When You Hit The Wall...

...better known as reaching a plateau or topping out, you begin to feel like your exercise efforts are not paying off the way they used to. You're still rocking out that same routine and even hitting it much stronger and with more intensity than you did when you started out, but still, no more visible results like you used to get in the beginning.

If it's weight you're trying to lose, the scale seems to stay stuck on the same number for weeks on end, and if you're trying to gain mass or get more definition, you can quite clearly see that those muscles just aren't getting any bigger or any more cut. You add in an extra workout day a week, and still, nothing. What the hell is going on??

Well, I already mentioned that you've plateaued with your workout. What is a plateau? That's when your body and muscles become acclimated to the particular tasks you put upon them, ie, your exercise regimen. No matter what type of activity you do, sooner or later, you'll find that it's gotten less strenuous and thus requires less of your effort. Less effort = less results. You end up in a "maintaining mode". What to do here? Change things up. Add some completely different exercises and activities into your lineup. Do workouts that challenge different muscles and work the ones that you've been training via some other methods. They need a new type of stimulation, and changing things up is just the thing that will do it. Once you do that, you will soon get back to seeing the changes in your body and the results that you stay working so hard for.

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