Top 5 Ways to Blow Past a Plateau
Written by Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
When looking for results, most people focus on specific muscle groups, internet misconceptions (e.g., cardio is the best way to burn fat), or flawed logic like, if I was able to back squat 300lbs, then I’d look the way I want to look.
You don’t need to spend years wishing for better results as you learn the hard way that this is the wrong stuff to focus on (like I did). Instead, once you build a rock solid foundation, the efficiency gains supercharge your results. Here are my top 5 things to do to reach that next level and finally get the results you’re after.
1.Consistency - Work out 4 or more days a week
It’s not heroic individual efforts on any given day, it’s consistency that drives sustainable, long-term, incredible results. We have seen 4 high quality days be a tipping point for people. Always make sure your program addresses our Non-Negotiable Exercise Stimuli to ensure your workouts are not leaving any gaps in your health and fitness.
Action: Review your last 8 weeks. Have you hit at least 4 days a week in each of the last 8 weeks? What do you need to do to make it happen?
2. Sleep - 7+ hours of actual sleep (not just time in bed)
Workouts produce a stimulus that breaks us down. Sleep is where our body recovers and adapts to the stimulus (SRA Curves). When we have low quality sleep, our results are dramatically diminished.
Sleep doesn’t just directly impact results, being chronically underslept indirectly impacts it through
making you more susceptible to getting sick,
increasing your cravings and feelings of hunger,
decreases your mood and energy levels (making you less likely to workout and be active throughout the day),
and even makes you appear less attractive to people!
Action: Track your sleep for the next week. Are you getting at least 7+ hours of actual sleep (not just time in bed)? If not, audit your caffeine and alcohol use and your pre-sleep routines.
3. Nutrition - Our body needs real foods and a diverse combination of vitamins and minerals.
Sleep may be when we re-build, but the raw materials need to be there. For most, the results they are after never come until nutrition is addressed, but they come flooding in once it is. Find a sustainable approach to making better nutrition decisions and your life will change.
Action: Log your food for 3 normal days. Are you actually hitting your protein targets? Are you eating a diverse range of whole foods, or relying on processed conveniences?
4. Workout Execution - For Intent, Intensity, and Technique (FIIT)
Intent - Bring the right intent to each exercise and each piece of your workout. Here are some examples:
Are you going hard enough when the program calls for “Hard” or are you holding some back? When doing strength work, are you simply putting in the effort required to move the barbell or are you moving the barbell up as hard as possible on each rep (A Need for Speed). Strength requires maximal intent and force (The Force Awakens).
When you’re doing KB swings, audit the technique you are employing. Are you using a jumping pattern explosively to ensure the work transfers optimally to the real world or are you doing more of a slower hip hinge like the kettlebell sport coaches teach to conserve energy and possibly get more reps in the workout? Personally, even though it uses more energy, I do the jump pattern with max power because it transfers best into sport. We want to make choices that provide the best out-of-the-gym results.
Action: Before your workout, make sure you understand the intent behind each exercise and each piece and then commit to it during the workout.
Intensity - Working out 4 days a week, sleeping, and eating well and still not completely happy? That next level is most likely going to be unlocked by the intensity you bring to your workouts.
Most people I see in the gym get a little challenged, but tend to stay mostly comfortable. Workouts burn and they get out of breath, but once that uncomfortable feeling arrives, instead of embracing it, they seek a more comfortable experience. Instead, we need to embrace the suck (always prioritizing quality technique).
Here’s what helps me in the moment: Regardless of how it feels right now, an hour from now I am going to be fine. Do I want to look back and wish I would have pushed harder or do I want to look back knowing I put in a lot of effort.
Action: In your next workout. The last 30 seconds to a minute should feel like a 9.5-10 / 10 RPE (Relative Perceived Exertion). Sometimes you need to push (with good technique) to what you think is going to be a 10/10 or a 0 Reps in Reserve to get a sense of if you are truly there…most people vastly underestimate what 10/10 feel like.
Technique - Your intensity is only as good as your technique. Your future potential is always limited by your technique development, so if you prioritize intensity at the expense of technique, you are not only increasing your risk of injury, but you will always run up against a performance ceiling.
Action: Record a workout. Audit whether or not your posture broke down as you pushed the intensity or got more fatigued.
5. Non-Exercise Activity - Break Sedentary Hours with Activity
There have been studies that show groups of people who are sedentary for a day do not respond to exercise the way people who break sedentary hours with movement do. If you sit all day, your workouts are unable to undo the negative metabolic effects it creates. Benefits of Walking
Action: Set up an alarm that goes off every hour for a day. Ensure that you are up and moving around for a couple of minutes. 4 seconds is all you need if you’re going to do an air bike sprint. 30 seconds is all you need if you’re going to do burpees, push-ups, and air squats, and a couple of minutes is all you need if you are going to walk around, stretch, etc.
THE EBOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE
I have been running clients through my MOMENTUM transformation program for 8 years with tremendous success. But, with the amount of 1-on-1 attention I provide in the program, it creates a cost that has been prohibitive for some. I have finally consolidated the MOMENTUM program into one, easy to navigate EBOOK, so that more people can finally access the information that has changed my life and so many others.
When you finally “Get It”, the results you’ve been after are inevitable.
