The Road To Nowhere
At some point we all find our weekly results slowing down after the
initial loss. This is very common, especially amongst people who have
been sedentary or haven't exercised prior to the program. However as
long as fat is coming off, even if they are small amounts, your
training and nutrition plan is working. Nevertheless many will find
that all progress stops completely one week. In this instance the first
thing to do is continue as you were and see if that result was just an
anomaly. If, however, it is not you have reached what is known as the
'plateau'.
'Plateau Breaker 101'
Rule #1: Stay happy. Stay Focused. Remember this happens to everyone
- yes it's disheartening, you're putting in so much and getting
nothing in return but it will pass, only if you keep a Positive Mental
Attitude. The very worst thing you can do is quit. Just because you
have stopped losing fat doesn't mean you've failed. You only fail
if you quit. Never give up.
Rule #2: Before trying anything else look back over the period that you
haven't lost any fat in. What was it like - were there any
celebrations? A night of heavy drinking can set you back a week in fat
loss. Were there any emotionally turbulent or stressful periods? Or
perhaps you just had a couple more reward meals than you should have?
If none of these are factors then check out the next steps -
otherwise carry on, it was probably just a bad week.
Rule #3: Altering the program. There are ways to tweak the program to
jolt you out of a plateau. Changing the weights aspect won't help
much but within your cardiovascular and nutritional program there are
things that can be done.
Cardio; Unless you've really been eating too much the best thing is
to create a larger calorie deficit by upping the ante with your cardio
program.
4 ways to hyper-charge cardio
1) Go longer - but only up to a maximum of an hour, after that you
start getting less bang for your buck.
2) Go harder - if you're running 4 miles in 30 minutes try going
for 4.5 in the same time. Really push yourself, unless you're already
training at 85% of your maximum heart rate, in which case you won't
be able to go much harder and see an improvement.
3) Interval training - sprint a minute, 30-40 seconds rest, sprint a
minute etc. etc. This is a great calorie burner especially if you've
been stuck in a 'steady-state' cardio rut and the 'metabolic
high' will last for longer after your workout.
4) Go more often - up to six days until the plateau is broken. If
this is still not working you could try going twice a day - however I
stress this isn't a long term solution just something to give you an
extra push over the hill and out of the plateau.
Nutrition; changing your nutrition program isn't the ideal way to go
but to get you out of the plateau its sometimes necessary.
1) Lower your calories - but only if you're not in a calorie
deficit already. Lowering your calorie intake to the extreme will
initiate the starvation response and that's worse than being stuck in
a plateau.
2) Eat better foods - make sure you're eating the healthiest
possible foods.
3) Zig-Zag - this method can be very effective and we'll go into it
in more depth in the next section, but in essence you alternate between
a high and low carbohydrate diet every few days which can really jump
start your metabolism.
Rule #4: Take a break. Even the most seasoned professional athlete
needs to take a rest sometimes and recover. It's not difficult and
also quite common for your body to become accustomed to the nutritional
fitness regimes you subject it to, so sometimes taking a break and
starting a fresh re-starts the motor with new vigour. The downside I
found with this is that taking three, four or up to seven days off
really plays around with your newly programmed mindset - wilfully
breaking habits you've just spent the last while desperately trying
to create. You sit there thinking you should be out and you're going
to put lots of weight back on, but even putting a pound or two back on
has the effect of going back one step and helps set you up to go
forward three.
Finally...
At the end of the day your results are the only true benchmark of
whether you're getting it right. What's worked for me, may not work
for you, but then again it might. All you can do is put tried and
tested methods into practice and see what happens. If it works -
fantastic, if not try something different, if you're doing something
everybody says is a big no-no and you keep producing results -
don't listen to them. You are your own master, decide for yourself.
Tim Kazinski
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www.worldhealthclinic.org