WEEK TWENTY-THREE :: What Is The Best Way To Break A Plateau?

[bubba g]

Bubba,

Your article was well written and has great info (def in top 3) even though I personally have 1 or 2 things taht I disagree with your entire article.

As far as stretching goes, ask any one that has done it they will explain to you why it makes you grow faster. DC Training incoporates it. Any that has done the CRAPP they will testify to its benefits.

Extreme Stretching can mock muscle memory, aid in recovery and generally increase your gains.

Also I like to note here that plateau should never happen because as fortifiediron has mentioned workouts should be periodized and have loading and deloading phase (which sometimes i just replace with a week off).

If all your workouts are planmed according to periodization and gauged with different intensities at which your body can accomadate and recover then you should never have plateaus esp. when your diet is right.

Edit- by the way I didnt post an article because I didnt feel like it. I'm just an observer hoping that people dont get misinformed. And dont get me wrong either I think each article except maybe one has tons of valuable information, I just think many of them have small fawls.

I know all about facial stretching from extreem stretching, and how it mimics muscle memory. and it does improve recovery time..
I guess you are right I should have included it.


even with periodization you will hit a plateau at some point. you sound like you know what you are talking about. I am sure you know that..

[bubba g]

I thought everyones article was very good, however I thought bubba g's article was the most insightful and the most detailed. He brought forth very good suggestions from many different angles of attack. Personally, I think that the most important thing to breaking a plateau is to determine what it is that is holding you back, which bubba g detailed first off.

Good job to everyone though!

Thanks man...

[drugzkill]

Nope, I meant full on training 3 days same muscle group as hard as possible. Might be possible? whats so impossible about it?

Its totally possible to train the same muscle for 3 days straight as hard as possible, but the possibility of causing gains is near impossible. I can't think of one person that has been able to make weekly progressions from a method like this.

This method is bad for several reasons:
1) It is focusing more on muscle fatigue than overload (I can fatigue my muscle in a marathon but it wont grow)
2) It is awlful for recovery for several reason and will most likely lead to overtraining
- Microfibrial Tears (When repetitively training the same muscle, these tears will worsen and lengthen your recovery time needed exponentially)
- Added Stress on Tendons
- Compounding Build up of Lactic Acid in a localized area (lead to muscle pain, cramping, extended recovery, etc.)
- Drain on CNS (training the same muscle repetitively has more of a drain on neurotransmitters than training different muscle throughout the week)
3) Has poor results for adaptation
- When training your muscle repetitively throughout the week, you will probably do lots of different exercises (too many different exercises and your body will lose focus on what to adapt to)

Above is just a few of the many reasons why this idea isnt near feasible without juicin' and when juciin this is questionable.

[IGF]

Its totally possible to train the same muscle for 3 days straight as hard as possible, but the possibility of causing gains is near impossible. I can't think of one person that has been able to make weekly progressions from a method like this.

It's to break a plateau. I never said do it weekly,bi weekly,monthly or even yearly

This method is bad for several reasons:
1) It is focusing more on muscle fatigue than overload (I can fatigue my muscle in a marathon but it wont grow)

Muscle overload? Thats not the only way to cause a muscle to grow. Comparing a marathon to a workout is comparing apples to oranges.

2) It is awlful for recovery for several reason and will most likely lead to overtraining
- Microfibrial Tears (When repetitively training the same muscle, these tears will worsen and lengthen your recovery time needed exponentially)

Exactly. Instead of the basic fatigue a muscle group then rest you change the stimulus to continually fatigue further then ever before - I also stated to rest the body part afterwards

- Added Stress on Tendons

..please explain how any weightlifing doesn put 'added stress' on the tendons

- Compounding Build up of Lactic Acid in a localized area

Lactic acid produces growth

- Drain on CNS (training the same muscle repetitively has more of a drain on neurotransmitters than training different muscle throughout the week)

Again, I said do it once, I never said do it multiple times. And I think this CNS overstimulation stuff is overexaggerated - something for people who call a bulk 3,000 calories and train 3 times a week

3) Has poor results for adaptation
- When training your muscle repetitively throughout the week, you will probably do lots of different exercises (too many different exercises and your body will lose focus on what to adapt to)

Never heard that before - do you have any proof for that?

...

[drugzkill]

Response IGF:

I would argue many of your ignorant points but I'll just go with the most outrageous ones:

You said Lactic Acid produces muscle growth, well you were mistaken. Lactic Acid is merely a waste byproduct of anaerobic glycolyn that signals a muscle to stop contraction in order to avoid muscle damage. Lactic Acid has nothing to do with muscle growth and a buildup of it will cause for a muscle's ability to contract to be less than desirable for overload.

I would also like to mention training 3 times a week (5x5, Modified Westside Training including WSBSFB, DoggCrapp Training) is very respectful, however, a 3000 calorie bulk isn't. I would also like to mention that your downplay of CNS is just outrageous. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that your knowledge of CNS is piss poor. So here's a lesson that I posted a month or so ago in the Exercises forum:

"During exercise neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine get depleted. Also Protiens which increase levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters are depleted. When all of these are depleted physcial performance goes way down.

For all of these neurotransmitters to reach a sustainable level it can sometimes take a week. Without these neurotransmitters, there is hardly any way to make strength increase week in and week out." - drugz

Consideration of CNS is very important, because without a sustainable level of neurotransmitters, the muscle fibers needed to be triggered for muscular overload will not be contracted to full potential.

I would also like to mention without full potential contractions occuring, it is very hard to achieve progression.

My additional earlier statement that a body focuses on certain exercise to grow on and when bombarded with tons of exercises your body doesnt adapt as well has plenty of literature to back it up. The reason why this is true is because of muscular specialization, if I train 3 olympic lifts I will get much stronger at those lifts than someone that train 3 olympic lifts and 3 additional exercises.

As far as you saying that muscle grows from other methods than overload, then please explain to me why progression is so important? Possibly because an increasing amount of overload is needed to stimulate (not annihilate like in your program) the muscle.

(Granted there is theories of muscular damage causes growth but these are easily disproven by the marathon runner example and many others)

As far as you defending this program is complete lunacy. I compared it to a marathon runner, because much like a marathon runner, it will just annihilate your muscles and cause no growth. Sure this program can make your muscles sore and in pain but haven't we already many times proven that soreness is not an indicator of your growth.

Now if you truly believe this idea works. Try it out sometime and tell me if the next week when you return if on 1 single lift you made any strength gain and I will take everything back.

~ Drugz

Edit: I also forgot to mention that when you work your muscles with high intesity repetitively you add stress to the body. For each session you back in the stress will compoundingly elevate. As the stress elevates higher and higher, you body will try to compensate and release many chemicals. Many of these chemicals which your body releases are non-anabolic and include cortisol (a hormone whihc breaks down muscle tissue and increases fat deposits).

[IGF]

Response IGF:

I would argue many of your ignorant points but I'll just go with the most outrageous ones:

You said Lactic Acid produces muscle growth, well you were mistaken. Lactic Acid is merely a waste byproduct of anaerobic glycolyn that signals a muscle to stop contraction in order to avoid muscle damage. Lactic Acid has nothing to do with muscle growth and a buildup of it will cause for a muscle's ability to contract to be less than desirable for overload.

Ive read otherwise. And you keep mentioning the overload principle which is definately a way to make good, progressive gains but you're making it as if this is the ONLY way to make gains. Also I dont see how mid/end of a workout you can really apply overload to a muscle as glycogeon and ATP stores will be way below beginning amounts

I would also like to mention training 3 times a week (5x5, Modified Westside Training including WSBSFB, DoggCrapp Training) is very respectful, however, a 3000 calorie bulk isn't. I would also like to mention that your downplay of CNS is just outrageous. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that your knowledge of CNS is piss poor. So here's a lesson that I posted a month or so ago in the Exercises forum:

Piss poor, yes, outrageous I don't think so. Telling people that doing 3 sets of squats to failure will cause overtraining is underestimating CNS capabilities. Also I put my faith in a few bodybuilders who do high volume, high frequency and train to failure on every set (and these guys have done 100 set workouts).I would rather put my faith in them then a few people off the internet

"During exercise neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine get depleted. Also Protiens which increase levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters are depleted. When all of these are depleted physcial performance goes way down.

For all of these neurotransmitters to reach a sustainable level it can sometimes take a week. Without these neurotransmitters, there is hardly any way to make strength increase week in and week out." - drugz

What can I say to this? I train to failure training some muscle groups twice a week with sometimes as high as 50 sets and I never get anything wrong with me. I do see strength gains.

Consideration of CNS is very important, because without a sustainable level of neurotransmitters, the muscle fibers needed to be triggered for muscular overload will not be contracted to full potential.

I would also like to mention without full potential contractions occuring, it is very hard to achieve progression.

Yes but again your making overload out to be the BEST and only way of producing growth. also your basically saying your CNS cannot fire motor units effectively due to a lack of essential neuron nutrients then..what do I say? No they don't? I haven't got proof but if you'd like to put them forward I will read it.

My additional earlier statement that a body focuses on certain exercise to grow on and when bombarded with tons of exercises your body doesnt adapt as well has plenty of literature to back it up. The reason why this is true is because of muscular specialization, if I train 3 olympic lifts I will get much stronger at those lifts than someone that train 3 olympic lifts and 3 additional exercises.

That remains to be seen...Also don't powerlifters do other exercises besides bench/squats/deads and I've never heard of any of them eliminating those complementary exercises they do (Like GM's)

As far as you saying that muscle grows from other methods than overload, then please explain to me why progression is so important? Possibly because an increasing amount of overload is needed to stimulate (not annihilate like in your program) the muscle.

I said overload is great, I attempt to overload every workout myself and I never said progression was not important.

And as I said before the beginning part of your workout should be devoted to progression but later sets you will not be able to handle and use as much weight to effectively overload. I take it this is when you say to stop? Well I would keep on going to deplete the ATP stores of as many motor units as I can, I would try to destroy as much as the muscle as possible using as many techniques as possible.
[/b]

(Granted there is theories of muscular damage causes growth but these are easily disproven by the marathon runner example and many others)

Marathon running isn't the same as weight training/bodybuilding

As far as you defending this program is complete lunacy. I compared it to a marathon runner, because much like a marathon runner, it will just annihilate your muscles and cause no growth. Sure this program can make your muscles sore and in pain but haven't we already many times proven that soreness is not an indicator of your growth.

I wouldn't compare the micro trauma caused during a marathon run to a weight lifting session. And what if I said I and many others have seen growth from this method?

Now if you truly believe this idea works. Try it out sometime and tell me if the next week when you return if on 1 single lift you made any strength gain and I will take everything back.

I've done this and more times before. But this is bodybuilding I look at the gains I see on a tape measure and in the mirror - not how much more I can bench. And yes I saw great gains

~ Drugz

Edit: I also forgot to mention that when you work your muscles with high intesity repetitively you add stress to the body. For each session you back in the stress will compoundingly elevate. As the stress elevates higher and higher, you body will try to compensate and release many chemicals. Many of these chemicals which your body releases are non-anabolic and include cortisol (a hormone whihc breaks down muscle tissue and increases fat deposits).

You're referring Fitness Fatigue model and it's all true. See how I reccomended lowering volume in my article? see how after the 3 day blitz I also said to cut back on training that part...

Also the method works on being able to fatigue beyond what one nomally does - something out of the norm

...

[glenn2000green]

thats not true.Yoru looking at it as if i posted those links just to advertise this site. when in actuality those are links to sites that i felt best described the things that i wanted them to. if there was a site that i thought had a better description of super sets, and burns, then i would have posted that.

the bottom line is, ITS NOT ABOUT ADVERTISEMENT, ITS ABOUT PROVIDING THE PROPER INFORMATION SO THE READER CAN LEARN MORE.....

i could not agree with you more and thank you for all the info you do give keep it up some of us still appericaite it

[Muscle D]

Could Your Plateau Be the Result of Overtraining?
Overtraining occurs when the body has been restricted of the recovery that is needed to rebuild what has been broken down. Every time you lift weights you are breaking down the muscle tissue in order to build up a bigger and stronger muscle. But when the body doesn’t receive the proper nutrients to repair the damaged tissue, the muscle becomes less efficient and overtraining symptoms begin to occur.

Almost four years ago when I first began to venture into the world of weight lifting I assumed that if I could make this much progress lifting three days per week, I would gain twice as much lifting six! I spent the next six months at the same bodyweight lifting the same weights until I finally realized it was time for a change. I took a week off and returned with more strength. After reworking my routine, I was amazed at how fast I was progressing considering the long plateau that I considered normal. Looking back at myself I can recall experiencing a few of the common overtraining warning signs which include:

1) Overly sore joints and muscles
2) Lack of appetite
3) Reoccurring sickness
4) Chronic Fatigue
5) Insomnia
6) Altered sleep patterns
7) Weight Loss
8) Increased occurrence of injuries
9) Depression
10) Moodiness, irritability


Preventing Overtraining Through Your Diet

Step One: Analyze your diet.
Possibly the most notoriously popular way to reach a plateau is to consume too few calories. Generally, if you are not gaining weight, you are not gaining muscle, so you need to eat more! To assist your efforts in the gym, first you must determine how many calories you need to maintain your bodyweight. Ideally you will do this by carrying a journal around with you and recording every calories that enters your mouth throughout the day over the course of a week. Average out the amount of calories you eat each day. Alternatively you may estimate your daily caloric needs with one of the following equations.

Mesomorphs - bodyweight x 15.

Ectomorphs - bodyweight x 16-17.

Endomorphs - bodyweight x 13-14.

If you are looking to gain muscle, you will need to eat above your calorie maintenance level. Likewise, bodyfat reduction is inevitable if you eat below maintenance. I recommend consuming 300-500 additional calories when bulking and 300-500 fewer calories when cutting bodyfat.

To best support your muscles with nutrients, be sure to eat at least six small meals spaced evenly throughout your day. Roughly 40% of your daily calories should come from Protein, 40% from carbohydrates (mostly complex), and at least 20% from healthy fats. Breakfast should be one of your largest meals because your body is starving after eight hours without nutrients and is releasing catabolic hormones which, when not disposed of through a morning meal, can lead to muscle loss.

The most critical time for carbohydrate and protein digestion is after your workout. During this time the body is trying to quickly repair itself and is very prone to protein breakdown. This is why it is best to digest a workout or post-workout shake (consisting of protein and fast digesting carbs such as dextrose) followed by a larger meal within 45 minutes of your last set.


Sleep More = Lift More?
A recent study showed that sleep deprivation can slow glucose metabolism by 30 to 40 percent. This will most often result in low energy and feeling of sluggishness, bringing down your workout intensity and resulting in fewer muscle gains.

1) Sleep at least seven hours each night.
2) Schedule rest days within your weekly workout routine.
3) Take a full week off training once every four to six months.


Breaking Past Plateaus with Routine Variation
The human body is very adaptable to stresses placed upon it and therefore workouts will become less effective over time if similar routine exercise consistency persists. Because our neuromuscular system adapts to specific movement patterns, frequent exercise changes will need to be made in order to keep the body guessing. This can be done using many different methods including changes to:

1) Training Frequency
As our workouts grant us more strength, the body may need more time to recover from the added stress during a training session. It may be beneficial to add an extra rest day within your routine to ensure a full recovery of the muscles. For example, if you train on a five-day split, you could add an additional rest day on Wednesday as shown below.

Original:
Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Shoulders/Traps/Abs
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Modified for further recovery:
Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Chest/Shoulders
Wednesday: REST
Thursday: Back/Traps
Friday: Arms/Abs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

2) Training Exercises
Do you repeat the same dips week after week and wonder why those triceps wont grow? Imagine trying to find your way around your house on a dark night without electricity. The first few times you may stumble into some things but eventually you would remember where that chair is and know how to step around it. Now, if you get stuck over at your friend’s house, you will have to learn where everything is all over again. This is the same process your body goes through after a few weeks of performing the same exercise sets and reps. The body knows exactly which fibers it needs to fire to complete the task and therefor no longer will be challenged. We want to challenge our bodies by changing up the exercises at least every five weeks. So next time instead of squaring up under a barbell, use dumbells instead. In addition, don’t forget to switch around the exercise order.

3) Training Sets and Reps
It has been shown that repetitions between 6 and 12 are primarily used to induce muscular hypertrophy but this does not mean this is always the superior rep range to use. Often times, a lower four to six repetitions containing additional sets may be enough to shock the body into new growth, and strength gains will surely be promoted. Also excellent for breaking past plateaus are:

Super Sets: Immediately following an exercise set perform another set with a different exercise.

Pyramid Sets: Begin with a lighter weight that allows 12 repetitions. Increase the weight for your next set and perform 10 repetitions this time. Continue this pattern of increased weight and fewer repetitions until you can only achieve three to five repetitions.

Drop Sets: Similar to the pyramid, begin with a lighter weight and drop the weight down after each set while limiting rest time to only a couple of seconds.

Assisted Training: If a lifting partner is available, allow them to help you complete two or three repetitions after you have reached muscle fatigue. This will greatly increase the workout intensity and likely cause more stress than your body has become accustomed to, thereby increasing muscular size and strength.

Negative Training: Muscle force output is greater during eccentric contractions, making negative training quite potentially effective. Begin by loading up more weight than you can actually lift and begin at the top of the range of motion for the chosen exercise. Lower the weight slowly and allow a partner to help the weight back to its starting position to begin a second repetition.

Cheat Reps: We have been drilled with the mindset that cheating is bad and ineffective but this is not always the case. Once you can no longer perform another repetition, occasionally feel free to use whatever muscles will safely enable you to complete just one or two more reps.

Rest-Pause Reps: One of my personal favorites, the rest-pause reps are performed after you have reached muscle failure. Rack the weight and catch your breath for a few seconds and pump out as many additional reps as you can.

Slow Training: By lifting the weight at a slower pace, you are reducing the role of momentum and produce greater muscle tension. Spend ten seconds on the lifting movement and four seconds lowering the weight back to its starting position. You should begin to struggle on your fourth or fifth repetition.

[Ifrit]

Hurry up with week 24 while I have free time,lol.

[JH83]

My article is poor and not well studied. Not even close to the work I generally do. Therefor does not deserve to win.

Kc

That was the single most honorable thing ever considering he put his time and effort into it and all

[Cajun897]

just train hard eat more and use some creatine that sums it all up right there

[xaaronzx]

awesome

[fetter2000]

peaceful will be worked

[atnikita]

make it

[mitokondri]

just try mike mentzer method for one month than return your old program back again..that will make a good chance..(unless u r not already at hitt princible also

[laverp01]

What if you are on a 12 week programme. Is thsi too long. Should i be changing my schedule before this.

[GoodYou]

You guys are over thinking everything. Just put your iPod on shuffle, works every time.

[Team1anabolic]

Breaking a Plateau can be very frustrating, and I for one absolutely hate them. That being said, my best results have been when I either take a week break to let myself recover ( only works sometimes) OR I like to do muscle confusion. I will try a completely different workout on a different day to try and confuse my muscles. In the past this has worked for me so I hope it will do the same for any of you!

[collin2]

The way I supp'd for sports so many years ago (no gramps)

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