Hit a Training Plateau? 3 Ways to Break Through it

October 23, 2017

You hit a training plateau, so now what? Plateaus can happen to anyone. They arise for many different reasons but luckily there are easy ways to break out of them. Crossfit Games athlete Scott Panchik shares common reasons for hitting a training plateau and gives 3 tips to help you overcome it.

How to Get Over Your Training Plateau

1. Recovery

The number one thing that may be contributing to your training plateau is insufficient recovery. During training, muscle tissue is broken down. It’s during the recovery process that the tissue rebuilds, your body becomes stronger, and gains and improvements are made. If you consistently don’t allow your body to recover, gains and improvements suffer. Scott recommends looking at the past two months of your training and asking yourself the following questions:

Has your performance remained stagnant?
Does your body feel tired and fatigued?
Is your body not holding up as well as it used to?
Are you fighting injuries along the way?
Do you have chronic pain?

If these are problems that you’re dealing with, there’s a good chance you may be overtraining. The best way to solve the problem of overtraining is to add in more recovery techniques to your training routine. Once you’re adequately hydrated, nourished, and rested, try incorporating recovery methods. Marc Pro is the most effective tool for recovery and used by some of the world’s most elite athletes. Marc Pro’s unique technology creates non-fatiguing muscles contractions (which is the key facilitator for all stages of the recovery process) so the device can be used for as long as needed to ensure a full and fast recovery.

2. Evaluate your Training Routine

Athletes may hit a training plateau if their training regimen isn’t changing enough. If you haven’t varied your workouts in a while, that could be the reason for getting stuck in a plateau. To break out of the training plateau, try finding a program that’s constantly varied. Scott recommends incorporating different coaching tips from various resources, such as YouTube, coaches in your gym, or online programs. There’s a lot of information and ideas out there, which makes it easy if you need to change things up to overcome a training plateau.

3. Vary your Movements

Incorporating different movements is another way to get out of a training plateau. If you’re an endurance athlete, try introducing more weightlifting exercises. If your routine consists mostly of weightlifting, try adding more endurance exercises like swimming, biking, or running. Constantly varying your movements will not only help break a training plateau, it will also make you a well-rounded athlete.