3 Ways to break through plateau’s.

3 Ways to break through plateau’s.

If you’ve been strength training for any amount of time you’ve hit sticking points in your training. Hitting plateaus are inevitable but there are some simple techniques to bust through sticking points and start setting new PR’s.

1. EAT! I think this is the simplest way to bust through plateaus. Often getting stuck on a certain weight is due to the fact you’re stuck in a rut nutritional. To break out of that rut increase your caloric intake. There’s no magic number or percentage to increase your intake but make the increase significant. Eating an extra handful of almonds everyday isn’t going to be enough. You might need to increase your eating for at least a week before you see measurable gains.

2. Speed. So often when you get to a point where you can’t increase the weights on lifts your repetition speed is slow because naturally the weight is heavy. If your constantly pulling or pushing those weights slowly you’re teaching your body to move slowly. Westside Barbell does what they call dynamic effort days, they use bands or chains to assist or resist there lifts. By pulling or pushing the bar at increased speeds with sub maximal weights you’re training your body to move quickly and explosively.

3. Exercise Variance. I mentioned once before about getting stuck in a rut, well the easiest way to break out of a rut is to change what your doing. If your back squat 1RM is stuck then start doing front squats. By switching to Front squats you’ve changed the stimulus on your body. Spend 3-4 weeks just doing Front squats. Switch back to back squats after 3-4 weeks and the weight should feel lighter. 

I did this with bench press last month. I was stuck with my bench press 1RM so I spent 3 weeks working a linear progression up to my 5RM on dumbbell bench press and on the 4th week I tested my barbell Bench Press and I added 10lbs to my previous 1RM. 

Three things that will not help you break plateaus:
1: Wearing knee high socks
2: Taking your shirt off before a lift. (trust me I've tried)
3: Putting a lot of chalk on your hands and slapping your hands together.(this looks cool but it doesn't help lift more weight)

12-14-12

6 x 1 (Snatch pull ( demo)+ power snatch + snatch = 1) @ 80% of 1RM

Back squat 3 x 5 @83%

Push Press 5-5-5-5-5

Work your way up to your 5RM

Lat pull down or DB row super set with Rear delt flyes

4 x 8

 3 x 8 Glute ham raise eccentric (demo) followed by 25m total distance prowler push (high handles down and low handles back) 90/50lbs