Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2552: From Plateau to PR... How to Break Through Strength Barriers

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

From Plateau to PR: How to Break Through Strength Barriers Defining what a plateau is. (1:18) Why this is a meaningful conversation. (2:20) The most frustrating part of fitness. (5:37) The BIG mistake most people make. (7:38) From Plateau to PR: Six Strategies to Break Through Strength Barriers #1 - Focus on strength. (13:45) #2 - Change the exercises. (17:06) #3 - Change the rep ranges. (21:13) #4 - Change the tempo. (23:01) #5 - Trust a new structure and follow. (26:13) #6 - Start with recovery, a week. (29:01) Questions: I haven’t lost any weight for 30 days. Is this a plateau? (31:46) Can diet changes break a plateau? (32:55) How often do you guys plateau? What do you personally do? (33:58) Does sleep affect plateaus? (36:17) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Joy Mode for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off your first order** Special Promotion: MAPS Strong or MAPS Powerlift HALF off ** Code PR50 at checkout ** Mind Pump #1630: Ten Ways to Break Through a Plateau Mind Pump #1827: The 3 Best Rep Ranges to Build Muscle & Burn Fat Why Your Tempo Matters When You Workout! – Mind Pump TV 7-Day Overtraining Rescue Guide | Free by Mind Pump Media Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Robert Oberst (@robertoberst) Instagram Kyle P (@mindpumpkyle) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, from plateau to PR,

this episode is all about how to break through strength barriers. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Joy Mode. This is a product with natural compounds that have been shown and proven in studies to enhance blood flow. Why is that important? Well, you might want more blood flow you know where so you can perform in the bedroom. That's actually what Joy Mode is made for. By the way

It also works as a good pre-workout because better blood flow Improves your contractions in the other muscles of your body. Anyway, go check them out get 20% off go to tryjoymode.com Forward slash mind pump use the code mind pump and get 20% off Also in this episode you heard us talking about map strong and maps power lift both 50% off right now for this episode go to maps fitness products calm use the code PR 50 Get one or both of them for 50% off. All right, here comes a show Plateauing sucks. We're gonna talk about how you can break a plateau and actually hit a PR Let's break some barriers, get your body progressing again.

Let's talk about it. Yeah, let's get after it. Yeah, so plateau, a plateau is when your body just stops progressing. In any way, which we'll get to in a second, but for about 21 days. I like, we actually in fact before we started this episode, we talked about what we would consider a plateau.

Now I do wanna say, and I think strength is the best metric, but I do wanna say that I think sometimes people think they're plateauing when really they're looking at one metric and they're not counting all the other potential things that they're progressing in. So it's like, you know, maybe my bench press didn't go up, but my stability feels better. My range of motion is better or something like that. Right. Right. Or I'm

not losing weight on the scale, but but I feel better. I got more energy type of deal. So plateau for me is like, like nothing like, yeah, there's no problems. Moves on all those different metrics. Yeah, you consider the whole thing. Yeah, this is a cool conversation. Because when, when I was competing in training, obviously every time I showed up to the stage, I had to show progress, right?

And it's inevitable you're training like that consistently for several years. I'm going to run into these situations where, oh, no, I'm plateauing. I'm not seeing results. Typically, the way it looked like for me is that I was constantly checking in with myself, all my all measurements, all what's going on, strengths, everything, but every, every week to two weeks. And I would never allow, like I would never adjust based off of just like one check-in because you could just have an off week, sleep could be bad. The body doesn't progress like consistently. Right. It doesn't,

these spurts. Right. So I would, I would need to see at least two, if not three, of the check-ins with no movement or movement in the wrong direction for me to change course. Otherwise, I would like stay the course. I believe in this is the path, this is what I'm supposed to be doing, be consistent with it, make sure I am, and then it'd be like, okay, checked again, didn't move, okay, checked again, still didn't move. Okay, if this continues for one more week,

now I'm starting to go to probably what your points are on the start attacking those. So 21 days right about three weeks is what you're looking at and this is primarily true for people I would say within the first two or three years of being consistent. After that then you know plateaus lasting you know three weeks become more commonplace because obviously we have a limited capacity to continue progressing. You can't just progress forever. I mean if that were the case,

I'd be able to bench press it. Yeah, but I also think that, I think that, and you communicate this well a lot on the show, is that there's progress in many other ways. That lasts a long time. I think when you become as advanced or have been lifting as long as you have, especially with the consistency that you have, you're not,

you can't use strength as your marker. Always. It's like, Oh, has my sleep been getting better lately? And Oh, is my energy, is my skin, is my mood is like, you know, those things, is my mobility feel better? Is my soreness? Like, so you're, you're looking at other metrics like, but I think this is a really important conversation for people in their early years of consistency because when you're early on, so long as diet programming the thing you're checking the right boxes, you should see, and it's not linear, but you should see overall consistent progress.

You should be seeing yourself continually get stronger, continually see better performance in the gym, physique, your body composition, all those things should be. Now it's not perfectly linear, but you definitely over a month's time, you should not have trained a month and feel like you didn't progress, especially early on in your training. You mentioned mobility. That's a big one that I see a lot of times. It's very elusive for people because they're just focused on strength and hasn't moved. But when in fact going back and reinforcing, you know, these, the supporting cast, the secondary muscle groups, um, and a lot of times like just getting that stability back in the joint,

it boosts back into, you know, pushing you through that plateau where now your strength can move again. But you know, a lot of times people don't see that because they'll, you know, just be so focused on that progressive overload and that just had worked for so long until it didn't. Yeah, by the way, increasing your range of motion means you're stronger even if you use the same weight. So if you squatted an inch or two deeper with the same weight, the same reps, you're stronger because you have a deeper range of motion.

Now, I mean, I don't think I need to say this, but plateaus are the most frustrating part of fitness. Definitely one of the most frustrating part of fitness. Definitely one of the most frustrating parts of strength training. It's frustrating because, it's not frustrating when you're not doing anything, because you expect to not see any progress. But when you're working hard

and you feel like you're doing the right things, you feel like you're putting in good effort, you're consistent, you're not missing the beat, to see no progress. That's incredibly There's it's one of the most frustrating things that you'll encounter In your fitness journey. It's it's more frustrating in my opinion than Having consistency issues or missing the gym because you expect to not get you know progress, right? That's also frustrating by the way

It's what, I can't string together. Well, you put the work in and it's not moving. Yeah, it's still frustrating. I'd say it's like showing up to work for a week and not getting paid. Exactly. Exactly. There's not a lot of job.

But also a great analogy, too, because we talk about finding your passion, finding a job that you would do that you would do even if someone didn't pay you is like the secret to finding a job. That's also the secret when it comes to training. Like do something that you work out because you love to work out and you wanna take care of yourself, not because you necessarily need to see results

weekend and week out, because if you attach it to that, then it can get very discouraging in moments like this because there's gonna be periods of time on your journey of training when you don't get paid for the job. And are you the type of person that's gonna throw in the towel

and quit showing up to work because you don't get paid for the job and are you the type of person that's gonna throw in the towel and quit showing up to work because you didn't get paid that week? And a lot of people would say yes, if it was a job, I would not show up to work the next week. But that's why it's important that you have this love for it and enjoy the process of learning and growing and that you do it because you are taking care of yourself. And you're gonna encounter plateaus,

I think that's the point we're trying to make. They're very normal, if you're consistent, you will hit a plateau. But the key is to have a strategy when you do, first off, know how to identify in a plateau, which I think we've somewhat explained. But then also have a strategy. Now, here's the strategy that most people employ

when they hit a plateau after working hard and being consistent. And it's usually the wrong strategy. and this is what they typically do. The typical person working out consistent especially when they're first getting into it like their first year of consistency they hit a plateau no progress for three weeks or or six weeks and what they do is they go oh I, I must need to add more, or I need to go harder, so I need to just push harder and do more and more and more. This is sometimes the answer, but usually not the answer.

Usually the answer to the person who's very consistent, who hasn't missed a workout, who now has plateaued, usually the answer is not to do more. That's typically not the answer. It is sometimes, but usually not the case. It's usually the wrong answer. And what tends to happen, and here's how you know this is not the right answer for you,

is you add more work, the plateau doesn't budge, and then it starts to go backwards. Then you start to see yourself actually losing strength and losing progress, and definitely don't add more work at that point, realize, oh, adding more was the wrong answer. My body doesn't have the ability to adapt to this properly. I've actually lost strength. Let's look at everything and change everything

and let's employ some different steps. I'm trying to think of the scenario where it is. Maybe the client that you had to start really slow because they thought they could only commit to maybe one day a week, you know, and they'd been doing that for a while, saw good results, and then now their body's pretty much adapted to that.

The careful, calculated addition of volume, appropriate volume, is when it works, which rarely happens. I was gonna say, because I think it's important that we tell that to the audience, because I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is when a plateau comes, just piling on more. That's right. And it's usually not a little more.

Exactly. And it's usually not that, that's not the solution to that person. The only time I can think of where that is the solution is the rare occasion where I had a client who's like, Adam, I don't want to commit to any more than one hour or a half hour of working out a week. Can you help me? And of course I can, because you weren't doing anything before. And if I give you an effective workout

for a half hour, hour a week, we can definitely see progress. But what I know will eventually happen is if they are consistent with that, at some point they'll probably start to hit a plateau. And then the easy go-to would be increasing volume on them. And so that's probably the only case I can recall where that is the answer to this. Well, I can see that.

I mean, I've also seen some of clients I've trained that beforehand, they had a routine that they always did where it's just the same weights that they always pick. And really, the progressive overload wasn't a thought process. It was just, this is what I can control, and this is how many reps I do, and then it just stops working for them. Yeah, that's another category of individuals. And I would see this more with my middle-aged gym members who it became a routine for them. And they had plateaued a long time ago. They haven't changed anything for a long time.

Yeah, it was years. Yeah, and they just, it's like, oh, I use the 10 pound dumbbells for this, I put the weight stack in here for that, I do the exact same thing, the exact same thing on the treadmill, the exact same thing, whatever. And they just don't see any progress, they've accepted it and they just haven't changed anything. And if I ever got the opportunity to talk to them and then get them to hire me, then we were able to make some pretty small changes to get their body moving forward. I like the way that you, Adam, talked about adding volume

when you had really been meticulous and calculated it. Because the typical approach to adding volume is just doing a much more, but you, when you were competing, you were very careful to add just a bit more volume, but that started with you tracking your volume to even know what that looked like. Yeah, I know, I think there's the other challenge is, you know, okay, maybe this is a situation

where I can add volume, but it doesn't take much. It literally is like a set, set more of something or just a little bit more of that exercise slowly or increasing weight, because that's the other part that people don't factor in is that if I've been training in a program and let's say let's say you're following one of our programs that's laid out for you and You've gotten to a point where when you first started doing squats You were doing those sets of squats with 220 225 and now you're at 235

That's progressive overload. Volume went up. Volume went up, you know, and so I don't need to move anything there. It's like I'm waiting until I start to see a plateau there and then when I increase, it is just a tiny bit. Take 5% or something like that. Yes, there's a tiny bit more and when you look at that

in the context of an entire week, it's only like a set or two more of an exercise and that will sort of do it. It would just be, I don't recommend this to the average person because I don't think the average person's going to track total volume like I was, you know, because I would just, okay, I've did it, let's just say hypothetically, you know, 5,000 pounds of total volume on my legs this week.

So I just need to make sure that I do at least that or five or 10 more pounds more than that every week. And that was just kind of the thought process was because the other thing I noticed too, was for people that don't track, who just go through the natural ebb and flow of how they feel. Like when I would zoom out of a month, I would have weeks where I had 5,000 pounds than other weeks where I'd have 45 and then back up to 5,000. And so you naturally have this ebb and flow.

And so my first goal was just be consistent with the Volume be consistent with it It's funny because like diet when people are trying to they're not tracking and they're either trying to diet Yeah, but then they make you know actually so much more than they think and they stay the same That's what exactly what I found with volume is that we kind of naturally have like you you and you all can like You know if you think about it, you're like, yeah It doesn't make sense because I know there's those times where you're like that was just a good workout And what do you do in a good workout?

You throw extra more or you do a little extra. And so we would have these natural, but then when I zoomed out, I wasn't really progressive overloading. I was having weeks were down and then weeks were up. But then when I added it all up, the total volume was so the first step was be consistent with my total volume and then allow me to get to a place where I wasn't seeing progress. And then I would just barely bump it up. Well the first thing I think you need to focus on and really really look at carefully because its objective is

strength. Strength is of all the metrics and I don't think it's a perfect metric in the sense that you don't need any other metrics. I think a compiling metrics is a great way to really judge the effectiveness of your workout and how your body's progressing and all that stuff. But I like if I had to pick just one metric, especially if I was dealing with somebody in the first three years of consistent strength training, it's strength. Because strength tells me a lot by itself. Other metrics don't tell me a lot by themselves or at least not as much. So with strength, if somebody's getting stronger, then I know that their

nutrition is at least adequate. I know that their training programming is at least moving them in the right direction. I know that they're sleeved. Yes. So if strength is moving forward, then I know we're doing okay. We're doing well. So I think the focus on strength is very important. Now what lends itself well to this, even if you're somebody that doesn't really care too much about how strong you are, or at least how strong you are is just a means to an end, because you just want to get lean,

or you want to change how you look, I think a great plateau buster for those people is to follow a strength training program where strength is the goal. In other words, I'll give you an example. I used to do this all the time. I'd have female clients who would hire me whose primary goal was just to look good.

How much weight they lifted was cool and they liked it, but they didn't really care if they squatted 135 or 100. What was important to them was how they looked in the mirror, how they felt in their clothes and all that stuff So it wasn't that big of a deal for them and and they would hire me because they weren't progressing well, one of the best ways to get them to progress again was to have them train a powerlifting routine where the goal was to get stronger and Regardless of how you look we're gonna get your squat your deadlift and your bench press for example to go up and it was great because we're gonna get your squat and your deadlift and your bench press for example to go up and it was great because

powerlifting routines in particular or strength competitive strength training type routines where you're competing to lift more weight The programming is so much more precise bodybuilding routines are not nearly as precise hit routines Definitely not as precise but powerlifting is typically a science because they're designed for competition. And so when you look at a powerlifting routine, it looks like 90% of your one rep max here, 30% here. Follow these reps. Regardless how you feel, oh, I feel like I could do more reps. Don't worry about it. Follow the program. It's about getting stronger following this objective metric. And when you get stronger, other things start to follow along, including and especially the aesthetic. So I think focusing on strength is a great place to start when you've hit a plateau.

Well, naturally it just builds better behaviors throughout your day when you're focused on strength, which is what we're trying to reiterate to that type of client that's trying to lose body fat and look better and all these things. It's just harder to communicate that, whereas if you can focus on strength. It's like you have to get the adequate amount of sleep. You have to rest. And you have to eat well. All these things have to factor in. Yeah, and it's accountability built into that.

So I think it's great to steer somebody there first. And then as we go along in the process, too, that's where we can alter things to cater more towards you know more physique and aesthetic goals. So I want to blend this point if you don't mind with your second point. Because for me this is one of my biggest hacks for breaking through a plateau and that would be to your point focusing on strength. Okay well what do I do if I'm plateauing strength wise in all these major lifts I do?

And that is change the exercise up and then chase strength. So like one of the best hacks ever is, because everybody has this, everybody listening right now has a handful, if not more exercises that they just avoid. They just don't like it or they're scared to try it or it's just not their favorite to do. They suck at it. Yeah, they suck at it.

You name the list, list goes on and on, but we all have it. I don't. They suck at it. Yeah, they suck at it. You name the list. List goes on and on, but we all have it. I don't care how long you've been lifting, how advanced you are, everybody has a list. They have a list of these exercises and I guarantee on that list, there's a handful of really good exercises that belong in there. And so one of my favorite ways to break through a plateau is pick some of those exercises or pick a program that is different than what you would normally do. If you're the, that's why I like your point of like you're helping out like the girl who wants to build the booty or the

bikini competitor or the guy who just wants to look a certain way, moving them to a strength-focused, powerlifting, strongman type of routine which has all these different exercises that they don't lift in their bodybuilding world is one of the greatest ways to bust through a plateau because mainly they're doing movements that are unfamiliar. We can now pursue getting stronger in those, which is also psychologically beneficial because when you are doing a new lift, although it's challenging and you're not good at it, the beauty is that there's lots of room to progress. So like, for example, I suck at the Turkish getup because I haven't been doing that in a really long time. The positive to that is I'm going to watch myself week

over week get stronger in it. And that can be very psychologically beneficial in the pursuit of breaking through a plateau. So one of my favorite hacks is introduce new exercises or a new type of program, a direction you normally wouldn't go and pursue strength. The combination of the two of those is like a guaranteed pot-toe buster. The last time this happened for me, like big time, was when we created Map Strong.

Map Strong is, so I mentioned a powerlifting routine. Powerlifting for me was very familiar, because I've trained that way before. Bench pressing, dead lifting, squatting, in the fashion of, or with the pursuit of trying to get stronger in those. I've done that many times. I never trained with strongman type programming up until we created Map Strong with Robert Oberst.

And there were exercises that I'd never done, like snatch grip, high poles, and you know, really heavy trap bar, you know, farmer walks. Wide grip, deadlift. Yeah, Z press, like just all these weird, like wide grip, snatch grip deadlifts. Like I never did the Zurcher squat.

You know, exercises I'd never really done in programming before, and it was the first time in my adult life where I went radically different, and I got great, exactly what you said. It's like I'm doing this new exercise, I'm gonna suck at it, so I'm gonna try it, and then the next week, I can add 10 pounds, and then the next week, I can add,

like that didn't happen to me since I was a teenager. It's like Newby Gaines. It's like you get, it's the hack, everybody who's been training for a while or a long time knows what, like you always refer back to, man, when I first started, it was so great. You can hack back into that, and one of the hacks is going to, you know what I first started, it was so great. You can hack back into that. And one of the hacks is going to,

you know what I love about that program too? It reminds me of how we met and how I was impressed by what you did in Maps Anabolic before we went out. When I first, before I knew Sal, or knew of, like before we met in person, we'd only talked virtually. And you sent over Maps Anabolic, and I went, oh, this is brilliant. And what I thought was so brilliant

was the way he programmed it. because I knew in his first phase what he was doing because I knew he was solving a problem with most all of our clients that they didn't focus on strength in these compound lifts. Same thing goes for another thing that I see a lot of people that know how many people do 20 reps of any exercises. That's phase one of strong. I know. So it's like a guaranteed plateau buster. Not only are you doing different exercises, you also are doing sets of 20,

which rarely anybody does. You combine those, and it's like a guaranteed recipe to play through. That's the next point, which is to change the rep range in a radical way. And look, probably 80% of the people listening to this podcast, maybe more, stay within a rep range.

It's generally the same rep. Close to it, right? Yeah, it's oh yeah, sometimes I do three more reps or five more reps, but you're not in a radically different rep range. Like if you train in the 12, 15 rep range, like when's the last time you trained in three reps? Probably never.

Or if you always train in that five rep range, when's the last time you went as high as 20 reps? Probably never. Changing the rep range, when's the last time you went as high as 20 reps? Probably never. Changing the rep range in a radical way is a very easy way. Very easy way, and I'd say probably 60 to 70% of the time, that alone breaks you through a plateau, is simply moving to a completely different rep range. And I like this one because it's easy.

I'm not telling you to do anything else. I'm not telling you to do anything else. Just take what you- You don't have to learn a new skill. We're just adjusting this one because it's easy. I'm not telling you to do anything else. I'm not telling you anything else. Just take what you're- You don't have to learn any skill. We're just adjusting this one metric that yeah, does like feel like completely different workout. That's right. Especially if you are hyper aware of your own tendencies because like you said, even there's a lot of people that are pretty good about they understand that there's you know,

this kind of six to eight rep range and they know there's this 12 to 15 rep range, and they kind of float around these different rep ranges, and so they feel like, oh, I do most of them. But rarely anybody ever trains singles, doubles, or triples, unless you're a powerlifter type person, and rarely anybody's training as high as 20 reps unless you're into the supersets and high-end endurance type of training.

Those are two areas nobody touches. Yeah, those are kind of the two areas that nobody really touches, and then you ask yourself, am I the person who kind of leans more are the two areas nobody touches. Yeah, those are kind of the two areas that nobody really touches and then you ask yourself, am I the person who kind of leans more towards the 15 plus? Am I the superset guy, the short rest period guy, the 15 reps plus type of person or am I the guy who's like, I don't like doing anything over 10 and whichever one you avoid the most, if you gravitate towards that, that's a plateau buster. Next is just to change the tempo. This by the way is a veteran trainer trick. This is like, you know, trainers who are veterans,

there's certain tricks that we have where we can convince somebody to hire us. Is it too easy for you? Yeah, it's like, there are certain tricks you learn as a trainer to get people to hire you long term. So like, oh, I'm only gonna try you out for 10 sessions. And what you wanna do as a trainer is you wanna show them something so that they believe that you know what you're

talking about and then they hire you for six months. This is a trick, you change the tempo. You take somebody and go, oh cool, let me show you, oh, you always do squats, let me see how you do them. All right, cool, here's what we're gonna do. Five second negative, pause at the bottom for two seconds, come seconds come back up and then boom they see progress in their legs from that alone And it happens very quickly and this is another very easy one take your current workout and You know the one most people don't do is the four second negative. So take your reps

Give it a four full four second negative before you come First off, you're gonna have to lighten the load by a good 30, 40%. But watch what happens to your progress. Now, if you are that rare individual that does that, speed it up a little bit. But changing the tempo is a very easy way to get the body to progress. Then you're gonna have to adjust your rest

a bit more with that as well, recovery. But yeah, it's all those factors that changes the whole dynamic of the movement. And yeah, just doing that four second negative, it really like impacts the muscle and breaks it down. So yeah, that's a huge one. If you've been listening to the podcast for long enough, you've heard me say this so many times

because I was blown away. I remember when I first read the protocol for hypertrophy training and it was 422. And then I went out in the gym and I just started counting everybody's negative. I was like like nobody does it So this became my hack for like the advanced lifters and the reason why I say that is not because it won't affect Newbies or somebody who's a novice it absolutely will affect them too

But sometimes I actually would get to train somebody who who knows all the stuff that we said before They actually do train in all the rep range They do understand a lot, but I found nobody mess with tempo. That was like, that was why you say it's an advanced or like an experienced trainer. Experienced trainer who's trained a whole bunch of all different people may have came across some advanced lifters that have done a good job

of doing the change in the exercises, going after strength, messing with rep ranges. Oh, but I bet they didn't fuck with tempo. No, never. Yeah, but they didn't mess with tempo. And so messing with tempo, manipulating that, but yet not changing any of their routine up was a surefire way for me to show them like something different. And that was like an easy hack also to break the plateau.

And by the way, you can be very specific with this if you plateau in just one area, you could change the tempo of just that exercise. You don't necessarily have to change your entire workout this way, but if you have a lift, where you're really trying to get that lift to improve, change the tempo of just that lift, and then watch what happens. A lot of times, even if you're more experienced, you can add more explosive tempos.

So it's all about acceleration at that point, which gives a more fast twitch response, watch your muscles completely respond differently. That's what happened with me with Map Strong, because Map Strong has the, like the snatch grip high pulls, which I never, or I rarely programmed explosive lifts like that. And I got crazy upper back gains from that. Now, you mentioned earlier, Adam, about knowing your tendencies.

Here is something very valuable, which is find a new structure and then follow it and trust it. Because here's what ends up happening, and I am guilty of this. A lot of people are guilty of this. You'll change something and then you go back to your old tendencies. And you'll try it for a couple weeks and you go back.

Like, okay, I always back squat. They said try a new exercise. I'm gonna front squat this week. And then what do I do next week? Go back to back squat. No, no, no. Follow a new routine, stick to it. Stick to it, allow your body to adapt

and get better with it, and then watch what happens. Following a routine, I don't need to make the argument that having a structured routine is valuable for a beginner, obviously because they need to know a direction, but I will make the argument that it can be just as valuable for the advanced lifter because advanced lifters follow their own thing, they get stuck in a rut, they do the same thing,

tend to follow the same tendencies. When I am given a new routine that I didn't write, or I didn't necessarily say, oh this is not something I want to do, but I know if I follow it, because it's not something that I have a tendency to do, I'll get great results. As a result.

Guaranteed, and everybody is this, I don't care what anybody says. All of us in here are this. If each one of us were to train each other, we know each other well enough that we would know what program to make them stick to that would give them the greatest change because we know each other's tendencies. I know like and that's not to say that Justin and Sal and Doug doesn't cycle through programs or do different style. It's that you all still gravitate to the thing you do more. Yes You have your preferences. Yes, you have your preferences. And I know if I was trying to impress you by showing you change, especially body composition

change or strength gains, I know where I would go. I would go to what Justin doesn't like to do the most. I would go to what Sal does like to do the most and show them the most results. This is everybody. Everybody has this. Even if you're good about cycling through modalities, you still have a tendency. It's human nature. It's human nature. And it's not necessary. By the way, I want to point this out. It's not necessarily a bad thing because I do think this is part of

enjoying your workout and being consistent, right? Part of why Justin loves to swing the clubs and do strong exercises because he enjoys that that and if you made him do a bunch of bodybuilder bro isolation exercises he would give it would shoot himself or say I don't want to train like this forever. So there is something positive about gravitating to a modality because it keeps you consistent but it's also smart to be aware when you hit plateaus that oh I've been doing this too long or oh now it's time to change. That's the self-awareness. It's like I'm not saying it's bad to have tendencies or have things you like to do and show the gym But when you are saying I'm at a plateau and I can't break that plateau to have the self-awareness literally need to change

Yeah, yeah, that's yours. That's your that's your body screaming at you saying hey, you have been doing that type of stuff too long now Let's switch over here right now If you're like if you're the individual that's super consistent, never misses a workout, like you are religious about it, and you're plateauing, sometimes you need a week off. And now what you can do in that week is either you can take it off completely, which is perfectly fine, that's great, or you could have a structured recovery week,

and if I'm not mistaken, Doug, we have a guide for this that we give it away, right? Yeah, for free on mindpumpfree.com. What's it called? The Seven Day Rescue Recovery Guide, I believe. Okay, so it's a guide that we wrote. It's free. And it's seven days planned out, literally to accelerate recovery.

It includes things like cold and hot exposure Static stretching mobility work some band work, but nonetheless so you can get that at mind pump free calm, but nonetheless Sometimes what you need is a week off or a week of recovery a week of exercise or movement that facilitates recovery So maybe you don't do nothing But you do little so you can allow your body to have that break. Now I would experience this on accident all the time as a kid because I was so consistent and so dogged about it. Then I'd go on vacation, didn't have access to a gym, I'd come back and be stronger. And that happened to me enough times for me to realize like I think I need a week off

sometimes. I think that's why that's the reason why I plateau. Yeah I actually I like this tip a lot for this audience, right? If you're, if you're listening to this podcast, I would bet you're more likely the person. I'm sure we have a nice split, right? We obviously have a lot of listeners. So there's a, there's a, there's somebody in every group, but if you care enough to be listening to a podcast that teaches you about exercise and fitness, you probably are more likely the consistent person who's working out and you're

looking for the competitive edge always, or probably are more likely the consistent person who's working out and you're looking for the competitive edge always or you want more. Be different for like the biohacking tech people. Yes. Just trying to do the least amount. Yes, yeah. So I would venture to say that there's a big portion of people probably listening right now that would greatly benefit from a scheduled recovery week like the one that we've created or you might be the person that needs to scale back a little bit just because that's you. If you are consider your, especially if you consider yourself a fitness fanatic, because I don't know how many times this would happen to me. And we've talked about this on the show

where you took off for vacation for a week and you had to, because you're out camping or somewhere far. And then you come back and you were stronger. That's like a clear indication that you were overdoing it when a week of not training makes you, makes you break through a plateau. Like that's a clear indication of like, Oh, you were redlining just way too much. And so this is good advice for this, but I love the, the, I mean, when we created the guide, I really like it. So I think every day, yeah, it's laid out for you. It's free. So may as well use that.

So if you don't know what to do or what we'd recommend, then check out the guide. Got some questions here. The first one is, I haven't lost any weight for 30 days. Is this a plateau? Maybe not. Maybe not. If you got stronger, if the game again.

It's also weight. You know, they said weight in the question. You could also be eating more too. Like, I don't know how many times I've had a client be discouraged because 30 days went by, they didn't lose any weight. But I'm't know how many times I've had a client be discouraged because 30 days went by they didn't lose any weight, but I'm like you're eating 300 more calories a day. You know that, right?

Your metabolism is faster. Your metabolism is faster. That's not a plateau. That's a good thing right now and we're heading in the right direction. So just because you haven't lost weight in a week doesn't mean that we aren't moving in the right direction in other metrics.

Or what I would see often with clients in the first 60 days is they didn't lose much weight at all, but I would track their body fat percentage and it turned out they lost body fat and built muscle. So the scale didn't change, but they lost inches and they lost body fat. Especially if you're not increasing weight. That's right. Yeah, that's the big thing. Yeah.

So weight still, unfortunately, is stuck in people's mind if they're not increasing weight. That's right. Yeah, that's the big thing. Yeah, so weight still unfortunately is stuck in people's mind if they're on that journey of losing body fat, when in fact it's probably better for you to keep and maintain the weight. In the beginning. In the beginning. Can diet changes break a plateau? Yeah.

Definitely. That was another easy hack for me when I'd get the typical person and look at their diet and be like, oh cool, let's bump your protein and then all of a sudden you see progress go through the roof and of course it can change plateaus with fat loss, right? A lot of times people miscalculate their caloric intake, they're eating more than they think or whatever or a reverse diet. Even adding carbs back in. I know I did that for a while, I was like carnivore a bit and then my performance dropped

substantially like as I worked out and to just add that back in and have the energy was huge. Before we walked in here I was just talking to Kyle. Kyle is training a friend of ours that's a famous country singer and he was just breaking down his diet with me and he's like he's like pro I'm just gonna he's I'm just gonna bump his carbs right now because he's on tour he's doing all these things he's trying to build strength he's like Adam he was only eating this and that's a perfect example right there of like, by how that can break someone through a plateau because he knows the level of intensity, obviously the extraneous that can be

and him being on a low carb is like a recipe for losing strength. So he's like, I'm gonna show him strength gains just simply by bumping his carbohydrates. How often do you guys plateau? What do you personally do? I plateau all the time now. Well, though I always plateau now because I've been? I plateau all the time. Never? Well I always

plateau now because I've been... I'm going to perpetual plateau. I plateau all the time because I've been I've been strength training consistently since I was you know 14 years old and I'm 46 now so I can't and I'm not gonna perpetually progress that being said I could break some plateaus in areas that I neglect. Like it would be very easy for me if I play some focus on mobility to break through a mobility plateau. The reason why I plateau mobility wise, I don't place a lot of focus on it or flexibility or stamina.

Like I don't spend a lot of time training stamina aside from the high rep squats or something like that. So I could definitely break through some plateaus, but the ones I'm always focused on are the ones that make me bigger. And those I don't think I'll break anytime soon. It's mainly what I lose interest in. Yeah, I'm not consistent enough to have a plateau.

I'm either making change or I'm not. Your goal is to hit a plateau. My goal is to hit a plateau. Yeah, you've been on a good run. Yeah, you know, it's really easy, especially when we talk about all the different things that measure plateau. It's actually very easy for me to not,

one, I'm definitely nowhere near the, I'd have to be at Sal's consistency level to even make this, even think about a concern, because I'm normally progressing one way or another, but it's such, it's just a shift of focus because even if I plateau in a strength category, then I know that if typically that means I've been so focused on getting strong that I've probably been neglecting some mobility stuff. So then all I have to do is switch over to mobility. And then let's say I focus on that for a little bit, then there's always a program that it's like,

oh man, when was the last I mentioned it earlier, when was the last time I did Turkish getups, I'll start of implement those or windmills into my routine, which I haven't been doing. And so then I'll break, so, you know, I wouldn't, I don't suffer from plateaus because there's always something that I can be switching over or focusing on. And I think that's the key to this is being aware of that, that you should always be challenging yourself

with new something. New ranges of motion, new exercises, new tempos, and so nobody should really hit a plateau for that long, and if they do, they should definitely be shifting their focus. Does sleep affect plateaus? Oh God, I can't, I mean, I remember the first time I had a client like this where I couldn't figure out

what was going on. We had changed different parameters and metrics and we'd start moving forward a little bit and they'd plateau real hard again. And then I addressed sleep. This was in the early days. I would consider my early days as a trainer. First five years or so when I didn't realize

the impact sleep had. And I had a trainer that worked for me trainer first five years or so when I didn't realize the impact sleep had. And I had a, I had a trainer that worked for me who was very good at understanding the whole body and I heard her communicate to a client about sleep and I thought, Oh, I mean, I guess, yeah, I guess that is true. And I worked on sleep with this person and it

was like, I, it was like, it was like a magic person and it was like a magic, it literally was like a magic wand. Everything progressed suddenly because we flexed. The key just unlocked all this potential. Totally, and the best routine by the way will suck with terrible sleep. So sleep is such an important part of all this that it for sure has an impact.

I feel like every young trainer tends to neglect this conversation and then you become an older trainer and then it becomes the only thing you talk about. I think once you reach an age where it's obvious, then you realize, Oh shit, how long I was getting away with not focusing on this. And I don't know if I've ever met a trainer who's been training for 10, 15, 20 years and is now in their 40s and 50s and reflects back to when they were younger and says like, man, I wish I would have figured that out sooner because it's interesting

how the human body will eventually force you to understand and grasp this. And then you realize, holy crap, it's such a game changer to get sleep and to focus on that. So yeah, no matter how old you are right now listening to this, if you're young and you don't think it's that important, it is. And I promise you, if you put some energy and effort towards it, you'll see a difference. If you're older, you're probably already nodding your head that like, you know this because how easily sleep affects everything. Totally. Now in this, in this episode, we mentioned a couple of programs, you're probably already nodding your head that like you know this because how easily sleep affects everything. Now in this in this episode we mentioned a couple programs Map Strong and Maps Power Lift. Both great plateau busters Both 50% off because of this episode so half off if you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com

Click on Map Strong or Maps Power Lift or get both Use the code PR50 and you'll get them both for 50% off. Again, it's at MAPSFITNESSPRODUCTS.COM, MAPSTRONG, MAPSPOWERLIFT with the code PR50, 50% off. You can also find us on Instagram. Justin is at MINDPUMP. Justin, I'm at MINDPUMP. DiStefano and Adam is at MINDPUMP. Thank you for listening to MINDPUMP. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically

transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on

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