Stuck in a Training Rut? Shock Your Body!

Originally published January 28, 2015.

So you have hit a plateau in your training and your squats or bench press just aren’t increasing. Well don’t worry, anyone that has trained for an extended period of time has been there. How are you going to get past that plateau and start your journey back up the mountain?

You need to shock your body! Get out of your 3 sets of 10 routine you have been doing. Our bodies are very adaptive to whatever is thrown at them. This includes your training. If you do the same exercises, the same amount of reps, the same amount of rest, your body gets comfortable in this routine and does not feel the need to grow. You need to stress your body forcing it to adapt to something new. Scare your muscles into thinking you are in need of more strength or more endurance or more size.

Your muscles have motor units which are attached to the muscle fibers. In order for you to move a muscle those motor units need to fire. Our bodies are very efficient machines and only want to use the energy necessary to finish the task at hand. It will not go out of its way to expend any unnecessary energy in firing any other muscles. Let’s say you have been doing back squats for a year, that means for the last year those same muscles, and only those muscles, were activated every time you did that exercise. You can see how your body would adapt to this load. Changing up your program in just the simplest ways can help you force those unused muscles into action and back on the path to growth.

It is difficult to let go of a program that has worked so well for you in the past. You have had a lot of great memories, but don’t worry, there are plenty of fish in the sea and I will be your workout matchmaker!

Let’s stick with the back squat example. A very simple trick to shock your body would be to change from back squat to front squat. Moving the weight onto the front of the body will completely throw your body off just by making it balance in different ways. You could also try a single leg squat or goblet squat. Everyone of your exercises have more than one variation you can make a switch to.

Another way to change your routine is by switching your reps and sets. If  you have been doing high volume, lets say sets of 12-15, you can switch to a higher number of sets with lower reps and more weight. Something like a 5 by 5 or even 8 sets of 2. If you are going to go heavy be sure you are using good form so you are not getting hurt.

So a quick recap, changing up your workout in even the simplest ways can help you get out of those ruts you have been stuck in. Switch variations of specific exercises, go from barbell to dumbbells, high reps to low reps. I am personally going through a transition right now moving from low rep sets to some circuit training so I can incorporate some aerobic exercise as well. That’s it, Good Luck!

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