- Over-training is one of the most common causes of hitting a plateau in your physical development. The first thing you should do if your progress comes to a halt is to rule out the possibility that you are over-trained. How do you know if you are over-trained? Here are some symptoms to look for: aching muscles and joints, frequent colds or illness, low energy and motivation, and sleeplessness. If you are over-training, the remedy is to take a couple of days off to allow the body to completely rejuvenate itself and then ease back into training. This works wonders!
- Perform a different variation of the exercises that you normally do for a muscle group. For instance, when training my shoulders, I like to perform my shoulder presses with a straight bar. For variation, I may substitute dumbbell shoulder presses for this movement. As a simple a change as this may appear, it will place a different stress on the shoulder muscles and could help help me break through a plateau in shoulder development. The second shoulder exercise would normally be lateral dumbbell raises. Instead of performing lateral raises with a set of dumbbells as I normally would, I could do the equivalent exercise with a low cable. The idea is to vary the exercise enough to place a novel stress on the targeted muscle group. Variety in exercises not only helps you to keep the muscles growing, but it will keep your interest fresh. As they say, variety is the spice of life!
- Change the stress that is applied on a muscle group by changing the amount of weight used on an exercise. This will impact the number of repetitions that you can perform. I normally recommend no more than 8-10 repetitions per set, utilizing a heavy weight and carrying the muscular group to failure (i.e., the point at which you cannot perform another unassisted repetition.) Decreasing the weight that you use in your exercises by as much as 20% on every third or fourth workout will allow you to perform more repetitions on each set, before reaching muscular failure. For example, let's say that I normally perform eight reps in the bench press with 300 lbs. on my maximum set. On a third or fourth chest workout, I will decrease the weight I use to 240 lbs., which enables me to perform 15 repetitions. This higher repetition scheme taxes different elements of the muscle and can stimulate new growth.
- Change the order in which you perform exercises. Coming back to the example of the shoulders, if I normally start with some sort of pressing movement such as the military press (or the dumbbell press), followed by a lateral exercise (shoulder laterals), I will flip-flop them. In other words, I will start with laterals first, then follow that with the pressing exercise. Changing the order of exercises once again varies the stress. Performing isolation exercises (exercises that isolate the target muscle group and usually only involve one joint) such as the shoulder laterals first "pre-fatigues" or "pre-exhausts" the muscle group. Then the muscle group is "overloaded" by the compound exercise (exercise that involves not only the target muscle group, but adjacent muscle groups, and involves more than one joint) which in this case is the shoulder press. Other days, I choose to do the compound exercise first, using as much weight as possible. Each regimen has its distinct benefits.
- Use forced repetitions. Forced repetitions (or assisted repetitions) are one of my favorite training tools. Once you have reached the point of failure on a set (the point at which you cannot perform another unassisted repetition) your partner assists you in performing another 1-2 repetitions. Your partner should only give you enough assistance to keep the weight moving. Once he has helped you to raise the weight, you should lower the weight under your own control. These are called "forced reps." A tremendous amount of muscle intensity can be generated using forced reps so they must be used sparingly, and I recommend that beginners stay away from them completely until they have at least 6 months of training invested. I typically use forced reps only on the last set of an exercise, and then only when I am in a high intensity training phase. Don't overdo forced reps as they will quickly lead to over-training.
Conclusion
In closing, remember that your body is a living organism and as such will have cycles where it is "up" and cycles where it is "down." In other words, physique development progress is seldom a linear event. Use variety in your workouts whenever you hit a plateau in order to keep progressing. If you have hit a sticking point, try out some of the techniques I have outlined in this article and send me an e-mail at info@labrada.com to let me know how they are working for you.
By the way, make sure that your bodybuilding diet will support your training. If you are not getting adequate nutrition and protein intake, your training is for naught.
About The Author
Lee Labrada, is a former IFBB Mr. Universe and IFFB Pro World Cup winner. He is one of few men in history to place in the top four in the Mr. Olympia seven consecutive times, and was recently inducted into the IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Fame. Lee is President/CEO of Houston-based Labrada Nutrition.
