If you have never experienced the plateau effect from working out, then you either haven’t been lifting long enough or have been doing something right. Generally the plateau effect can come into play anywhere from a month to a few months after you start lifting. So what exactly is the plateau effect? Simply put it is when your gains in the gym have reached a plateau, you are no longer gaining strength, size, or either. So you can hit a plateau by being to consistent with your workouts and not changing anything up, when your body gets used to doing a certain set of workouts a certain way you will eventually reach a point where you are no longer gaining any benefit from that particular exercise or range of motion. The plateau can last for a few weeks or remain for months until something is changed within your regimen. By maintaining the same regimen sure you will be able maintain your size and strength, but you won’t really see very many gains.

Overcoming the Plateau Effect

Once your body reaches a plateau it is generally pretty easy to overcome. The easiest way to overcome this effect is to simple change your routine, start lifting with different speeds, and different exercises. An easy and quick change is to switch from split body part workouts to full body workouts, or switch from full body to split body workouts. This change in either direction will bring great benefit to your gains in the gym. Recently when I shifted from split body to full body workouts I saw a tremendous increase in strength and stamina. The new workouts target muscles that I would have never have hit by maintaining split workouts. The best part is that my efficiency in the gym also went up, I am able to fit an entire full body workout into 40 minutes, and be more exhausted then my old 1-1.5 hour workouts. The huge in a hurry workouts have proved to be very helpful in me reaching my goals, by lifting at a very fast, but controlled, way I am able to work more muscles with more weight in less time.

Avoiding the Plateau Effect

Why bother trying to get out of a plateau when you can avoid them all together? Typically a good rule of thumb to follow is to change up your routine every month, whether this be how your lifting, or what exercises your doing. By constantly changing your exercises and style your body and muscles become “confused” and unable to adapt and plateau to this new workout since it will change and hit your body in a new way within a month. Avoiding this plateau effect is one of the greatest ways to keep your gains coming fast and strong and will help you to stay motivated and feel that the gym is worthwhile after all.

Dedication is a very powerful tool. If you think about it, dedication is used in all facets of life. The more dedicated you are the better the results you will get. Think of the businessman who is Lways working, also dedicating himself to his main goal. This is the person who will run the company and surpass the undedicated folks.

Now what does the businessman have to do with fitness you may be asking, and the answer is a lot of things. Like the businessman, someone who dedicates themselves to fitness will achieve much better results than the slacker.

This article may seem out I place here, but I have decided to add a motivational section that I can expand once a week to help keep people focussed on attaining their individual goals.

Remember that you only results from what you put into the mix, if your doing nothing then you better expect to see nothing. Weight lifting can be a wonderful sport and hobby, the best part is the more attention you give it, the better you feel about yourself and everything in general.

Finally, keep in mind that patience is a virtue and you can’t let a lack of improvement in a short amount of time hold you back. Be patient, be motivated, and be fit.

This was posted from my iPhone, I am trying to get the formatting down.