If you just started strength training in the last few months, there is a good chance that you will stop making progress at some point in the near future if you haven’t already.

According to Google, a workout plateau is, “a stage of progress that happens when your body gets used to the demands of your current fitness routine, which causes your progress to level out” or in simple terms, you stop losing weight, gaining muscle, gaining strength (whatever it is that you’ve been on track with for your goal) or your progress has significantly slowed down.

Don’t worry though, it is completely normal to plateau in your journey quite frequently and if you didn’t I would be concerned that you’re some sort of robot human.

Why do people plateau in their workouts?

There are various reasons why someone may plateau with their workouts but let’s go over the main ones:

1. Overtraining
2. Workout routine is stale
3. Intensity is lacking
4. Stress and lack of sleep
5. Lack of proper workout knowledge

Overtraining

When many people are just starting out, they push themselves really hard to do as much as possible to get results in as little time as possible.

This not only is physically exhausting, but can be mentally and emotionally draining as well.

I’ve had to tell my clients “too much is counterproductive” too many times to count.

As a frame of reference, you should not be strength training more than 5-6x a week. For at least 1 of your rest days, I would suggest not exercising at all outside of casually getting some steps in. Even a brisk or intense walk may be too much.

Cardio on top of your strength training will place even more stress on the body so it is important you know your limits and don’t overdo it.

Overtraining for one person may be the norm for another person. Test what works best for you and your body and listen to what your body is telling you.

Your workout routine is stale & your intensity is lacking

Your workouts need to stay the same week to week for at least 4 weeks at a time but that gets super boring to many people.

When you feel the excitement wear off from your routine you were once so excited to start, it may be hard to keep up the intensity you once had.

Make sure to switch up at least a few exercises per muscle group every 4-8 weeks to ensure excitement stays high!

This can be as simple as changing up the variation of an exercise instead of switching it out all together. For example, you switch out a barbell RDL for a dumbbell RDL. Although it is the same exercise, they work the body slightly differently due to the mechanics of the equipment.

Remember, our bodies are built to adapt over time. When we do the same things over and over again, we learn how to do it in a more efficient manner.

Meaning, if we do the same exercises all the time with no variation, our bodies will get used to them, and therefore it will be easier to do them over time. We will need to put less effort into completing those exercises.

As with everything in life, exercises have a learning curve similar to the one below.

Pic from: https://themoneyengineers.com/2021/08/01/learning-curves/

We start slow, make a ton of progress then eventually adapt and plateau for every single exercise.

You may be thinking, isn’t it good that our bodies will work to make exercises easier over time?

While that is true, it is also true that you need to challenge your body in order to make new progress.

So if something becomes easier, and we are struggling to make it more challenging by doing more reps, sets, weight, etc. because we have hit a plateau, then that is not necessarily a good thing in terms of progress.

Stress & lack of sleep

We all know it, we all hate it.

Stress.

This alone will plateau your entire existence let alone your workout progress lol.

No, but really. Stress can do WILD things to the body.

In terms of fitness specifically though, stress is known distract you (makes it hard to focus on your workout), make you fatigue quicker, and hinder the bodies ability to recover properly. Without proper recovery, no progress is made.

Progress is all made during the recovery or rest phase.

Which leads me to my next point, sleep.

Stress can lead you to have a poor night’s sleep and sleep is key.

Not only do we make most of our progress while we are sleeping, but without a good night’s sleep, it’s hard to get your workout in with no fuel in the tank.

A lack of sleep combined with stress is the ultimate downfall.

This combination significantly raises cortisol levels in the body which is linked to craving sugary and fatty foods.

Lack of proper workout knowledge

You may just need to swallow your pride and realize that you simply don’t have enough knowledge to know how to make an effective program long term.

Sure you’ve been working out consistency for weeks, months or even years but are you actually making progress?

You probably were at one point but if it has been months of you not making any progress and you don’t know what to do in order to fix it, chances are you need to hire a professional to step up your game.

And by a professional, I mean a trainer!

It is literally our jobs to help you make progress so don’t be afraid to consult one.

I know a trainer can be expensive, but trust me if you can find one in your price range, it is an investment worthwhile (the right trainer, that is).

How to fix a workout plateau

Don’t fear, Coach Emily is here!

While workout plateaus are super annoying, they will come frequently in your fitness journey especially if you’re in it for the long haul (which you should be).

The problem with a plateau is that you never truly know the root cause so it can take a lot of trial and error to figure out a solution.

Below are my recommendations in order:

1. Take more rest
2. Assess your diet
3. Change up your routine
4. Increase intensity
5. Assess stress levels

As you may have noticed, my suggestions are basically the opposite of what we just went over (which makes sense, right?).

Take more rest

I believe most people truly are overworking themselves without realizing it so try taking a deload week, adding additional rest days into your week, or even just taking a week or so off in general.

Assess your diet

Diet accounts for the majority of your results so it is important that you are on top of it.

If you are tracking calories –

1. Make sure you’re truly tracking them correctly. You should be capturing everything even things you don’t think have any calories or tend to forget about such as coffee, coffee creamer, cooking oils, etc.
2. Reassessing the amount overall. Many times, you may need to adjust your calories up or down to start seeing true progress depending on your goal.

If you aren’t tracking calories –

1. Has your diet been consistent lately?
2. Have you found yourself eating more or less of something specific?
3. Have you noticed any big or small changes in appetite lately?

Figuring out the answers to all these questions will help you determine if you’ve truly been in range with your intake. Chances are that you’ve been mis-tracking or you’re just off track and not truly eating the right amount of food for your goal.

If you’re unsure of how of a proper intake for your goal, try out my calorie and macro calculator:

Freshman Fitness Calorie Calculator

Change up your routine & increase intensity

As explained earlier, you shouldn’t keep the same workout all the time. Try switching out a few exercises every 4-8 weeks to keep your routine exciting.

I think it’s also important to note that you should have some level of consistency. Switching up your routine TOO often will also cause you to plateau.

So if you’re just following random IG or Tik Tok workouts, I bet you’re struggling to see progress.

Something I like to do is try going to a different gym, or switching up the location of my workouts overall just to try something new.

I always find that when I try a new gym, I tend to workout harder because I feel like I need to “prove” myself.

That might just be me trying to assert my muscle mommy-ness BUT even if you’re nowhere close to this stage, I still recommend going into it with the same mindset.

That excitement helps me level up my workouts for a bit of time.

I think it is also important to remember why you started working out in the first place.

Many of us tend to lose sight of our original vision during the mundane week to week of working out.

Bring back your vision and dial in on your goal!

Visualize yourself already achieving that goal. This can help bring back some excitement.

Another way to bring up the intensity of your workouts would be bringing in a workout partner or trainer to help motivate you.

I tend to be weird about working out with people though and find my workouts are always LESS intense when I am with someone because I am distracted.

For a lot of people though, working out with someone helps to keep them motivated and keep energy levels high.

Lastly, there is always the obvious of trying to increase reps, sets, or weight to increase the intensity of your workouts. You can also try focusing on form, slowing down the tempo of your reps, or taking less rest time between sets as a way to “intensify” your workouts.

Assess stress levels

As we already went over, stress will kill your progress. Make sure to check in with yourself regularly.

A few ways you can cope with stress:

1. Set a time to unwind
   • Keep it regular and daily. You NEED that time to yourself to do something you really enjoy. It could be doing absolutely nothing at all. That is always a good way to wind down.
2. Practice breathing or mediation
   • Sounds cliché but breathing truly can help you. When we are stressed, our fight or flight mode is activated because we perceive stress as a threat to the body. Taking slow, deep breaths helps reduce activation of your sympathetic nervous system
3. Get rid of the screens
   • Social media, tv, and really any screen time can contribute to your stress so ditch it when you can and opt for something like a book or time outside
4. Set times to eat undistracted
   • A lot of the time when people are stressed they tend to either undereat or overeat. Regardless of your situation, I think it is important to pre-set time slots for you to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner and take those times to eat slowly and in peace without any stressors around. Fueling your body properly and with healthy foods can help reduce stress.
5. Get rid of your stressors
   • This is the BEST thing you can do to reduce stress for good but it is not always practical since most of the time stress can come from work or family. Of course you can always switch your job to a less stressful one but that doesn’t necessarily make sense for some people and you can’t really get rid of your family. I mean, you can but probably best just to set boundaries with them!

As I said before, it really is trial and error to figure out what is causing your plateau and how to create a solution to fix it.

Don’t allow your lack of progress to create additional stress.

Slowly work through each one, give yourself TIME and be patient with your body.

If you’re still struggling after you’ve been through all these steps and can’t figure out the downfall, it is probably best to reach out to a professional for gudiance.

I am always happy to help! (Apply to work with me now)

Until next time,

Coach Emily