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Fitness Plateaus & Workout Plan: Sep 9-15


Have you ever felt like you've hit a plateau? Perhaps when you began exercising you saw large, quick improvements in your fitness, strength, and/or endurance. However, as you continued exercising, maybe you saw those gains/benefits "stop."

Your body is a highly intelligent and efficient machine. It will adapt to stressors, so that eventually those former stressors no longer have much impact. This is called muscle adaptation. And that's a GOOD thing!!! It allows you to adapt and consistently do harder things than you used to be able to do.

The downside of that is that you need to find NEW ways to challenge your body or you will no longer see benefits. You need to change your approach so that you create a little bit of stress again - hormetic stress, good stress that allows you to progress, adapt some more, and become stronger.

This week, we will be doing 3-5 sets of 10 reps of each exercise on lifting days (Mon, Wed, Fri). That means we will be using a little bit heavier weights when possible. If you've been taking notice, I've been decreasing the number of reps over the last few weeks and increasing the number of sets. The idea is that you can lift heavier weights (slightly increasing the "stress") since you are doing fewer reps at a time. This is one way to force your muscles to adapt and overcome a fitness plateau.

On cardio days, I am including some short, 20-minute HIIT workouts for you in case you want that. Personally, I use those days to do longer training runs, rides, or swim sessions since I am working towards some goals there. Once it becomes too cold to train outside, I add in the HIIT routines to keep my fitness level up during my "off-season."

Have you hit a fitness plateau? If so, tell me about it!

Heidi

 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday: 30+ minutes Activity Outdoors

 

Sunday: Rest & Recover - Walk, Stretch, Roll, Yoga, Pilates, etc.

 

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