4 Signs You Might Have Hit a Weight Lifting Plateau

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One of the worst things that can happen to someone who lifts weights is hitting a plateau. This means that your results are levelling out and you aren't really challenging yourself anymore. Unfortunately, people often fail to realise that they have reached a plateau.

Here are just four signs to watch out for.

1. You No Longer Experience Soreness

To a certain extent, the notion that there is 'no gain without pain' is true. You shouldn't leave each gym session feeling like you've just gone five rounds with Rocky Balboa, and you don't need to wake up the next morning with muscles so sore you can barely walk, but it should be taken as a warning sign if you never notice any soreness at all after your workouts. Remember, soreness comes as a result of microscopic tears along your muscles, and it is when these tears heal that you get stronger. If you've hit a plateau, you won't be challenging your muscles anymore, and soreness will become a thing of the past.  

2. You're Getting Bored

Workouts aren't always exhilarating, but you should scarcely find yourself getting bored. Firstly, this suggests that you aren't working hard enough and need to be pushed a little more by a new workout program. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, boredom is an indication that you've been performing the same exercises for too long; unfortunately, people often quit when they find themselves experiencing boredom. Make sure that doesn't happen.

3. Your Final Sets Aren't Pushing You

Lifting weights is all about overloading your muscles. Not every single rep needs to feel challenging in the extreme, but you should generally find that the last few are difficult. If your final reps aren't difficult, you probably won't be gaining much benefit from performing them. Time to get a whole new regime.

4. You're No Longer Making Any Progress

Finally, consider how much progress you're making. It can be hard to gauge how much your muscles have grown, but you can decide on a good fitness benchmark and then measure how you progress. For example, you might see how much weight you can lift at the squat rack or bench press, or you could see how many push-ups or pull-ups you can perform. You should notice yourself being able to lift a little more weight or perform a rep or two more every week or so. If you start to notice that you're stuck at the same level for more than a few weeks, you've probably hit a plateau.

Contact a personal trainer for more advice.

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13 January 2017

Quitting smoking at last

I have tried to quit smoking three times over the last few years, but it never really stuck. My mother just got diagnosed with lung cancer, and it's given me the wakeup call that I have been waiting for. I have quit smoking again, but this time I spoke to my doctor before I started and it's made a lot of difference. He organised some nicotine replacement products and counselling to help me quit for good this time. I have started this blog to let people know how much easier it is to quit when your doctor is helping you.