Am I regressing? say goodbye to Plateaus

Yesterday I talked about plateaus and keeping track of progression and how it wasn't as important as the FEELING you have when training, there is a reason why I said what I said.

When you start training, counting reps and holds as well as measuring flexibility levels is very motivating and crucial to building the drive to do more.

In the beginning stages you'll make dramatic improvements in strength, endurance and flexibility.

Students sometimes see their numbers double or even triple in the first couple of months.

What I'm getting at is when you gain more experience and you've been training for a while you will reach very high numbers, so much so that when you look at how many reps you could do of certain exercises when you first started will seem like a joke.

If for example you could only do 25 non-stop push-ups when you started and now after having followed the guidelines found in our strength training kits you build that up to 50 then 75, 95, 100, 115 and eventually to 125, making the jump from 25 to 50 is more exciting than the jump from 120 to 125.

Same thing with Squats. If you started at 50 and now you reach the 800 to 1000 rep range you realize there has to be more to your training than just counting and beating rep records.

As I mentioned, those are great motivators at first when you make giant leaps in strength and endurance. Same thing with flexibility, once you reach a level of doing a full split and you become flexible and pliable throughout your body and are able to perform full range of movements with ease, you've reached what we call the gold standard. I'll go more in detail about this in another e-mail.

A Plateau, recognize when you're

 stuck on one

 

  

When reps are the only thing that you focus on and you don't beat your past record during one of your workouts that's when you start doubting yourself and asking some unnecessary questions: What's happening? Am I regressing?, I must of hit a plateau?, etc...

If you simply switch your focus to how good you felt that day in your workout, paid attention to your breath, visualized yourself accomplishing certain goals you've set for yourself professionally and personally during each exercise, worked through the pain and showed yourself it's something you can control, and just had an overall sense of gratitude to be alive and able to do these exercises and movements, that's the important stuff.

Focusing on the above elements will keep you motivated forever and help you avoid the dreaded plateau.

Follow the system that is outlined in our strength training kits. It's been put to the test for the past 35 years and will automatically push you to progress with each workout.

Master Yourself,

Sibok Martin