There’s nothing more frustrating than hitting a roadblock in your fitness journey — especially when you’re putting in the time and working hard! Exercise plateaus occur when your body begins to adapt to the volume and intensity of a workout. It recognizes, “Oh, this is familiar” and adjusts to the new normal. When your body is no longer challenged, it no longer changes.
So how do you avoid these dreaded exercise plateaus? We’re sharing our 5 best tips to keep your momentum strong!
1. Switch things up
Here’s the best news: you’re already doing our #1 tip for preventing plateaus! That’s because Physique 57’s one-of-a-kind method is specifically designed for this. Our clients rarely, if ever, plateau. People often reach plateaus because they become bored with what they’re doing and stop challenging themselves. Think about it…how many times have you thought, “Do I really have to do another squat or run another mile?” Then you might get lazy with your form or skip the workout altogether.
Physique 57 workouts move so quickly and contain such a variety of movements that you’ll never get bored — you’ll actually be excited to take on new challenges and perfect new moves! Our interval sets are based on variations, so while you’re still working the same muscle groups, you’ll continuously be switching up the choreography. You’ll only need to perform each variation for 30 – 60 seconds to get the maximum toning benefit. There’s no time to get bored in 60 seconds! The quick pace will keep you inspired and motivate you to really get after each move.
2. Hit the point of overload
The cornerstone of Physique 57 is our innovative Interval Overload Method. This method is a combination of high intensity interval training and muscle overload. With our interval training sets, your muscles are targeted and overloaded to the point of fatigue, then stretched for relief. (Read more about it in this blog post here.)
With Interval Overload, your muscles are ALWAYS challenged so you’ll never plateau. There is no point where your muscles are perfectly adapted and able to breeze through our sets with ease. No matter how fit or familiar with our program you are, we always take you to that point of fatigue where you feel like you just can’t do one more pulse…but you can. You know that feeling! We continuously change the pace, the moves, and the angles to make sure you always feel that burn and reach the sweet spot where your muscle fibers are transformed. Then we hit those same muscles again and again, so the sculpting never stops!
3. Have fun with it
So many fitness programs out there use the same uninspired moves over and over in different combinations. We truly believe that if a workout isn’t fun you’re never going to stick with it. And then what’s the point?
We created Physique 57 to not only get you results, but to make you smile! Our trainers choreograph each routine with creative and playful moves in unique combinations. The movements are beautiful and graceful, and our trainers put so much thought, intention, and heart into choreographing each class. The key to sticking with any workout is to enjoy it so much that your body and mind actually crave it – because then it will become a natural part of your healthy lifestyle.
4. Rest & recover
Your results also depend on what you do AFTER you leave the studio. One major component to avoid plateaus is getting enough rest. During deep REM sleep, your body releases a hormone that stimulates muscle growth and repair, helping you form lean muscle ¹. Better sleep quality is also associated with increased lean body mass ². Aim for at least 7 – 8 hours of quality rest per night. Check out our tips for getting the best rest here!
5. Focus on your nutrition
Make sure you’re pairing your Physique 57 workouts with clean eating — focus on whole, unprocessed foods and lots of veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats. It can help to track your daily intake in a food journal to get a full picture of your eating habits and hold yourself accountable. The combination of your Physique 57 routines and on-point nutrition will help you avoid plateaus and get you the most consistent, best results!
Try our one-of-a-kind method designed to keep your body challenged and your momentum going — join us On Demand or in the studio!
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