Demolish Your Plateau In Training for Muscle Growth

Don’t let a plateau in training completely derail progress to your goals!

People say getting started is the hardest part. Staying consistent is the toughest part, and plateaus always hit at the worst possible time. You’ve probably started to notice positive changes and results that you are proud of, but now it feels like you are stuck in a rut and considering giving up.

Stick with it! We’ll discuss why plateaus in training happen and how you can power through them to maximize your gains.

What is a plateau in training?

A plateau in training is when you hit long periods without any new progress. You may maintain the size, strength, or power gains you have earned, but there is no forward progress. When it gets bad, you may even feel like you are moving backwards and losing previous progress.

Plateaus can be very frustrating. There doesn’t seem to be any changes in your routine or reason why you shouldn’t continue to see gains, but now your motivation is starting to fall off a cliff. Plateaus can make lifting much less exciting. You stop looking forward to training.

You may feel weaker, less motivated to train, or like you can not complete a workout you’ve started.

What causes a plateau?

The main cause of plateaus is that your body has adapted to the stresses that you place on it. At one point, when you started training, it was a new challenge for you. Your body had to struggle to meet the new demands you presented. However, as you became stronger and able to conquer these challenges, your body needed to put forth less effort. 

So, early on in your training, you benefited from tons of newbie gains. However, at this point, your body needs to build less new muscle to handle the stress of your training. 

Another potential cause of a plateau in training is going too heavy too fast. This can be the result of ego lifting or just not understanding how to progressively overload properly. 

When you are earning gains and seeing progress, the excitement takes over and you decide to stack more weight on the bar. It is true that you want to challenge yourself, but increasing weight too quickly can have the opposite effect and slow down your gains. 

When you are training for massive gains, first you want to prove that you’ve conquered a certain weight for a particular exercise. Then you want to increase the weight by 5-10% for the next  session. 

If you are using German Volume Training (GVT) to trigger muscle growth, there is a high risk of hitting a plateau in training at some point. German Volume Training is a physically and mentally taxing routine. By starting off with low weights and introducing gradual increases over time, it attempts to avoid plateaus. 

However, the repetitive nature of it can be mentally exhausting and possibly even boring for people who are used to more dynamic workouts. This can lead to rushing through workouts or increasing the weight beyond what’s truly manageable. Then you get stuck on a plateau. 

Demolish the plateau and get back to muscle growth

There are a few ways to get out of the physical and mental rut of a plateau in training. I like to approach it through the the trinity of gaining mass- training, fuel, and recovery.

Train through the plateau

To bust a plateau through training, you’ll need to shock your body. Muscle confusion is important. Why? Because this directly counteracts your body adapting to a set of known challenges. This could be your muscles physically adapting, or it could be just helping you work through a mental block.

If your body knows exactly what to expect from each training session, there’s no real challenge.

Change up your routine. German Volume Training calls for 12 weeks of the same routine with progressive overload. Even if you aren’t using GVT, you might be used to performing the same exercises weekly. 

Well, instead you are going to deviate from that path temporarily and get your muscles fired up to grow again. 

Here are the ways in which you can modify your routine temporarily to get back on track.

• Temporarily use heavy weights. This allows your muscles to feel the next step up and snap out of the comfort zone. Do this cautiously and ensure you always follow proper form.
• Lower the rep counts for each set. This pairs with using heavier weights. Although this isn’t the typical routine for muscle growth, it can be the restart your body needs to bust through the plateau.
• Add a secondary lift for each major muscle group. So, for example, your body might be used to hitting the bench press for your chest. However, it isn’t expecting you to immediately transition into the dumbbell chest fly. This should light up your chest and help shock your muscles.
• Decrease your rest periods. Changing the weight isn’t the only way to intensify your workout. Shorter rest periods, longer tempos, or increased reps can have the same impact by increasing the time under tension in a shorter window.
• Modify your typical body splits. If you usually pair chest and triceps, for example, try an arm day.
• Perform the same exercises with different equipment. If you usually work with barbells, then try dumbbells, cables, bands, kettlebells, medicine balls, body weight, etc.
• If you think you may have jumped up your working weight too much week over week, causing the plateau, drop the weight. It’s ok to take a step back so you can take two steps forward. It’s tempting to increase weight dramatically when you feel like you crushed your workout, but show a little restraint to avoid plateaus.

Fuel your muscle growth

Sometimes, it’s not the training itself that causes the plateau and it won’t get you out. Make sure you are considering how you are fueling your training and recovery.

• Take in enough carbohydrates and healthy fats to provide energy during workouts, especially if you are bulking to gain muscle. If you feel fatigued during your training, this could be a sign that you don’t have the energy needed for your intense program.
• Make sure to eat a high protein diet to provide your body the building blocks to build more muscle. Intense training for muscle growth without protein is like clearing land to build a house without getting any bricks.
• Always drink plenty of water. Dehydration can impact your performance and energy levels.

A plateau in training might be a message to rest and recover

Just like fueling your training can be the answer to solving your plateau worries without modifying your training, sometimes it is as simple as getting your recovery right.

Usually, what I find is that people aren’t actually suffering from overtraining, as long as they don’t have tendon or inflammation symptoms. Our bodies are pretty remarkable at adapting to challenges. That’s why people can pull off short term training bursts, like squatting every day for a week.

However, you may not be doing the right things outside of the weight room to allow your body to be ready for your next training session.

For example, sleep builds muscle. If you are not waking up completely refreshed or yawn throughout the day, that’s a big sign that you are not sleeping enough.

Plateaus can be mental mountains

The last thing to note with overcoming a plateau in training is that it can be a major mental battle instead of a physical one. While the tips above are focused on physical changes, you may need to work on your mental fortitude.

The mental game is the most important.

Make sure you are taking steps to stay committed to working out. This includes finding ways to hold yourself accountable, such as letting close friends know your training goals.

The biggest thing you can do mentally is find your WHY. Figure out why you actually train. It’s not usually just because you wan’t bigger muscles. Maybe you want to prove others or yourself wrong for doubting you. Maybe you want to be inspirational to someone else in your life.

Figure out what that WHY is for you, and hold on tight, even when progress seems to stall.

Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments!