How to Push Through a Workout Plateau When Building Mass

Introduction

Did you know that weightlifting is an ancient human practice that was practiced by both ancient Greek and Egyptian societies?

The act of cultivating mass has certainly come a long way in the last several thousand years. One thing never changes, though, and that’s the risk of hitting a plateau, especially when you are working on building muscle mass.

What are you supposed to do about this? How can you push through plateaus when cultivating mass? Let’s take a look at what you need to know…

What Is a Workout Plateau?

Plateaus are when your body has adjusted to what you have been demanding of it for your workout. Basically, you will start to notice that you are no longer building muscle mass and you might even start to feel bored, unmotivated, or uninterested in working out.

In general, everyone will eventually find themselves at a place where their progress in muscle gain, overall performance, or strength increases will level out. This can be incredibly frustrating.

There are a number of different reasons why you can reach plateaus when bodybuilding, so you’ll have to do some digging around to figure out what’s going on in your particular case.

For example, it could be that you are not training enough, training too much, not eating enough, eating too much, not changing your workouts enough, or changing your workouts too often.

This can make it even more frustrating, as it can take some time to figure out just where you’re going wrong.

It is completely common to hit a plateau when strength training. So, basically, don’t let it freak you out.

Questions You Should Ask Yourself If You Think You’ve Hit a Plateau

There are a number of questions that you should ask yourself to help understand why it is your hitting a plateau right now.

• First, you want to ask yourself whether you are training hard enough or if you are training too hard. Both of these are possible reasons that you’re hitting a plateau. It’s important to find the answer to this question because if your training too hard and you just trying harder, you won’t be doing yourself any favors.

• Second, you want to ask yourself if you are sleeping and eating enough. Both of these are essential actions in terms of your ability to build muscle.

• Third, you want to ask yourself if you are de-loading enough and if you are using good form when you’re electing. Lastly, you want to look into whether or not you’ve been doing too much cardio.

The Signs You’ve Hit a Plateau While Cultivating Mass

There are a number of common signs that could indicate that you have, in fact, hit a plateau while building muscle.

A Loss in Strength

If you suddenly experience a loss in your overall strength, this is a common sign that you are hitting a plateau. This is when you notice that your performance has significantly decreased and not you are no longer able to do less than you recently did.

What this indicates is that your body hasn’t been able to grow more muscle tissue and properly recover.

Failure to Achieve a Pump

It can be a sign that your body is not fully recovered if you no longer feel a pump in your muscles during or after your workout.

Lack of Motivation

There are a lot of things that can lead you to lose motivation in your strength training. It might be personal issues or a general loss of interest in bodybuilding, but it could also be that you have been overtraining.

When your body feels fatigued, tired, and is incredibly resistant to the idea of training with heavy weights, it is trying to tell you that it needs more time to recover. It’s important to listen to your body when you’re doing any type of physical exercise.

No Progress in at Least Two Workouts

One way to tell if you are hitting plateaus and bodybuilding is whether you been any progress in at least two workouts. You want to constantly be seeing a little bit of progress, though it doesn’t have to be much. This might just mean adding 5% extra weight to benchpress or adding a couple of extra reps.

Feeling Flush

If you have been becoming flush in the face when working out, it’s an indication that your body is working past the point of comfort. If your ears feel like they’re burning or you feel red in the face, it’s possible that you are over-stressed or overtraining. Either way, it’s important that you take some rest.

Increased Irritability and a Lack of Aggression

If you find that you starting to feel depressed, grouchy, or down, probably it time to take a little bit of a break from the gym.

No Progress in Building Muscle in at Least Two Weeks

If the name of your game is cultivating mass, you should generally aim the beginning roughly 1 to 2 pounds every week. This works well if your goal is lean muscle gain, and an accelerated progression is fine if you don’t mind more fat gain.

It’s not a big deal if you don’t notice any change in a week. However, after two weeks, if you haven’t noticed any change then there is a good chance that you’ve hit a plateau.

Decrease in Appetite

Once you started to lose that aggressive edge while lifting and start feeling fatigued, you might also have a decreased appetite as well. This means that your metabolism probably is acting sluggish that your body needs a rest.

Strategies to Help You Move Past Your Plateau

If you’re hoping to break through a workout plateau fast, there are some strategies that can help accelerate your progress to get you back on track. Let’s take a look…

Take a Recovery Week of Rest

If you are looking to move past your plateau, then is a good chance that you need to let your body rest. You may not realize that your body isn’t assimilating new muscle during your workout. In fact, your body only build new tissue when you are resting and refueling.

It’s crucially important that you give your body and not rest time in between workouts. This is the only thing that lets your muscles fully repair themselves.

One way you can deal with plateaus popping up in your workout is to plan a recovery week roughly every 6 to 8 weeks. During this week, you won’t do any exercise, not even cardio.

There are a number of physical benefits to taking a week off. On top of that, there are psychological benefits, too. Remember, creating a healthy and balanced lifestyle is always ideal.

Increase Your Training Intensity

If you think that your brother is coming from not working hard enough, then you can increase your training intensity. In order to help you break out of your rut, try using a program with low reps and high weight rather than the other way around.

Vary Your Exercise Routine

It is just as important to bury your exercise routine as it is to vary the intensity of an exercise. This can ensure that you don’t get stuck at your plateau. This can help to recruit a different set of muscles and to keep your program fresh.

Change the Order of Exercises

Changing the sequence of exercises you typically do is another great way to overcome a plateau. You might try putting hardest exercises at the beginning of your workout and leaving the easiest for the end of your workout.

Cut Redundant Exercises from Your Routine

It’s possible that certain exercises you are doing are redundant or you have simply outgrown some of the exercises in your routine. It’s a good idea to take a close look at your current regimen and get rid of anything that doesn’t need to be there. You can replace these exercises with ones that are more suitable for your training level.

Get More Rest

Getting healthy sleep is necessary for optimal health and wellness. This is particularly true if you are someone who is hitting the gym all the time. Make sure that you allow yourself to get enough rest so that you can recharge your batteries and build muscle.

If you are not getting enough sleep and working out too much, you end up shooting yourself in the foot. You will likely experience fatigue quicker and reduce your capacity to exercise as well as risk the potential of increased stress, loss of appetite, or insomnia.

Improve Your Nutrition and Experiment With Supplementation

Eating well is what fuels your workouts and help your muscles grow. If you are getting the protein, fats, carbs, and nutrients that your body needs to thrive, then you are not doing your self or your muscle-building goals any favors.

If you are trying to build muscle, you should not be avoiding carbs. This is because they are the body’s primary source of fuel. If you eat a low-carb diet when you’re trying to build muscle, you can end up feeling fatigued and having a reduced exercise capacity.

It’s also vital that you are eating enough protein. Protein is essential to muscle growth, recovery, and maintenance. The benefits of eating protein max out at 2 g per kilogram of a person’s body weight each day.

If understanding how you need to be eating to best suit your workout plan is difficult for you, consider consulting with a qualified nutritionist or your doctor. They can help you to design a plan that works for you.

Some people claim that SARMs can help you to bust pass a plateau and continue gaining muscle. You can find SARMs for sale here. But proceed with caution. SARMS are typically used by high level bodybuilders, not your average Joe or Jane.

There are safer supplements you will likely want to try out. For example, if you’re not using a quality protein or pre and post-workout supplement, this could be the ticket. Creatine is also pretty safe and very effective.

Drink More Water

Being properly hydrated is incredibly important for the performance and recovery of your muscles. It also is essential for both your digestive system and your heart health. On top of that, both your mood and motivation can be impacted by mild dehydration.

There are plenty of other ways to get enough water in your diet even if you are not a fan of drinking it plain. You might try having soup has a meal several times during the week, grabbing a green smoothie, or drinking herbal tea.

Increase Your Caloric Intake

As you know, one of the most important factors in putting on muscle is having a surplus of calories. That means that you need enough calories to fuel the muscle tissue that you already have class some to fuel the growth of brand-new tissue.

You might try adding 250 to 500 cal to your diet every single day. It’s important that these calories are coming from quality food sources, though. You’ll want to eat foods that have a concentration of proteins and healthy fats.

Listen to Your Body

While doing research online about how to break through plateaus and bodybuilding is absolutely reasonable, at the end of the day you need to listen to your body. Whether you are under training or overtraining is only something that you can determine. Learning to listen to your body and what it needs is an essential skill both in weight training and in life.

Breaking Through Your Workout Plateau and Cultivating Mass: You Can Do It!

If you’ve hit a plateau while you’re working towards cultivating mass, it can be incredibly frustrating and disheartening. However, using these bodybuilding tips and tricks, you should be able to bust through that plateau and continue making progress.

Did you find this article on pushing through workout plateaus interesting? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more fascinating and informative content!