Avoiding the Dreaded Exercise Plateau

People are creatures of habit. When they find something that works, they tend to stick with it. The exercise routines that people use are a perfect example. Some people settle into an exercise routine, and they won't change anything about it. It is their go-to routine and they are going to stick with it no matter what.

Unfortunately, despite maintaining the same level of physical activity, many people start to notice they don't get the results that they used to get from their go-to exercise routine. The reason that an exercise routine loses its effectiveness over time is the principle of adaptation.

The principle of adaptation is a simple concept. The body will attempt to adapt to whatever stress you place upon it.

For example, resistance training breaks down muscle fibers. The body reacts to the stress of resistance training by re-building the muscle fibers stronger and bigger than before. This makes the muscles more resilient to the stress of resistance training in the future. This is the body's way to adapt to the challenges that it faces, and it is the process that is responsible for any gain in fitness.

The dreaded plateau

Once the body has adapted to the stresses placed on it, fitness gains begin to plateau. When you plateau, exercise becomes easier, but your body doesn't really get fitter like it did when you first started your exercise routine.

To avoid the plateau, you have to switch up your routine and keep your body guessing. Some people call switching up the exercise routine on a regular basis to avoid plateau muscle confusion.

To keep getting results, you have to force the body continue to adapt. You can't get too comfortable in your exercise routine. You need to switch up you fitness routine every 3-4 weeks to maximize your results.

Applying adaptation to HGH production

I talk quite a bit in my blog about the benefits of increasing human growth hormone (HGH) production through exercise. Adaptation is a very important concept in regards to HGH production. This is because HGH is produced most effectively after high intensity exercise.

For example, let's say that you take my advice and start running hill sprints to boost your HGH production. Four weeks later you are feeling fantastic. You are building muscle, your endurance has improved, and you are getting restful sleep.

You are so impressed with your results that you decide that hill sprints are the only way to go. You press on with your routine and you run the same hill sprints for the next 8 weeks.

Over the course of those 8 weeks you gradually start to feel like you aren't really making progress. You are getting through the workout just fine, but your fitness isn't really improving and might even be getting worse! You have hit the dreaded plateau.

Your body has fully adapted to running hill sprints and this has reduced the intensity and effectiveness of the exercise. This drop in exercise intensity resulted in a drop in HGH production. You didn't mix up the exercise routine, and as a result your fitness is getting worse.

To get your HGH levels back up again you will have to stress the body in a different way to increase the intensity level. You have to keep the body off balance if you want it to keep getting fitter.

If you want to get in better shape, do me a favor. Don't just stick to your old standby exercise routine that you have been doing forever. The body is an amazing organism. It adapts to whatever you throw at it. Throw the kitchen sink at it! Mix things up and keep the body guessing if you want to get the results that you really want!