The Dreaded Workout Plateau

Pull yourself out of a workout rut.

By Kevin Valluzzi

When was your last plateau? I know you've been stuck in a workout rut at some point or another. The weight starts coming off and then BAM:  You just seem to stay at the same weight. No more progress. Why does that happen?

You're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. How many women go through the same workout week after week without seeing significant changes? The amount of weight lifted remains the same, the amount of repetitions done remains the same, the rest period remains the same, etc. Look at it from your body's viewpoint: There is no reason to burn any more calories if the workout was the same as last time. Your body says, "Oh yeah, we did this same exact thing last time. We don't need to exert ourselves any more than we did before." So how can you make the strength training workouts harder to avoid this plateau? Here are a few ideas: Do one more repetition each time, make the weights heavier and do the same amount of reps as last time, decrease the amount of time between sets (your rest period), etc.

This also applies to your cardio. If you do the same run on the treadmill (or any kind of cardio) over and over you will ultimately reach a plateau, no matter what speed you're at. The key word here is the same. Now if you were to constantly make the workout harder each time you did the treadmill then the sky is the limit. How can you make it harder? Increase the speed every few minutes for a great interval workout. Or keep the speed the same and put the treadmill on an incline every so often.

There is a popular slogan in the fitness industry called "shocking your body." Most so-called "experts" will tell you that you have to change your workouts every time in order to get results. I think that's nonsense. In fact, that can almost be counterproductive. The only true way to "shock your body" is by doing any one of the things I mentioned above. And if you do you will never have to say the word plateau again!

Kevin Valluzzi is a fitness professional and is the author of the highly successful e-book, Busy Woman Fitness.