You can't get past a certain
load on a certain exercise no matter what? Sound familiar? When you've been lifting for
two years or so, you might start hitting a wall in your training. It's called a PLATEAU. Plateaus
are when the training seems to be making no advancements but seems to get stale, tiring.
Well, most of the gains you make will be in the first two years of your training.
After that, gains are hard fought.
Here are some techniques that
all can use to spice up that training to break that plateau. Warning: this is not for the
beginner in training, if you been lifting less than a year and you're hittin' the wall,
you're just straight out not training right.
Technique:
1. Trisets - Using three exercises targeting the muscle group and
performing them in quick succession with little rest.
2. Giant Sets - Similar to Trisets but the set range is 4-6 sets. It can
target the same muscle group or two antagonist groups (ex. 2 sets biceps followed by
two sets triceps).
3. Continuous Tension - Moving the weight slowly over the entire range of motion.
4. Partial Reps - After taking the muscle to failure and you can no longer
complete a full rep, take the weight only through half the range of motion.
5. Negative Reps - GET A TRAINING PARTNER OR A SPOTTER. The spotter takes a
load that's heavy enough you could not perform one rep of the exercise. The spotter
helps you get the weight to the finish point of the exercise. Then it's up to you. You let
the weight down to the starting point of the exercise while resisting the whole time.
6. Stripping Methods - Start heavy with low reps, strip off a couple of plates,
do more reps with the lighter weight. So on and so on.
7. Pyramiding - Opposite of stripping.
8. HIT - This is a technique of one to two set exercises for one
bodypart per week. Very intense.
9. REST - This one of the most underrated techniques of pushing past
you limit. Have you been lifting a long time with no layoffs? Try taking two weeks off and
come back stronger.
10. Check your diet - Could what you're eating be holding you back? You need to
eat right.
11. Strength Training - High number of sets (5-6) with low reps (2-3).
12. Change the order of your
exercises or the days - A mental thing and it
works.
13. Change of scenery - Workout somewhere else.
14. Pre-exhaustion - Hitting the smaller muscle groups before the mass movement
that targets the same area. ex.) Deltoid exercise before military press.
15. Supersets - Two exercises done back to back with little rest. Usually
between antagonistic muscle groups.
