Boot Camp Health and Fitness Tip – Breaking the Plateau
Article by Get You In Shape Coppell Boot Camp Personal Trainer Julie McCan
Plateau Busting
If you have ever reached a plateau in your quest to lose pounds or inches, you know how frustrating they can be. Particularly if you are doing everything right by doing all the things that have proven to be successful in the past. If you are not 100% sure that you have hit a plateau, some specific indications include:
• no weight loss for consecutive weeks
• no inches lost for several weeks
• you are hungry all the time (when you may not have been in your past efforts
• your exercise routine isn’t as difficult as it used to be
The good news is that as frustrating as they can be, plateaus are common AND you can overcome them! However, it does take patience and commitment because a plateau is a point in which your body has adjusted to the level and frequency of workouts as well as the amount of calories you consume. But it doesn’t mean that you have to workout for 2 hours everyday and severely limit your calories.
Below are several ways to easily put the right kind of changes into your efforts that may help you bust through a current plateau and put you back on track toward reaching your overall health and fitness goals.
1. Try increasing the intensity of your workouts. Push yourself beyond your current capabilities. If your muscles aren’t fatigued at the end of the set, go for the burn and try to fatigue them each time you do a particular exercise. Fatiguing your muscles simply means that the last repetition should be hard or nearly impossible to complete. You can do this by increasing the number of repetitions or by increasing the weight you currently use.
2. Shake it up a bit and try new things. If you always run on your cardio days, try a different type of cardio, like biking, swimming or roller blading. If that isn’t possible, try going longer than your normal amount of time. Just increasing your cardio workouts from 30 to 40 minutes on those days, may just burn the extra calories you need to shock your system beyond your plateau. You can also vary your running. Instead of a consistent running pace, add some intervals and vary the lengths of those intervals. Walk, jog, run and even sprinting during your normal time may have the same effect as increasing your time.
3. Swap your cardio and your resistance workouts. Run 10 minutes hard BEFORE your workouts. If you are a current participant at the GYIS Boot Camp, try coming early and get in a good run around the park before class or try doing 10 minutes of sprints uphill. “It’ll boost your metabolism and cause your appetite to shoot through the roof and mentally put you into an intense mood to finish the rest of your workout.”
4. Swap your set and reps. If you are currently doing your workouts on your own, this may be a good one to try. As an example, let’s say you typically do 3 sets of 15 for each muscle group you work on a given day. Try flipping it and do 15 sets of 3.
5. Focus on whole food. From a nutrition perspective, this means eating clean. Stay away from foods that list more than 2 or 3 ingredients on the package.
6. Go to bed earlier. For one week, try to go to bed 1 to 2 hours earlier. But the key is that you need to get up 1 to 2 hours earlier. Again, this might be enough to shake up your system and kick start your metabolism again.
7. Start doing some yoga. Stretching and increasing your flexibility is important to your circulation, range of motion and it also will help reduce stress. All these are important to improved performance and health.
The bottom line is that you can’t keep doing the same thing hoping to get different results when you are experiencing a plateau. You have to do something to kick-start your body into change. Hopefully, you will find these tips an effective way to overcome your next plateau.
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Written by: Julie McCan, CPT Julie is on the www.GetYouInShape.com team of personal trainers. Get You In Shape has is a Fitness Company in the Dallas, TX area. Coppell boot camps, Dallas boot camps, private training, 24 Day Challenge, weight loss, sports performance and nutrition are the main services of Get You In Shape.
Get You In Shape’s programs include the Get You In Shape Boot Camp (Dallas and Coppell), 24 Day Challenge, sports specific training, weight loss programs, Corporate wellness plans, nutrition plans, core fitness training, strength training, toning and more. Clients include athletes (golf, basketball, tennis, football, track, baseball, baseball, volleyball, and softball) corporate executives, professionals, weekend warriors, cheerleaders, dancers, models, stay at home moms, and anyone looking for results.
Owner Brad Linder, has been featured in numerous newspapers and even as the fitness expert on the news 8 (ABC). He continues to use the gifts that he has been given to help serve the needs others have when it come to being healthy, losing weight, sports, toning up, and overall fitness.
More information about Get You In Shape at www.getyouinshape.com
