Top 10 Causes of Plateaus

PLATEAUS ARE ANNOYING AND AGGRAVATING, aren't they?  They go far beyond the physical realm.  The mental angst and frustration an athlete goes through while repeatedly attempting to bust through a plateau is the absolute worst.

"My calves don't grow."

"I can't get past 265 on my bench."

"My abs don't work right-my core is weak."

"My quads take over every time I squat."

Sound familiar?

One of the most common reasons people hire me as a Coach is to help them bust through a plateau; and on a personal note, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT TYPE OF COACHING!  It is completely awesome to see people progress both in physical performance and confidence levels.  The best part is that the athlete doesn't just achieve their goal, they SURPASS it.

When it comes to busting through your plateau and achieving your goal, here's what I've found:  There's usually more than one reason for the plateau. 

Best case scenario would be for you to be standing here in front of me for me to look at you and ask specific questions unique to your situation.  But since that's not the case, I comprised a quick "Top 10 List of the Physical Causes of Plateaus" I've found working with athletes of all ages and performance levels in the weight room and/or performing strength training/conditioning exercises. (BTW, there are MANY more!)

Triage yourself and see if any of these apply to your situation:

1. Insufficient Nutrition and Hydration Status -This is by far, the #1 PHYSICAL cause of plateaus I've seen in athletes. 

2. Improper Training Technique -This includes crappy form, utilizing momentum, failure to isolate, allowing certain muscle groups to dominate a movement (especially the traps), permission of an escape pathway. 

3. Insufficient Training Load- Not going heavy enough. 

4. Insufficient Time Under Tension- The literal goal is to create a stress within the muscle belly so that it undergoes destruction at the cellular level during training with the intention it will then repair itself to become bigger, better and stronger.  Blowing through a set, leveraging momentum, executing too narrow or too large of a range of motion, failure to control the weight or squeeze at peak contraction take the tension off of the muscle bellies and do not cause the cellular destruction required to trigger maximal amounts of anabolic hormones and spawn growth.    

5. Negligence of Accessory and Oppositional Muscle Training- Your lift is more than the one muscle you are targeting.  You've got the big muscle groups, tons of little guys that work to stabilize them, and other muscles to assist with BOTH the concentric AND the eccentric movements.  WHEN YOU WANT TO MAXIMIZE YOUR GAINZ, YOU GOTTA TRAIN ALL OF THEM.   

6. Insufficient Recovery Strategy- This includes nutrition, hydration, flushing out the byproducts of metabolism and allowing your receptors to clear.

7. Inconsistency- No explanation needed.  

8. Failure To Recruit Neural Pathways- Muscles move because they have nerves controlling them.  The mind-muscle connection is a real thing.  If that connection is weak (or virtually non-existent), you can train all day long and will never achieve the results you are looking for.  The Good News is that you can recruit the stalled and/or under-performing neural pathways. 

9. Habitual and/or Stagnant Movement Patterns- I cannot stress enough how important it is to focus on your goal for the set.  Moving through a range of motion out of mere habit is mindless training, and does not recruit the neural pathways (see #8) required to maximize your Gainz. 

10. Decreased Mobility- This is what holds back so many strong-willed and high-level athletes.  There are TONS of reasons for decreased mobility-tight fascia; scar tissue build up; what I call "compensatory fall out" after an injury, hasty training to execute a movement for speed rather than excellence, muscular inequalities (such as between the right and left sides), training on unstable/uneven terrain, insufficient nutrition and dehydration (see #1),  habitual movement pattern (see #9), and outright neglect of well-performed flexibility and mobility training and myofascial release therapies.

Need help busting through a plateau? 

Contact me directly by CLICKING HERE.   

I offer Consultation and Coaching in person and via telephone/Face Time/Skype.

Til next time, Train Hard!