Too many athletes today train within their comfort zone and do the same things over and over again. They do the same things day in and day out with no attempt of change. They act as if any type of change will throw their athletic ability off so they constantly stick with what they know. In reality, when they think they are doing well for themselves they do not realize they are actually doing damage. Coming to the weight room and having a set number you like to go today in and day out is a horrible thing. Say you go 3 x 10 in your workouts, that’s just what you love to do; you will reach a plateau in a hurry.
The Plateau
A plateau is when no matter how hard you try, moan, yell, or breath you just are not getting any stronger in the weight room. This is a nightmare for any athlete because you do not want to stay at the same strength levels unless you are in season. You want to get stronger. It sounds dumb, but sometimes athletes forget their reason for actually being in the weight room.
When suffering plateau in the weight room, your body sees no point in devoting any more energy to being stronger so it does not. It has become used to your patterns. If you do 3 sets of 10 on a bench with 100 pounds; after a month or so you will think it is all good because you will be adding on weight and yet you can still complete 10 reps so you are getting stronger. But after 6 weeks or so it will begin to become stale and you will not be making those same gains anymore and this is what you want to stay away from.
It needs to be a guessing game
The only way to stay away from the dreaded plateau is to keep your mind and body guessing. This means every week throwing something different at the body. This is further multiplied when the exercises are changed but I will save that for another report.
The ability to change the reps and sets you do every week is enough to make your body wonder what is coming next. It is also a lot more exciting way to train. Instead of going to the gym and doing the same things over and over, you never know what to expect and you start to find things you love about each week.
The Exercises
There millions of exercises and movements out there that can help get you stronger. To the best of your ability, you should not repeat exercises until every fifth week. Be creative now, switch grips, use dumbbells there are so many different small things that can be changed to create a different lift. Think of it like this, the more variation here, the fewer plateaus you will ever see. You can have a group of core lifts that you do, which change based on a sport. These would stay fairly common from week to week, like deadlift, and squat for example.
The Mind Set
This system of training needs to be approached with the mindset of an athlete trying to get strong constantly. If the will to push to the next level is not present than this system will never reach its full potential. It can be extremely competitive with yourself because you are always trying to break your own personal records every week once you go through the first 4-week cycle.
Let’s Lift
Week- One
Sets-3
Reps-3
What to Look Forward to this week
- Intensity is high
- Strength and Power-based depending on how fast you can move the weight
- Takes away feeling of getting tired
Week- Two
Sets-5
Reps-5
What to Look Forward to this week
- This is the toughest week
- 5 reps is enough to get your strong but will cause fatigue
Week- three
Sets-5
Reps-5, 4, 3, 2, 1
What to Look Forward to this week
- Can be used like a max out
- Every Set the intensity picks up but the volume drops
Week- four
Set- 3
Reps -12, 8, 6
What to look forward to this week
- Lightest weight of a cycle
- Almost like a back off week
- Highest Volume
Break Your Records
Every 5 weeks the same rep routine will be repeated. When this time comes do not do less weight, but add more weight and make a steady build of increasing your weight. The fun part about this is every week and every workout you are trying to break a record on your core lifts. Your middle set of a workout should be the last set of the last week that you did that rep routine.
This Rep routine will provide you with the means to get stronger and work harder without having to worry about reaching a sticking point. Have fun getting stronger, with no worries.
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
