Break Plateaus and Finally Reclaim Those Abs
March 26, 2012
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Posted by billspaced
Break Plateaus and Finally Reclaim Those Abs
Losing weight, carving out a powerful physique, and otherwise claiming your health are goals that we all have, but the truth is that you will not always be able to reach for these goals in a linear fashion. You might go down the right road at first, only to find that you’re hitting a brick wall that refuses to budge.
Is the solution to curl up and go back to ice cream and cheesecake? Not at all, you future beefcake in training. You just need to learn how to break the plateau and reclaim those tight abs that you've always wanted.
Understanding the Plateau
What really constitutes a plateau? Generally speaking, it's all about the time. If you stop progressing for 3-4 weeks, that's understood as a stall or a plateau. If you stop moving forward in gains for a week, that's not a true plateau. A lot of things can affect performance, so it's important to explore all of the factors.
The Body, Electric!
We tend to move in plateaus when we do the same thing over and over in the gym, in the diet, and in life itself. When we know that we need to sleep more and we keep staying up all night to watch TV, plateaus tend to generate themselves.
Same when you know that you really need to stay away from the pizza and beer, but you indulge anyway. These are all things that might not make a difference here and there, but it adds up over time.
You need to jump back into the laboratory and explore the subject of you a little bit closer. You need to look at all of the different factors that indeed influence your body, including sleep, nutrition, stress levels, hormonal levels and even the exercise program that you’ve chosen.
Could Cycling Be Your Best Chance at Ripped Abs?
Everything in moderation–including moderation. That's the usual line when people start talking about fitness and exercise, but is that really the case?
We need to start looking at the way we train to figure out what's missing and what's not. Now, you might feel that you've really been hitting the gym hard–why aren't the abs coming?
You could be overtraining and not even realize it. If you find that your thirst for the gym is waning and even fading out fast, this could be your big sign. You also want to look at the nutrition side of things. Many people hunting for ripped abs aren't tracking, and they're doing themselves a disservice.
How can you improve anything when you have no baseline for activities already done? You have no idea how many calories you’re eating or how they're affecting you. That's a bad sign when you’re trying to tweak a program.
This means that if you are looking to truly keep a ripped physique, you’re going to have to track and measure results all of the time. If you don't, you will have a hard time getting anyone to really take you seriously, let alone try to help you. If you look at most of the leading bodybuilding and even regular fitness forums, stats and records are going to be the rule of the day.
Getting Back on the Wagon
You might feel a little frustrated when you find that your progress just isn't there anymore. Does that mean it's Congress? Not quite. 
There's always a new day, a new opportunity to improve. You don't have to feel like you'll never get those lean, ripped abs and that tire core that you want.
You may need to add some training days, or take some way. You might need to adjust your macronutrient profile and even the way you eat–meal timing can be pretty important, too. And we can't mention sleep enough. Even if you think that you’re getting enough sleep, you’re probably not really letting your body recover and heal. It's just as important to rest as it is to hit it hard in the gym.
The more you stress and obsess over your abs, the higher the likelihood that they won't appear. Cortisol is a mean, mean hormone and you don't want to mess with high levels of cortisol–inflammation and stress go hand in hand. When you're inflamed, you can't progress very well either. I wish you the best of luck in getting the abs you desire–don't let those plateaus get you down!
Categories: Abdominals, bodybuilding
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Tags: abdominals, Abs, Break Plateaus and Finally Reclaim Those Abs, training plateau
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Leave a reply
I can testify the importance of getting enough sleep. I was working out late at night and not getting enough sleep. Even though I was eating right, tracking calories, exercising regularly and doing everything else right, I wasn't getting enough sleep. It made my results stand still. Once I started getting enough sleep, I started seeing results again.
Thanks for this article. Stress is a silent killer. Not only it makes a person fat… It also makes people sick.
Great article and well presented. I think it's important to get more people to understand how their bodies work. Too many times I've heard of people giving up their training because they've "stopped making gains". Good job!
I find short intense cardio workouts work great for shedding stomach fat. This really gets you sweating. From experience I find this better than long distance running. I also agree with Rick, plenty of sleep is essential.
great post about regaining your abs,thanks for sharing the information with me
Very useful article! I am exercising regularly and eating enough proteins but can't see any real results yet. This article helps a lot.
Nice! I'm gonna bookmark this page! Keep the articles coming!
Yup. Just like Rick, I totally agree. One needs to get enough sleep if he wants to see those 6 pack abs.
I think a plateau is just my body's way of saying "try a little harder, because I'm used to what you're doing". The sad thing is that so many people tend to give up at this point, but at this point it's crucial as you said, to add a little here, or subtract a little there. Great article, very informative
I have found the best plateau breaker for me is a steak day. I discovered this on the HCG diet. Even off the diet, if I hit a plateau I will skip breakfast and lunch then have a huge steak with a tomato for dinner. I always lose at least 2 pounds, usually 3 or 4 pounds the next day.
Today's biggest tension of people is weight, most of the people are gain lots of weight and they have no time to do work out. I personally think if you have no time to go gym then you can do aerobic at home, this is the best exercise to loose weight. You can find a change in yourself within a month.
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To me the math is simple:
Eat less calories then you burn.
Weight training is also underestimated regarding weightloss.
Carb cycling is definitely one of the best methods to lose weight if you do not want to lose much muscle mass. Great post.
Thanks for an interesting and practical article – It's important to maintain the right balance to where we want to go and how to get there. Some great tips found here!
Jeff
Personally? I think that making use of carbohydrates cycling, calorie deficit and progressive overload all at the same time is the best technique to get six pack abs. Of course, regular exercise at increasing levels of intensity each and every single time as well.