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Writer's pictureTara Pickham

How to Overcome Training Plateaus

Updated: Apr 30, 2023

It doesn’t matter how experienced you are or how much of a seasoned trainer you are, training plateaus can happen. Are they the end of the world? No, not by any means. If you actually stop and evaluate what you’ve been doing in your training then you can quite easily adapt any program to overcome a training plateau and keep yourself progressing towards your goals. Let’s look a little deeper at exactly what a training plateau is, signs you may be experiencing one and how you can go about overcoming a plateau.


What is a Training Plateau

When we are talking about exercise and training, a ‘plateau’ is considered to be a halt in progress or a sudden and dramatic decrease in noticeable results. Plateaus happen when your training program no longer challenges you. It doesn’t matter if your goal is weight loss, weight gain, increased strength or better endurance, if your body has adapted to your current stimuli then progress can be hard to come by. You may also hit a plateau because you haven’t altered you calorie intake to match your requirements. The human body adapts quickly which means regularly evolving your training program to challenge your current fitness level is vital to your ongoing results. Plateaus can be demoralising so making the necessary changes to your program before you reach a plateau will help you to maintain your motivation.


Signs You’ve Hit a Plateau

Obviously a lack of progress is a dead give away but let’s be clear, this needs to be absolutely no progress whatsoever across all aspects of your training. Slow progress is still progress. Plateaus sometimes happen as a result of inadequate rest and refuelling; this can lead to lethargy, a loss of strength, inability to get a good muscle pump and a lack of motivation. Plateaus can also be reflected through variances in your heart rate. If your heart rate is exceeding your typical heart rate zones or if you are struggling to reach your usual intensity this can indicate a training plateau has been reached.


How to Overcome Training Plateaus

Before you do anything you must make sure you have without doubt reached a plateau. This means you need to check yourself. Ask yourself how hard am I actually training and am I actually optimising my recovery? If you think you’re slacking off in these areas then overcoming a plateau could be as simple as increasing your intensity (ie. resting less between sets, lifting heavier weights or working within a higher heart rate zone) or putting more focus on good sleep and refuelling your body better. On the flip side, maybe you’re working hard and recovering well so all you need to do is tweak your program? Why not try changing your exercises, mixing up your rep range or changing the order in which you do your exercises. All these things will create a bit of shock factor in your program, this can help spark better results. There is also the possibility you’ve been pushing too hard so your body just needs time to hit the reset button. In this case a planned week of recovery can do a world of good.


Identifying the signs of a plateau and then implementing these tactics can help you to stay ahead of the game, but this doesn’t mean you need to change everything at once. Like I said progress is sometimes slow so sometimes little changes will get you the results you’re looking for without the need to run yourself into the ground. Keeping track of your training, nutrition and progress makes it easy to assess where you are at and allows you to make planned and methodical adjustments when required.

xx Tara


Have you ever hit a training plateau? How did you overcome it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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