5 Ways to Overcome a Challenging Fitness Plateau

5 Ways to Overcome a Challenging Fitness Plateau : Do you feel like you’re no longer seeing results with your work-out routine? You might be hitting a weight loss and fitness plateau and are ready to switch things up.

This is a common phenomenon that can happen after adapting to certain exercises or having your metabolism slow down.

But how do you combat this? Keep reading for 5 ways to overcome a challenging fitness plateau!

Take a Week Off

Overdoing your workout routine can be a contributing factor to hitting a fitness plateau. It’s best to not burn out, and taking a week to rest will help your muscles rest and grow.

Especially if your workouts focus on muscle building, taking a break will help your body to build new tissues and repair. This is also a great way to allow your nervous system to relax after heavy training or workouts.

Taking a break is also good for your mental health and can help you to refocus and create a new workout routine for the future!
Change Up Your Exercise Routine

It’s easy for your muscle groups to adapt to the exercises you’ve been repeating. Varying the order and intensity of your routine will help you overcome a plateau, along with adding new exercises.

Changing up your routine and including some cross-training can shake up your muscles and stimulate your body. If you’ve been focusing on using weight machines, free weights can be an easy change. Similarly, if you regularly run on a treadmill, you could try a stair climbing machine instead.
Do More Intense Exercises

Do More Intense Exercises

Along with varying your exercises, increasing the intensity of your workouts will help you to push past a plateau after spending some time resting. Rather than working out for longer stretches, you could make your muscles work harder for short stretches.

With muscle building exercises, this can look like increasing the weights you use and doing more, short reps. You can also incorporate free weights into other exercises like lunges or sit-ups.
Get More Sleep and Rest Between Workouts

Rest and recovery can make all the difference with growing new muscle groups and pushing past your fitness plateau. Getting an adequate amount of sleep and rest are essential when you’re increasing the intensity of your workout.

Having days off from working out is also key. You’ll reduce your ability to keep up with your exercise routine if you don’t spend time off between intense days, and you’ll tire quicker during your workouts.
Focus on Proper Nutrition

Similarly to resting and sleeping, having proper nutrition will help your muscles grow and help you to work out for longer. You don’t want to cut your training efforts short by not fueling and resting enough.

Protein and carbohydrates help build muscles and avoid fatigue. Think about Self-Development: How to develop a health and fitness mindset to continue to improve your body and routine.

Create a Plan to Overcome Your Fitness Plateau

Overcoming a challenging fitness plateau is completely possible and only requires the right plan for your body and needs.

Share this with any fitness pals who are struggling with the same plateau and create a plan of action together!