Do You Have a Lifting Plateau?

I get a lot of questions about plateaus. Do you have a lifting plateau?

During the beginning stages of training it's normal to see rapid progress. Once you hit the intermediate stages of lifting progress can slow and it can leave us feeling like we are stalling or doing something wrong.

This is generally not the case at all.

The grind stages of lifting and progress take place over a three to five year period of time. During this time I can feel like you're not making much progress at all... but this is a lie.

This lie leads to distractions, program hopping, and can even lead to frustration and time away from the gym.

Let's look at an example. Let's say we have a lifter with a bench press max of 185 pounds. Let's also say that this lifter "only" adds one rep to his top bench press set every 6 weeks.

Most of us would consider this a plateau and feel like a complete failure.

But let's say you continued making this rate of progress over the next 4 to 5 years. Where would your bench press be?

The truth is your bench press max would now be 360 to 400 pounds.

This is a hard pill to swallow, but the truth of the matter is that during your intermediate years slow progress is normal progress unless you're an absolute freak.

This is why consistency in both training and nutrition is so important. If you mess around and program hop, or if you mess around and don't take your nutrition seriously, you'll wake up 5 years from now with a 200 pound bench press.

It is the lifters that trust is the lifters that trust the process and remain consistent that reap the rewards.

It's unlikely you have a plateau. It's more likely that you have unrealistic expectations.

#massiveiron