When you're exercising regularly, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of seeing your body change. But sometimes, even if you're putting in the work, your body won't budge—or worse yet, it'll actually seem to go backward. This is a common experience: A 2017 study found that almost half of people who have been working out for more than six months hit a weight-loss plateau within two years. But don't panic! Plateaus are totally normal and there are several things you can do to keep making progress toward your goals and beyond. Here are seven strategies that will help you bust through any fitness plateau:
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Know Your Numbers
- Heart Rate Zones: You can use a heart rate monitor or take your pulse to determine your target zone. If you're using a monitor, select the mode that displays the zone number and then find it on the chart in Appendix B of this book. If you don't have access to a monitor, count the beats in 10 seconds and multiply by six to get your beats per minute (bpm). Then subtract 15 bpm from this number; this is your resting heart rate (hr).
- Target Heart Rate: Your target training zone will be between 50 percent and 85 percent of.* To calculate it, first figure out how many beats per minute (bpm) are required for each percentage range: 50 percent = 65 bpm; 55 percent = 70 bpm; 60 percent = 75 bpm; 65 percent = 80 bpm; 70 percent = 85 bpm; 75 percent = 90 bpm; 80 percent = 95 bpm; 85%+ = 100+. Next, add 5 points for women who are pregnant or postpartum within one year of giving birth.* Once you've determined these values for yourself--and adjusted them if necessary--you're ready for step two!
Put in the Time
The next step is to calculate how much time you should be spending on exercise. You can do this by dividing your weekly workouts into two categories: aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic workouts are those that require large amounts of oxygen, such as long-distance running or cycling. Anaerobic workouts don't require as much oxygen to sustain them, so they tend to be shorter bursts of activity like sprinting or weightlifting.
When making these calculations, take into account any additional physical activity in which you engage outside of the gym (e.g., walking). Then divide the total number by seven days per week and multiply by 60 minutes per day (or whatever unit of time applies). This gives us an estimate of how many hours per week we should spend exercising in order to achieve our goals without overtraining or undertraining ourselves!
The 80/20 rule states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts--which means we should focus on getting quality workouts rather than quantity when it comes out, comes down to choosing what types of exercises work best for each individual person's body type."
Disregard the Scale
The scale is an inaccurate measure of progress. It doesn't take into account your body composition, which is the amount of muscle and fat tissue you have on your body. The scale also fails to account for water retention and other factors that can cause fluctuations in weight.
For example, if you've been working out regularly but haven't changed what or how much you eat, then it's possible that your muscles are growing at a faster rate than your fat cells are shrinking--meaning that even though you're gaining weight overall (which would show up as an increase on the scale), it's mostly muscle instead of fat!
You should use other methods besides just weighing yourself when tracking fitness progress: measuring waist-hip ratio; taking pictures and measurements; keeping track of measurements over time
Change Up Your Workout
- Try a New Exercise or Workout: If you're bored with your workout, it's time to change things up. Try a new exercise, or switch from free weights to machines.
- Switch Up Your Training Routine: If you've been doing cardio for months, try strength training instead; if you've been lifting weights regularly, give yoga a shot.
- Go From Cardio To Strength Training Or Vice Versa: You can also switch from cardio workouts like running or cycling every day so that one day per week is dedicated solely towards weight training or other forms of resistance training (such as using resistance bands). This will help ensure that both sides of your body are getting equal amounts of work done at all times!
Rest and Recover More Often
Rest and recovery are essential to your fitness success. The body needs time to repair itself after workouts, so it's important to give yourself rest days in between workouts. You may think that resting is the same thing as not doing any physical activity at all, but that's not true! Resting means giving your body a break from working out so that it can recover and grow stronger.
How much rest do you need? It depends on how hard your workouts are and how often you're working out each week (which also depends on whether or not there are any injuries). If we look at some general guidelines for fitness levels 1-4, here is what we find:
- Level 1: 1 day off per week
- Level 2: 2 days off per week (e.g., Monday & Thursday) OR 3 days off per month (e.g., every other Sunday)
You're not alone in hitting a plateau!
Plateaus happen to everyone, and they're actually a good sign. When you hit a plateau, it means that your body has adapted to the exercise routine you were doing. This means that the same workout isn't working anymore and that it's time for something new.
Don't lose hope! Change up your routine by trying something different or consulting with an expert trainer who can help guide you through finding what works best for reaching your goals. The more knowledge we have about our body's limitations and abilities, the better equipped we'll be at overcoming them--and get back on track toward fitness success!
Conclusion
We hope you've learned something new about plateaus and how to overcome them. Remember, it's important not to get discouraged if you find yourself stuck in a rut, because there are always ways out!
