Muscle Building

Break Your Plateau & Enjoy Newbie Gains Again!

November 22, 2009
By Alain Gonzalez

Hitting a plateau is inevitable when weight training to build muscle mass. A plateau happens when your body has adapted so much to your fitness program that it (the body) requires little to no change in order to perform it (the program). The fact that you got great results from your initial program makes it hard to change it. Most people figure that if it worked to pack on those 15 pounds of muscle, there is no reason to tweak it. This is very common and often the reason for frustrated weight lifters who can not seem to pack on any more muscle.

Change your program!

You are either doing full body workouts or you are doing individual muscle groups. Regardless of what kind of program you are on, eventually your body will adapt and cause a plateau. This has a simple solution, just change the program. You see, your body builds muscle naturally in response to strenuous activity. Once your body has grown enough to the point where your program is not strenuous, it sees no reason to grow. By changing your routine and shocking the muscle with new workouts, the body will find the activity strenuous again causing it to build muscle.

A few tips to avoid hitting a plateau due to your workout program

-Switch to full body (If on individual muscle groups)
-Switch to individual muscle groups (If on full body)
-Focus on more strenuous compound workouts
-Increase intensity by implementing supersets
-Switch from machines to free weights
-Increase the amount of weight you use (5-8 reps is ideal)

Change your caloric intake!

Eating the correct amount of calories is crucial when packing on mass. Another huge mistake people make is that they never increase their caloric intake.

Let’s just say for example you weigh 150 pounds and you are eating 3500 calories a day and have increased to 160 pounds. 3500 calories will more then likely only be sufficient enough to maintain the weight. The heavier you are and the more packed with muscle your body is, the more calories your body will require in order to grow. It really is as simple as that.

Breaking that plateau

Remember people, change is good. Change your program, increase your calories, and enjoy those incredible “newbie gains” once again. I know sometimes change is frightening and sometimes we can be a little hard headed, but a plateau could easily break down your momentum and cause heavy stress or even cause you to quit. Give these simple tips a shot and notice great results again!

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