises are planned in sets. The sets should only be abandoned when you outgrow the exercises.
No Recovery Time
The muscles are not repaired or grown during a workout. During the exercises, the muscles are burnt and ligaments tear. This means you must allow your body recovery time when you regain and build your muscles.
Moving from medium to intense exercises without break will not lead to bodybuilding. It is hitting the plateau.
Before hitting that plateau plan for better nights of sleep and resting. This allows for recovery, healing, and production of more cells. That means you have time to grow the muscle that is damaged during intense workouts.