How to Plateau-Proof Your Training
There’s nothing worse than training really hard, only to feel like the results take forever to show up.
You start feeling genuinely happy that you're finally sticking with something, your body may even start feeling more open and functional, but if you're longing for your shape to change, be it firmer arms and legs, or having more shape in your waist, it can be disheartening when those changes don't show up.
Or perhaps it's deeper than that. Maybe you've had an osteopenia diagnosis, or you've found out your bones are brittle... you don’t want to retest in a year, only to find the light weight workouts you've been doing wasted your time.
Fitness classes everywhere will have you believing sweating your butt off, and leaving feeling totally shattered is the metric for a good workout. The more you suffer the better. Or you have studios adding 'strength' classes to their schedule with no heavy weights in sight.
So what's a busy woman supposed to do to not plateau ?
Make sure whatever you're doing gets progressively harder week after week.
That’s pretty much it.
Well almost it. Some methods are superior than others.
You see, one of the reasons we plateau in the first place is because of something called accomodation. When muscle, bone or connective tissue can handle a specific load, that load stops being a growth signal and instead becomes maintenance.
If you want your body to keep getting stronger and more toned, you have to give it a demand it hasn't met yet, that’s the only way it’ll change.
The type of demand is important.
More reps at the same weight still counts as overload, but after a while, more reps changes the signal from "building strength and shape" to "muscular endurance." Which is a different adaptation altogether. Increasing the weight is what keeps the stimulus in the zone that actually builds muscle.
Heavy is the time-efficient option.
A controlled study on experienced lifters compared heavy-load training (8–12 reps a set) against light-load training (25–35 reps a set), three sets each, eight weeks. Between the two, muscle growth came out roughly equal.
Strength did not.
Heavy load produced close to double the strength gains (19.6% vs 8.8%) on the squat. So heavy training gets you the same or better outcomes in a third of the total reps, and wins outright on strength. So if you’re time poor and your goal is literally to be stronger - an increase in weights need to be a significant part of your strategy.
Why cardio and HIIT don't substitute for slow, heavy lifts.
Again, your body adapts specifically to the type of stress you put it under. Cardio trains your heart and lungs to deliver oxygen more efficiently and builds muscular endurance. It doesn't create the heavy mechanical tension on your muscle fibres that triggers them to grow, or the mechanical load on bone that triggers it to strengthen.
Both are genuinely valuable. They're just responsible for different outcomes.
The same is true for Pilates and light-resistance.
Reformer springs and light, pretty dumbbells only go so heavy. Once you've mastered what the equipment offers, the signal to get stronger disappears, so results plateau regardless of how hard you work.
Barbells and dumbbells don't have that problem, the load, challenge and respective adaptation can keep increasing indefinitely.
And finally, when it comes to bone density specifically, heavy outperforms light every time.
A trial in postmenopausal women with osteopenia compared walking with heavier resistance (70–85% of max) and lower resistance (40–60%). Walking-level activity showed no measurable bone benefit at all (aka, you can be ‘active’ and your bones may still deteriorate).
The heavier group's bone density gains significantly outperformed the lighter group's. Wolff's Law, which stipulates bone remodels around the demand placed on it, says bone needs a real, heavy demand to respond to, not just movement.
So how do you actually make something progressively harder?
A few levers: training volume (weight, reps, sets), efficiency (tempo, pauses, pulses etc), density (rest & workout time), speed & power (myo reps / drop sets). Here's where to start:
But the three most effective levers to ensure you are using progressive overload are :
Training close to failure on your final 2-3 reps. So if the rep range of the workout is 6, you should be pushing quite hard around reps 4-6, if it's really easy to get to 6 reps, you need to add weight. Same if the rep range is 12, you need to be really working at reps 10-12.
Range of movement. Going lower into your lunges and squats, or changing the angle of your press ups or bend presses, increases the range at which your muscles are under tension and improves the functionality of your joints.
Slowing down the tempo. Slowing down increases the time your muscles are under tension, which sends a strong stimulus to your muscle to adapt.
RULE for increasing weight: only ever increase the weight once you can complete every rep, in every set with full control and good form. Until then, pull on the other levers, like tempo and range of motion.
One final point before we close.
Progressive overload doesn't mean lift heavier no matter what.
It means make it harder, safely, over time.
Doing it that way means you will be able to get the full benefit of heavy lifting without injury or boredom.
So next time you are lifting, pay close attention to your effort level. If it feels easy, that's your body letting you know she's ready for a little more. And who are we to get in the way of her progress?!
You've got this!