It has happened again. You’ve hit a plateau and you can’t get stronger or add more muscle. A plateau can be anything, you can have a specific bodypart that won’t grow, a certain lift that you can’t increase or your entire body just might be not growing. Whatever it is, these plateau busters will help.

2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

This is the easiest method to acclerate your gains again. Look at it this way, if you’re training each bodypart once per week then you have a lot of time to hit that muscle throughout the week, just not with the same amount of volume as you do on your normal day. Say you train your back on Monday. Here’s how you’d bust through a sticking point in your deadlift.

Perform your normal amount of volume on Monday. Now on Wednesday and Friday you’ll also deadlift but without the volume or frequency, you’ll do 2 warm-up sets and one working set.

Taking a 225 pound 1 rep max on your deadlift. Here’s what you’ll do.

Monday @ 205 pounds for 1 rep

Wednesday @ 210 pounds for 1 rep

Friday @ 215 pounds for 1 rep

Monday @ 210 pounds for 1 rep

Wednesday @ 215 pounds for 1 rep

Friday @ 220 pounds for 1 rep

Monday @ 215 pounds for 1 rep

Wednesday @ 220 pounds for 1 rep

Friday @ 225 pounds for 1 rep

Monday @ 220 pounds for 1 rep

Wednesday @ 225 pounds for 1 rep

Friday @ 230 pounds for 1 rep

Here’s the key, pick a weight that you can lift for 3 reps to start.  Just because you do a high amount of volume on Monday doesn’t mean that you can’t work the muscle slightly on the other days.

Do Something Different

This is the easiest way to grow and get results. If you normally train a bodypart once per week then train it twice with the same volume or three times with lower volume.  If you train it twice with super high volume train it once with lower volume but more weight.

Feed The Muscle

Feeder workouts are a great way to help a muscle recover, deliver muscle building nutrients to that muscle and promote blood flow. 24 hours after your train a certain muscle, pick a isolation exercise for that same muscle and do a few sets of 25-50 reps.

Just Eat

I’m not sure if it has something to do with the Abercrombie look that’s so popular today but another easy way to bust a plateau is to just eat more. I’m not saying to add 20 or 20 pounds of fat but something that always keeps people from building muscle and getting stronger is the need to always be ripped or to try to get ripped.  Don’t worry if you don’t lose fat for awhile. Figure out the bodyweight that you want to hit and aim to add 1-2 pounds per week. You’ll get stronger and get bigger.

Add Calories Where They Need To Be

Most muscular growth occurs about 36 hours after you’ve trained. So another simple trick is to just add more calories into the right  timeframes (nutrient timing). If you don’t consume carbs during your workout start drinking some. Double your post workout carbs and double your carbs with your post-postworkout meal. Also, make sure you’re eating your carbs the day after you train the area you want to grow. Glycogen storage is the number one signal for muscle growth so make sure you get your carbs in.

We will be back with part 2 tomorrow.