When you've been training for some time there will always be the
distinct possibility of becoming stale and plateauing. At this point you
stop making significant progress in both your strength and size.
This is quite unlikely if you are relatively new to building muscle as usually the regular increases of the weight or repetitions you use at this stage are enough to keep you moving forwards at a steady pace.
But what can you do when you stop making progress? There are many ways to overcome this problem, below are three of the most effective options: -
Prioritisation
The idea behind prioritisation is that you give specific muscle groups priority over all other areas. It is often used for any areas that are lagging behind or weaker than others. Alternatively you may choose a particular muscle group for aesthetic reasons, for example your upper body may look big but you feel your back could do with more width.
To do this, try prioritising one muscle group every month and increase the amount of work that you do on that area, monitor the changes you are making. You will probably need to reduce the amount of work and time you spend on other areas to allow your priority muscle group to get the maximum benefits.
Super saturation
Whenever you train hard you need plenty of good quality calories to ensure you continue building muscle. It is sometimes hard to eat enough food to do this each day. The super saturation principle is all about over consuming calories, ideally from good natural sources especially lean proteins such as chicken, fish, lean red meats etc.
The reason why super saturation works is that your body is provided with an excess of calories each day which can help to repair the trained muscles faster and with better quality nutrients, making extra growth more likely. To do this properly you will need to eat regularly throughout the day, even when you don't feel hungry.
Heavy Days
Stagnation can set in quite quickly with your training and when it does you sometimes need to blast through it, taking no prisoners. If your goal is building muscle then the optimum repetition range is to reach failure between 8-12 reps. This means that you should structure your workouts based around this principle. However if you get entrenched in working to this rep range then over time your body will get used to it and progress will often slow down or stop altogether.
To break through this you should try training heavy once every 6 weeks. On all your workouts use a weight that is heavy enough that only allows you to complete less than 6 repetitions. Make sure you warm up thoroughly first with a much lighter weight to avoid injury.
Whilst reaching sticking points in your training is quite normal, you don't have to accept them and carry on as usual. Instead try shaking things around a bit by using one or two of the training principles I have described, it could mean the difference between building muscle steadily and getting the body of your dreams or losing interest completely and giving up altogether.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jago_T_Holmes
This is quite unlikely if you are relatively new to building muscle as usually the regular increases of the weight or repetitions you use at this stage are enough to keep you moving forwards at a steady pace.
But what can you do when you stop making progress? There are many ways to overcome this problem, below are three of the most effective options: -
Prioritisation
The idea behind prioritisation is that you give specific muscle groups priority over all other areas. It is often used for any areas that are lagging behind or weaker than others. Alternatively you may choose a particular muscle group for aesthetic reasons, for example your upper body may look big but you feel your back could do with more width.
To do this, try prioritising one muscle group every month and increase the amount of work that you do on that area, monitor the changes you are making. You will probably need to reduce the amount of work and time you spend on other areas to allow your priority muscle group to get the maximum benefits.
Super saturation
Whenever you train hard you need plenty of good quality calories to ensure you continue building muscle. It is sometimes hard to eat enough food to do this each day. The super saturation principle is all about over consuming calories, ideally from good natural sources especially lean proteins such as chicken, fish, lean red meats etc.
The reason why super saturation works is that your body is provided with an excess of calories each day which can help to repair the trained muscles faster and with better quality nutrients, making extra growth more likely. To do this properly you will need to eat regularly throughout the day, even when you don't feel hungry.
Heavy Days
Stagnation can set in quite quickly with your training and when it does you sometimes need to blast through it, taking no prisoners. If your goal is building muscle then the optimum repetition range is to reach failure between 8-12 reps. This means that you should structure your workouts based around this principle. However if you get entrenched in working to this rep range then over time your body will get used to it and progress will often slow down or stop altogether.
To break through this you should try training heavy once every 6 weeks. On all your workouts use a weight that is heavy enough that only allows you to complete less than 6 repetitions. Make sure you warm up thoroughly first with a much lighter weight to avoid injury.
Whilst reaching sticking points in your training is quite normal, you don't have to accept them and carry on as usual. Instead try shaking things around a bit by using one or two of the training principles I have described, it could mean the difference between building muscle steadily and getting the body of your dreams or losing interest completely and giving up altogether.