Dr. John: Why have I hit a plateau?
Hitting a plateau in any rehab or fitness program is every person’s worst fear. It’s the point where you feel like you are no longer seeing any results, but can’t figure out why. It’s also the point that most people commonly give up. So why do we plateau even when we work so hard? It’s a simply issue of adaptation. Most programs plateau because they have out lasted their worth. We continue with the same program, performing the same exercises, seeing great results that eventually fizzle out. Why? It’s because our bodies are amazing at adapting to change.
When you first begin a program, you feel sore the next day, right? The reason for that is because you’re using muscles in a way that they have not been used in quite some time. Those muscles work harder than they usually do because you stress them in a way they are not usually stressed. Think about your daily activities at work or home. You use muscles, but are you ever sore the next day? No. That’s because your muscles are used to performing that kind of work every day. Your body has adapted to the tasks at hand. Hitting a plateau is explained in the same way. If you perform the same program with the same exercises for too long, your body will get used to doing that kind of work and will learn how to do that work more efficiently and then you will stop seeing results.
So, the solution is simple. Or is it? It is. Modify the program. Switch exercises, equipment, intensity levels, training days, switch the time of day if you’d like. In the office, we are constantly changing exercises with patients. If we have a patient doing the same thing for 8 weeks we are doing a disservice to them. Constant change stresses the body (in a good way) and forces it to adapt. And that adaptation is progress and progress equal result.