The Plateau - Adaptability

The human body is an incredible organism!

It adapts to numerous environments and conditions.

Depending on where a person lives and what type of life style they have the human body has adapted to that environment.

For example, those that live in hotter climates tend to have darker skin color. This is to protect them from the harmful rays of the sun and to avoid sun burn. Where as pure Caucasians or northern climate people tend to easily burn in the sun. Because, there skin has not adapted to that type of environment.

Another example would be those that tend to live in cold climates often have more body hair to help keep them warm than those that live in hot climates who need less body hair in order to stay cool.

Often, people will lose a crucial body part and still survive. Many people survive with one kidney, lung, arm, or even lose there sight or hearing. But, the body will often, adjust. Those that are blind, often will tell you that there hearing and sense of touch have heightened and that they are much more in tune with these senses than the normal person that has their eye sight. Why does this occur? Because the body had to adjust in order for this person to continue to live efficiently and effectively as possible.

Well, the body's cardiovascular and muscular system will do the same thing when it comes to exercise.

Often, after working out for a period of time a person will become frustrated because they are not seeing the gains and improvement they once saw in the early stages of working out.

This occurs because the body and its two systems (cardiovascular - muscular) has adjusted to the demands it is being given.

When this occurs a person has hit what is called a PLATEAU.

The plateau has destroyed and dashed the hopes of many.

Leaving them to doubt themselves, there progress/improvements and even cause them to quit working out all together.

If a person does not create effective strategies on how to combat the Plateau, they will fall victim to frustration, anxiety, and the lack of confidence or feeling of failure.

Let me give you a couple of case examples.

We'll call this person Linda.

Linda has been working out very hard and eating very well for over 5-6 months. During this time her body fat has decreased by 4%, her muscles are very toned, including a tight stomach and upper body and better looking legs than when she first began. However, lately Linda has become very frustrated because at her last measurement her body weight had not gone down much, neither has her body fat and she still wants to improve her legs tremendously.

She feels hopeless and doubtful. She knows she has been working out so hard and eating much better than she ever has yet it doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Linda, has reached a plateau. The cause could be a number of things. She has been consistently running the same amount of time and speed on the same machine, the tredmill. Perhaps, she is eating to many of the same foods and needs to shock her metabolism with different substances.

The next example is of a man called Billy. Billy is still fairly new when it comes to weight training. However, he was very excited and surprised to see that after a few months of really hard weight training that his shoulders became very broad, legs thicker and had a larger chest. Every week for those 3 months Billy would perform the same type of workout, loading the same amount of weight for exercises such as squats and bench press. Soon however, Billy became frustrated and could not understand why he was not feeling the same soreness, could not increase his poundage on particular exercises he performs every week and lastly, why he was not getting any larger or increased muscle tone.

Billy, has entered into the Plateau.

Without making a strategy to combat it, he will remain in this state and most likely give up on weight training all together, out of pure frustration.

Billy and Linda are much alike. They both suffer from the infamous PLATEAU!

However, the plateau does not need to be feared.

In fact the plateau is a great indicator. It allows you a chance to make your program more interesting, challenging and allows you to get even better results once you adapt.

Even, though Billy and Linda have different goals and troubles they are exactly the same.

They both need to realize that they are in a plateau and that they must do something to combat this enemy.

They can do this a number of ways. They have to look at there current programs, goals and plateaus and change there method. They have to add a new STIMULUS.

Here are some steps they can take to add a new stimulus to there program.

* More weight/less reps
* More reps/less weight
* More volume
* Less rest between sets
* More muscle recruitment
* More challenging movements/exercises
* More intensity
* More speed
* Less speed

Billy and Linda have to apply one or a few of these stimuli. If they want to effectively combat the plateau.

Which stimuli they choose is where it can become difficult. They can test different ones until they produce the desired results or they can seek the help of a professional such as a personal trainer that can help them effectively and quickly identify the right stimuli needed.

I must warn you, adding new stimuli can be extremely uncomfortable and hard at first. You may feel weak and drained in the beginning. Those weights Billy was once used to lifting may have to be lowered for a while and built back up slowly after time. For weight trainers this can be disheartening.

But, that marvelous body of yours will always adapt. Even better it will not only adapt, but often exceed the results you expected.

Yet alas.

Your body will once again adjust so much that you will reach a new plateau and you will have to use a new stimuli all over again.

Are you at a PLATEAU?

Let Upstart Training design a program or help train you to over come it and gain even better results!!

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