Breaking through a plato

Pu_239 wrote: »

It appears you're talking about a muscle building plateau. Muscle building plateaus are a bit more complex than a weight loss plateau.

You obviously need the appropriate calorie intake to aid in new growth. Is you're weight going up at all? If it's not, you're not eating enough. If you're not gaining weight, you're not eating enough. If you get fat, then that's more of a training issue and a bit of too many calories beyond the point that aids in muscle growth.

In terms of training. It's wise to cycle strength training, with hypertrophy training. Most people train hypertrophy in 8-12 reps. If you been doing that and stalled out. I would take a week off(assuming you been training non stop). Then I would focus on building strength, shoot for 4-6 reps. This will make you strong. Do this for a few months Then start focusing on getting the reps higher. You will be lifting more weight before at the 8-12rep range. This will increase muscle mass.

Muscle growth boils down to adequest nutrition, rest, and progressive overload. Progressive overload can seen in a few ways. It boils down to total volume. Volume = weights * reps * sets. If you're volume is going up you're making progress. You can lower rest times, increase reps, sets, increase weights, lower weights(more reps) etc... many ways to increase volume.