I cannot stress this point enough. This is the biggest myth and misconception about weight training. People need to understand that in order to “bulk up,” the number calories that need to be consumed, as well as the quality of food, needs to be really high. As a matter of fact, a lot of men have trouble putting on muscle mass despite all the hard work they put in at the gym simply because they cannot stomach the quantity of food that is required.
In addition, a high level of testosterone is crucial for the development of muscle. It is for this reason that men put on much more muscle than women. Therefore, if men have trouble putting on muscle even though they have high testosterone levels, and women have a hard time putting on muscle even though they eat all the right things, it means that both are required in addition to hard work in the gym, with the hard work specifically being high-volume training. In addition, to build a lot of muscle you need to get quality sleep, which is a lot easier said than done for most people with a busy lifestyle. There are many other factors such as stress and mobility that may also hinder muscle growth. It is because it is so difficult to put on muscle that bodybuilding competitions exist and why some people turn to steroids to help them achieve this.
So how do we break through plateaus? For now, we will focus strictly on the exercise side of breaking plateaus.
As I’ve already mentioned, the body adapts quickly; therefore, one thing to keep in mind when trying to break plateaus is changing up the workout routine. Generally speaking, it takes only six similar workout sessions in a row before progress stops. Keep in mind however, that the effectiveness of each workout diminishes until the sixth. Changing the workouts can be as simple as switching the order of the exercises, or switching up your weekly training split (for example, if you usually train chest and arms, you can switch to chest and back). Other ways include adding new exercises, changing the angles of exercises, changing the intensity, changing the volume and changing the duration.
Some ways you can shock the body with different kinds of exercise methods are:
Supersets: Two sets of different exercises are combined with no rest of either the same muscle group or the opposite muscle group (example, biceps and triceps).
Drop sets: When you reach muscle failure, you decrease the weight and continue the exercise with no rest.
Circuit Training: Strength and cardiorespiratory sets are combined in a circuit with little or no time in between sets.
21s sets: 7 sets of the lower half of a movement, 7 sets of the upper half of the movement, and 7 sets of the full range of movement.
Pyramid sets: Multiple sets are combined with the number of reps increasing, decreasing or both (example: 12, 10, 8, 10, 12).
Giant sets: Three or more sets of exercises combined with no rest of either the same or different muscle groups.
This brings me to my next point: each workout should be progressively harder than the last. This is known as progressive overload. For example, if you’re trying to build muscle in the gym, try to increase the weight slightly each time. If the weight becomes too heavy, try increasing the number of sets, or lowering the weight and increasing the number of reps. The combinations are endless. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as it feels harder than what you have been doing up until that point. Keep in mind though that rest is important and you should mix in a deload week every four to six weeks.
