Hi. I've been working out about four times a week for the past six months or so, and probably real regularly since about the beginning of November. Anyway, I'm really feeling tired, stagnant, like I don't want to work out and I think I may be plateauing. I'm going to take a week off I think from the weights. I will still be exercising as I'm a mailman and I walk everyday, plus I'll probably be playing a little basketball. But do you have any other suggestions for how to get past this? Also on a related note, how do I level off my training once my muscle mass is where I want it to be? I mean, I don't really want to keep getting bigger and stronger by constantly increasing the amount I'm lifting. Okay, those are my two big questions.
What to do about plateauing?
- Thread starter Wasatch Rebel
- Start date
Very hard question to ask without more information.
I assume you want to biuld muscle? what is your calorie maintenance level?
What is you diet like? Specifically?
what is you training like? Specific exercises please
Also, if you haven't taken a break for a few months then please do. It's probably a good idea to take a weeks break every few months or so to repair body and mind.
I assume you want to biuld muscle? what is your calorie maintenance level?
What is you diet like? Specifically?
what is you training like? Specific exercises please
Also, if you haven't taken a break for a few months then please do. It's probably a good idea to take a weeks break every few months or so to repair body and mind.
1. Try something new. Try super setting your exercises, try changing the weights and reps. You can add a set, or even shorten the rest period. Change exercise, anything to shock the body. If you've been in the 6-12 rep range, for a while start keeping your lifts in the 1-6 rep range, and then go back to the 6-12 rep/weights and see how much progress you've made.
2. If your happy with your LBM level, just stop bulking. Just because your getting stronger, does not mean your getting bigger. You should always try to get stronger. If you want to stay at your current size, keep your diet and calorie intake the same and you'll eventually even out and stop growing. Remember, to get bigger, your calorie intake has to be in a surplus.
2. If your happy with your LBM level, just stop bulking. Just because your getting stronger, does not mean your getting bigger. You should always try to get stronger. If you want to stay at your current size, keep your diet and calorie intake the same and you'll eventually even out and stop growing. Remember, to get bigger, your calorie intake has to be in a surplus.
Personally, I take a week off now and then when I'm tired or sick of it, but if I just feel like I'm not progressing I like to use lighter weights, do more reps, and focus on my form. Then in a week or so I get back to the norm and I can start feeling it again... That's just what works for me... Good Luck!
May you have the foresight to know where you are going, the hindsight to know where you have been and the insight to know when you have gone too far.
Lets rock with these like thoughts, BABY!
When one plateau's, the types of plateau's and its degress can be different in many ways (and related to one another) and the causes can be a variable blend of different stumuli within the persons life.
You listed these symptoms:
1. Stagnant. What does this mean to you?
2. Tired.
3. Dont want to workout.
The amount of calories and the circumference of DIET can a be major driving factor in ALL THREE symptoms you listed. You could be eating inappropriately and allowing enough REST between workouts (and I am assuming your work out routine is adequate to keep things equal), and STILL have these symptoms if the diet is not correct for you.
In addition, it could be a combination of an inadequate diet and not enough rest (recuperation and repair of your body from rest, and not feeding in the tools of repair with diet).
Furthermore, it is possible you are overtraining, not allowing enough rest, and your diet is inadequate at the same time. Additionally, it can be your diet is adequate, and your overtraining and not allowing enough rest. Even with proper diet, overtraining (ALONE) can cause these symptoms. And, its possible you are training properly, diet is correct, and you are not allowing enough rest (recuperation time).
The possible and potential causes can be many.
However, one can have a foundation or source material to review to assist in addressing the problen if one:
1. Has a Weight Training Log. This would contain your prior history.
If one is keeping a training journal (and they should as progression is a key factor), this essential journal can tell you many things: your progress from one work out to the next (and individual exercises), and whether your progress is occurring good and/or slowing. Its this sort of detail, than can tell you if you need to change an exercise (apply a different stimulus), and in effect tell you if you need to change things up. In addition, if one is keeping a diet journal per day along with the training journal, one can look in the diet journal per day and compare results in the training journal and in effect determine if its something in the diet or training and/or both is slowing progress (not to mention personal intensity application to the exercise and overal routine, as there are many factors that can hamper progress).
2. Has a Diet log. This contains what you had eaten (types of food, macronutrients), and calorie history coresponding to your days off and weight training history.
3. A honest running diary on how workouts went. Problems with diet, how you felt, etc, etc. For example, you list whether you are getting stronger and/or whether you can see physical differences in your physical composition. In addition, you can add any "life" factors that have effected how you feel toward yourself--and whether this has effected how you feel about your training.
4. Set a consistent course to obtain knowledge of diet and fitness on a regular and continued basis. Including the mental side.
Its been my opinion from the day I joined the forum, that one needs to learn how to "master their self" within the confinement of the types of bodily feedback (psychological, biological, etc) that one WILL receive when deficit dieting or surplus dieting. We deal with motivation with college and issues in life, and meet and exceed our goals, and pay so little attention to the VERY ISSUE that is the motivation killer in diet and fitness.
ONE MUST TRAIN THEIR MIND and while in development, you will have the tools to work with to deal with psychological, biological, etc, that WILL COME your way. Be not surprised. This WILL NOT BE THE FIRST TIME nor the last.
It should be no surprise that if you "diet", that the body is going to kick in some psychological and biological defenses to compel you to eat or if one is in surplus, cause barriers in eating enough.
In addition, it should be no surprise that parts of ones personality (likes and dislikes, etc) can be a inhibitor. We can spend so much time on the basics on diet and fitness, and lose focus on one of the PRIMARY functions that can cause failure: Psychological and biological feed back of the body. Give TIME to gain knowledge on how to deal with them. Then learn how to apply what you have learned--you WILL NOT be sorry for the time or effort sacrificed.
I realize that the first "three points" do not fit everyone, but their IS power in these three logs nonetheless.
For example:
1. You can pinpoint exactly when a progression plateau develops in your training routine, and you know the coresponding rest periods given at this time. You also know what type of training you have been doing.
2. You can then look at your diet (with a KNOWLEDEABLE EYE) within this period.
3. You also have a history of how you felt leading up to your problem. In addition, you will have a log on your strengths achieved from your training and any physical improvements.
Now, lets say one embarks on "active" learning toward, weight training, diet, and mental factors associated with what they are doing (Is trying to learn all he/she can while exercising at the same time). One can take this foundation, make applicable changes, and will not be guessing as to prior history and will have something SOLID to work with.
With this in mind, I would like to know the following:
1. What has your diet been like? Your calories and macronutrients? Have you determined your MT Line? I see your trying to gain muscle. What has your surplus been running, if any? Drinking enough water? How much?
Diet can mess with strength and physical progression. Diet can mess with mental attitude, cause depression, and a feeling of being lethargic (to name a few examples). It can also mess with motivation.
In addition the Diet is the first place one looks if there not gaining good weight, and the first issue is the amount of calories, and then whether your eating enough nutrients to allow some growth decisions to occur in the body.
Adjust this very thing, correctly, you will gain weight. Secondly, you do want appropriate amount of "Stimulation" for growth (to allow the extra calories to do its job), this "Stimulation" is the weight training, and Third, you want to allow "rest and recuperation" to allow the body to use the calories and nutrients from the appropriate "Stimulation" for growth to occur.
2. What specifically has your training been like? The specific exercises, days of rest, etc. The stimulation of muscle growth occurrs within the gym (or the reason for a body change), however, actual growth occurs during rest.
What you are doing and what you are not doing in your training can mess with strength and physical progression. This too can mess with mental attitude, cause depression, and a feeling of being lethargic (to name a few examples). It can also mess with motivation.
3. What has your physical improvements been like? What has your strength increases been like--leading up to the present. This is one PRIMARY personal motivator and inhibitor of motivation at the same time--dependent on progress toward ones goal.
ALWAYS set time intervals of review and reflection. Do not stick with one routine--too long. Stick with it long enough, but change it every now and then.
Answer my questions.
You already to took one GIANT step toward solving your problem. First you recognized it, second, you are seeking advice and knowledge to solve it. Add in "application", and you will NOT FAIL--EVER.
ROCK ON!
Best wishes to you in life and within fitness,
Chillen
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Well shoot... Chillen beat me to a post about over training
So yeah, what he said.
You might also want to look into training periodization: Periodization Training
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/pdfs/fitfacts/itemid_288.pdf
There is also a link at the bottom of that first page that has some more good infor on overtraining.
So yeah, what he said.
You might also want to look into training periodization: Periodization Training
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/pdfs/fitfacts/itemid_288.pdf
There is also a link at the bottom of that first page that has some more good infor on overtraining.
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Read my other post, young man.
Additionally, I want to leave you with these thoughts:
The brightest star from the surface of the earth is the SPIRIT of a young man, unbroken.
The most vicious VISION is from a young man with WILL formed from the same SPIRIT.
The most ferocious HEART formed from the same SPIRIT will never die
DREAMS surrounded with HEART, WILL, and an unbroken SPIRIT, can not be stopped
(Chillen)
Best wishes in all that you do, my friend
Chillen
Additionally, I want to leave you with these thoughts:
The brightest star from the surface of the earth is the SPIRIT of a young man, unbroken.
The most vicious VISION is from a young man with WILL formed from the same SPIRIT.
The most ferocious HEART formed from the same SPIRIT will never die
DREAMS surrounded with HEART, WILL, and an unbroken SPIRIT, can not be stopped
(Chillen)
Best wishes in all that you do, my friend
Chillen
I want to add somet5hing else too. Chillen has some great posts there... and my point is very similar.
Maybe your training has become tooo results based, and not enough purpose based. Sometimes it is spiritual and refreshing to train for the sake of training. Sweat for the sake of sweating, lift just to USE the muscle.
sheesh! I may try that sometime.
hahaha
FF
Maybe your training has become tooo results based, and not enough purpose based. Sometimes it is spiritual and refreshing to train for the sake of training. Sweat for the sake of sweating, lift just to USE the muscle.
sheesh! I may try that sometime.
hahaha
FF
Thank you FF.
OP, feel free to ask questions, and be sure to answer my questions!
LETS ROCK THIS THING! HEHHEHE
Chillen
How many hours a day are you in the gym?
How many exercises do you do each day?
Are you doing a push/pull split or upper/lower body split or just random?
What is your goal?
I used to do just random and I got sick of working out all the time because of that and was in the weightroom for about 2 hours a day. Now I am just going to train by movements (one exercise per movement) and I won't have to change exercises all the time and do exercises randomly and forget a muscle. I used to do a mixture of single joint and compund. I learned my lesson on that. I can change exercises each session if I want to within that certain movement (3 day workout ex. mon - bench press, wed - incline press, fri - push up), but not randomly (ex. mon - bench press, pull up, incline press, squat, shoulder press. tue - deadlift, squat, bent over row, pull up, dips, shrug) because that will screw my body up and give imbalances. I am working on fixing my posture now.
What I suggest you to do right now is to make a Workout A and a Workout B session and alternate each session. I don't know if you are training all single joint or by movement (compound exercises), but make sure Workout A has different movements or muscles if you are doing single joint than workout B has. You can put workout A as upper body and Workout B as lower body if you want or do it by push/pull. It's up to you. Try not to be in the weightroom for more than an hour. To make life easier, you can do full body doing compound exercises 3 days a week by movements (basic: upper body vertical & horizontal push/pull, hip dominant, quad dominant, rotation). That would be like 7 exercises in one session and some can be done right after the other (ex. bench press and then bent over row right after, then rest) like I do it to make it faster. For Legs, I don't think its a good thing. With upper body, I think its fine. You can try different things and see what may work for you and what may not.
Good Luck. These are just suggestions to help you get back on the right track. I am working on myself right now too. I am writing this based on experience I have had with overtraining and feeling like the workout was not working and did not feel like working out and kept skipping sessions and stuff.
How many exercises do you do each day?
Are you doing a push/pull split or upper/lower body split or just random?
What is your goal?
I used to do just random and I got sick of working out all the time because of that and was in the weightroom for about 2 hours a day. Now I am just going to train by movements (one exercise per movement) and I won't have to change exercises all the time and do exercises randomly and forget a muscle. I used to do a mixture of single joint and compund. I learned my lesson on that. I can change exercises each session if I want to within that certain movement (3 day workout ex. mon - bench press, wed - incline press, fri - push up), but not randomly (ex. mon - bench press, pull up, incline press, squat, shoulder press. tue - deadlift, squat, bent over row, pull up, dips, shrug) because that will screw my body up and give imbalances. I am working on fixing my posture now.
What I suggest you to do right now is to make a Workout A and a Workout B session and alternate each session. I don't know if you are training all single joint or by movement (compound exercises), but make sure Workout A has different movements or muscles if you are doing single joint than workout B has. You can put workout A as upper body and Workout B as lower body if you want or do it by push/pull. It's up to you. Try not to be in the weightroom for more than an hour. To make life easier, you can do full body doing compound exercises 3 days a week by movements (basic: upper body vertical & horizontal push/pull, hip dominant, quad dominant, rotation). That would be like 7 exercises in one session and some can be done right after the other (ex. bench press and then bent over row right after, then rest) like I do it to make it faster. For Legs, I don't think its a good thing. With upper body, I think its fine. You can try different things and see what may work for you and what may not.
Good Luck. These are just suggestions to help you get back on the right track. I am working on myself right now too. I am writing this based on experience I have had with overtraining and feeling like the workout was not working and did not feel like working out and kept skipping sessions and stuff.
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Yes, I want to build muscle. As for my calorie maintenance level, I have no idea. My diet is mediocre. In the morning I generally eat a bowl of cereal (bran or bite-sized shredded wheat--that type of stuff) with skim milk, or sometimes 1%. Sometimes I snack on granola bars at mid-morning, but every once in awhile I eat a donut or a candy bar. My lunches are sometimes bad (things like jr. bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy's) and sometimes a bit better (chicken tacos without cheese and with onions,cilantro etc. I also eat Caesar salads and yogurt often for lunch). I usually workout right after work, so by the time I get home at five or six, I'm really hungry and find something quick to snack on---and it's not always good nutritionally. My dinners are usually not all that good for me either---I eat a lot of casseroles, enchiladas, and other fatty things---but I keep the portions small for the most part on those. I also eat sphagetti with homeade sauce. I know that improving my diet would help me out a lot and I know I need to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables---I just find that I have so much going on in my life that it's hard to take the time to cut up veggies and fruit so I grab the quick and easy thing.
My workouts have been like this: Monday-Bench press 4 sets 8-13, incline press 3 sets, decline press 3 sets, dips 4 sets, tricep press downs 2 sets.
Tuesday - Pullups 4 sets, sitting rows 3 sets, bent over rows 3 sets, preacher curls 3 sets, incline curls 3 sets.
Wednesday - off
Thursday - Shoulder press 4 sets, shrugs 3 sets, lateral shoulder raises 2 sets, a bunch of isolating shoulder excercises with light weight (I don't know the names of these exercises - I was taught them by my physical therapist years ago to strengthen the shoulder joints, which I have trouble with.) incline leg raises - 2 sets of 30, crunches 2 sets of 20-25, and another one which I don't know the name of where I lay flat on my back on a mat, suck my stomach in the flatten my spine to the floor, and do bent leg raises, holding them up to the count of five then lowering again. I do 13 reps of this.
Friday - off
Saturday - Lunges - 2 sets each leg, Leg Press 4- sets, Calf Raises 5 sets, Leg Curls - 2 sets.
Sunday - off
I think that about covers it. I walk probably 4-5 miles a day with my job, and I also try to play basketball at least once a week.
Chillen;258636 1. Stagnant. What does this mean to you?[/quote said:
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Hey, I want to thank all of you who have commented on this thread. Most of you seem to know a lot more of the technical nature of working out than I do, so I appreciate your expertise. This also might help you. I don't eat all that well, I only get 6-6.5 hours of sleep, I don't drink enough water, and I live a stress-filled life. I'm sure all this adds to my feeling of not wanting to work out. But I went to the gym anyway today and I just ran a mile. That's it. It felt pretty good too.
Hey mate,
I think it is really important to sit down and work out exactly how many calories you are getting each day. Your diet is going to determine whether you reach your goals or not. Firstly, you need to calculate your maintenance level which can be done using the formula here Most people generally underestimate their food intake. Once you have calculated this, subtract 500 cals each day for a healthy deficit.
Like you have suggested, you need to start eating better. You appear to be getting a lot of empty calories which could be one of the reasons you are struggling at the gym. You need to eat fresh whole foods like chicken breast, tuna, fresh vegetables, nuts, brown rice etc.....Yes it takes time to prepare but if there is a will.....
It is difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Pick one and go for it. If you decide you want to gain some muscle, then add 500 cals to your daily maintenance level.
lastly, calculate your calories at
I think it is really important to sit down and work out exactly how many calories you are getting each day. Your diet is going to determine whether you reach your goals or not. Firstly, you need to calculate your maintenance level which can be done using the formula here Most people generally underestimate their food intake. Once you have calculated this, subtract 500 cals each day for a healthy deficit.
Like you have suggested, you need to start eating better. You appear to be getting a lot of empty calories which could be one of the reasons you are struggling at the gym. You need to eat fresh whole foods like chicken breast, tuna, fresh vegetables, nuts, brown rice etc.....Yes it takes time to prepare but if there is a will.....
It is difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Pick one and go for it. If you decide you want to gain some muscle, then add 500 cals to your daily maintenance level.
lastly, calculate your calories at
Hey, thanks, JTM. I appreciate the help.