By Michael Carrera, MSc.

You’ve been working out consistently and seeing great results, and then all of a sudden it happens—you hit a plateau.

The law of diminishing returns
As with all things in life, you can’t always expect the same success from the same effort; unless something is changed or modified, we all fall prey to the law of diminishing returns. This law simply states that the rate of your results diminishes as you continue to exert the same effort.

We have all been there; you use a new program with great success for six weeks and you really feel your body changing. But then, as you enter the ninth week, things just don’t feel the same: your strength is no longer increasing, you cannot get past level 6 on the cross-trainer, your weight loss has stagnated and, frankly, you are bored of the routine. In simple terms, you have hit a plateau.

What is a plateau?
A plateau occurs when you stay at one level without rising or falling. Once you reach a plateau in your routine, it takes a great deal of motivation to keep plugging away. For most of us, a plateau brings discouragement, excuses and an unfortunate fall from our physical, mental and emotional high.

Why does a plateau happen?
Our bodies adapt beautifully to whatever stimulus is applied. Because of this property, an exercise program becomes ineffective after a short period of time as our bodies reach a state of adaptation. As our bodies become accustomed to the exercises, a program is no longer challenging or stimulating enough to promote gains in strength, cardiovascular conditioning or fat loss. Yes, you’ve guessed it—your reward for getting fit is hitting a plateau. The good news is there are tricks you can use to bust through any plateau.

Top three ways to beat a plateau

1. Change your workout every four weeks: A change to your routine can be achieved by altering the number of repetitions you perform (which determines the amount of weight you use), the total sets or the exercises. Our 12-week phase-based training programs do this automatically for you by taking you through three distinct phases of training.

2. Add some protein to your workout: I don’t mean taking a chicken breast to the gym with you. You can overcome a plateau by changing how you eat, or by simply adding protein to your diet at the appropriate times. Studies unequivocally show that high intensity strength and cardio workouts break down muscle tissue that needs to be re-synthesized. Consuming a protein shake or smoothie immediately after your workout will help kick start your metabolism so your body stops breaking down muscle and starts to rebuild it. Visit our online store to order high quality protein powder. If you are not recovering properly from your workout due to a lack of protein, this strategy can re-charge your workouts. The Truestar Nutrition Plan for Athletes can help ensure you are getting the right fuel for your workout.

3. Rev up your RPMs: That’s right, it’s time to go full throttle. Breaking through a cardio plateau is very difficult. Our bodies adapt quickly to the motor skill of riding a bike, walking on a treadmill or exercising on a cross trainer. Increasing the intensity by strictly raising the resistance works well for some people, but this can hinder the progress of others. If the resistance is too high, fatigue can set in prematurely, which doesn’t help the already overworked leg muscles.

Try this instead: lower the resistance to one or two notches below your plateau point. For instance, if you are stuck at level 6, lower the tension to level 4 or 5. Your objective is to exercise at that level as fast as you can (around 95 to 105 RPMs). For a 30-minute workout, perform at least five three-minute bouts where you apply this system. The remaining time will be used as recovery; leave the tension the same but move at a lower RPM (65 to 75 RPM).