Adapting Weightlifting Routines and Overcoming Plateaus

Fixing Plateaus

There are four basic reasons for plateaus.

1. You may be overtraining. If you have been training hard and heavy and not leaving your body enough time to recover, you may stop progressing. This can be solved by taking a break from lifting, usually a week. Then when you come back, you'll want to allow yourself more rest days and/or stop pushing to failure all the time.
   
   
2. You could have a mental block preventing you from progressing. Sometimes if you "think" you can't do something, it just won't happen. Learn to visualize your success before attempting to do a lift.
   
   
3. You may have a lagging body part. To fix this, prioritize that body part in your split. You can do this by putting exercises for it first on a given day, or by having two days that work that muscle per week. As an example, if you have weak triceps, your bench press may stop progressing, due to early fatigue of the triceps. In this case, you would want to do extra isolation work for the triceps, either on a different day from your bench press, or prior to your bench press.
   
   
4. The weight increments you are using might be too high. This is the case if one weight is way too easy, but the next weight up is very difficult. It is easier to progress if you are making jumps of around 2.5 to 5% each time (ie. from 100 lbs to 105 lbs). However, this may not be possible with the weights/equipment you have on hand. I suggest looking into making microloaders so you can increment in smaller jumps. Here is a site that explains how to make your own microloaders by linking chain with clips. The other option is to increase your repetitions with the lighter weight, until the heavier weight is possible to lift (however this does not always work).
   
   
5. If none of the above solve your issue, I suggest replacing the exercises you've plateaued on with a different exercise for the same body part.