What you did to break through a plateau???!!!

I had a plateau that lasted 2 weeks..I just kept going. I felt tired a lot of the do so I increased my calories to 15-1600 a day, now I feel a lot more energetic and lost weight again.

Hi guys and gals,

So I have hit the dreaded P. About a week ago I was only taking in about 1680 cals pre workout and felt beat so now I raised it to 1847 and have been avoiding eating my workout cals. Since that change I have wavered around 211-213. All week and yesterday I raised my cardio from 45 minutes at 140bpm to 150bpm and I weighed in at 211.4 today. I feel that the dreaded plateau is upon me. I have heard varying stories as to how to break it. Some said just my heart rate change would do so....guess I'm yet to see that.

Fill me in guys and thanks in advance!!!!

Sounds like you're on the right track increasing it to 1847, you may be able to go up to 2000 in relation to your increase in cardio. also remember if you do alot of cardio, its important to eat 4-6 meals a day, every 2-3 hours. i didnt believe that neither and fought it for a long time. finally broke down and tried it, and by golly, it works!!!!

how to keep increasing your reps in all your strength training, cardio, and calisthenics workouts without hitting a peak point, or plateau... now... this way of increasing takes a little longer, but... it builds natural muscle, not water weight muscle, so it stays longer...

(cardio training) you have to keep increasing your intensity, and time...you have to make yourself increase, when you run, increase every 2 weeks, say a 1/4th of a mile or 1/2 a mile, maby increase the time, but you have to push through it and make yourself increase... when you do other types of cardio workouts, try increasing the intensity, or the time that you do it... also every so often you have to switch up your whole routine... dont do the same routine for months and months, change it up... ad some muscle confusion... and when you increase, dont forget to take in a few more calories too...


(strength training) - ok now, you have your workout routine... do the same thing you have been doing, but every week increase by a single rep... just do 1 more rep in all your workouts the next week... this way you will always increase and it wont be to hard of a short term goal to aim for... i know what your saying, just 1 rep... yes... just 1 rep, when you do this it allows the body enuf time to transition and make solid gains... here's an example, say you bench 4 sets of 8 of whatever weight, the next week do 4 sets of 9, week after 4 sets of 10, and so on...(note; increase all the workouts, not just 1), and here's the trick.. when you get up to 20 reps, move up in weight so that your at 4 sets of 8 again... so you start your routine off as power workouts, and weeks later they end up endurence workouts, then you start it all over again back to power... it takes longer i know, but you will make solid gains, and you have to remember... it dosnt happen over night, it takes time...

(calisthenics) - this technic works with calisthenics to but theres no weight involved and its mainly all endurence... now this technic works best if you already hit a peak in your maxout sets in calisthenics, this will work very well to help you keep increasing...

try some circuit training (muscle confusion)... it helps increase the metaboic levels, heres some really great circuit training workouts....

(millitary pyramid) - take 3 simple workouts, push-ups, crunchs, and body squats, start off by doing 1 push-up, without stoping do 1 crunch, then 1 squat, then without stoping do 2 of each, then 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on.. keep doing them in the same order untill u get up to your goal, start off by going up to 15 of each... dosnt sound like much, but your only half way done, now without stoping, reavers the workout untill u reach 1 again... ( note: dont take any brakes during the workout )... by the time u finnish it will feel like u just ran, and you will be dripping in sweat... keep in mind if 15 aint enuf, then keep going untill u feel like you reached your fitness level.. but dont forget that u have to reavers the workout when u reach the top... if u want to lose weight, add this to your cardio workout, it sounds easy... but try it, trust me.. its a killer workout... i do it up to 20, but i wouldnt start off doing it that high... if you add all the reps of a pyramid up to 20, its 1200 reps non-stop, 400 push-ups, 400 crunchs, 400 squats... sounds crazy and imposible, but its not... try it and tell me what u think...

one more thing, if you do it up to 15, its 720 reps non-stop... 1+1+1= (3)+2+2+2= (9)+3+3+3= (18)+4+4+4= (30)+5+5+5= (45)+6+6+6= (63)+7+7+7= (84)+8+8+8=(108)+9+9+9= (135)+10+10+10= (165)+11+11+11=(198)+12+12+12= (234)+13+13+13= (273)+14+14+14= (315)+15+15+15= (360)x2= ( 720 ) dont let the numbers scare you... its is posible to do the workout, you just have to put your mind to it... ( note; there is no limit to this workout, you can make it fit your fitness level... and dont cheat yourself either, if you know you can do more... then do it... )


(russian roulette) - ok, grab a deck of cards, a pen, and paper... now pick out 13 of your favorite body weight workouts with a reasonable amount of reps per set ( 15 - 30 per set ), pushups, squats, crunchs, jumping jacks, exetra... now on the paper, pair up the workouts with the cards, for example pushups - ace's, crunchs - 2's, squats - 3's, jumping jacks - 4's, exetra... after you have paired all the workouts with a card, now shuffle the deck of cards good, flip a card and do that set of that workout, without stopping grab the next card and do the next set, then the next card without stopping, and the next, and the next... and the next, and so on, and if you get 2 cards in a row, then put it on the bottom of the deck...... see how manny cards you can get through.. and push yourself to the max, ( note; put the cards you already did next to the deck faceing up so you dont get confused ) if you do a quarter of the deck, you need to improve your cardio, get through half you have good cardio, if you get through 3/4 of the deck you have very good cardio, do the whole deck and... well, that speaks for itself.

13 workouts, 4 of each kind of card, thats 52 sets non-stop, if you do the whole deck... well, if you do the whole deck... if you want a real cardio challenge, than this is it... try it, i know you wont regret it... well, you might in the morning... lol..

(ab overload) -
ok take 5 simple workouts crunchs, reverse crunchs, side crunchs, the plank, and the reverse plank... start off by doing as manny crunchs as you can do, then without stopping, do as manny reverse crunchs as you can do, dont stop yet... now do as manny side crunchs as you can do (note; when you do the side crunchs dont cheat, count both sides seperet), without stopping, do the reverse plank as long as you can, then without stopping, do the plank for as long as you can, now take a break

these workouts under here explain the (ab overload)

(crunch) - lay on a mat or a folded towel, cross your feet, put your legs up off the ground with your neas pointing up, feet pointing down, put your hands behind your head, now bring your elbos to your neas, come back down without your head touching the ground, thats one rep... (note; works your upper abs)

(reverse crunch) - same thing as a crunch just do it backwards, insted of bringing your elbos to your neas, bring your neas to your elbos, and keep your head off the ground, thats one rep (note; works your lower abs)

(side crunch) - lay on a mat or a folded towel, cross your feet, put your legs up off the ground with your neas pointing up, feet pointing down, put your hands behind your head, now bring your right elbo to your left nea, come down, bring your left elbo to your right nea, come down, thats one rep (note; works your side abs)

(reverse plank) - ok this is a little tricky, lay on a mat or folded towel, bring your legs very slightly off the ground and keep them straight as a board, now bring your upper body off the ground 6 inchs or less and put your arms straight out towards your feet and ball up your fists, then tighten up your whole upper body, hold this as long as you can, thats one set (note; works your core)

(plank) - put your forearms flat on the floor, then put your feet out like your going to do a push-up, now straighten your body so that the only thing touching the ground is your forearms and toes, your body should be completely straight and off the floor now, hold this as long as you can, thats one set (note; works your core)

You are changing up your routine fairly often. Your body needs time to adapt. Personally, I never considered it a plateau until my loss had stalled for 2-3 weeks. Then I changed the type of cardio I was doing - from stairmaster to elliptical, then later I added jogging to mix it up. Once I lowered my carbs from 50% to 40% and that helped, but I still hit another plateau a few months later. That time, I just kept doing what I was doing and rode it out. It lasted nearly a month (ugh), but when the scale finally started moving again, it went really well.

Just hang in there and be patient. If you're eating clean and working out, you should see results. Good luck!