Plateaus...

[William S.]

How do you overcome plateaus? I keep hitting a plateaus with certain BW exercises and I don't know if I'll ever get past them.

Anyone else experience this? Rep numbers or poundage on certain lifts?

[jondy]

You can try doing something different for a while. Just change up your whole workout for a week or two. A lot of times that is all it takes to get past a sticking point.

[.V.]

He william. yeah, we all experience it from time to time. How long since you've had a break? Maybe a week off or even two will help. Or as already suggested, change your workout for a while.

In my program, when I hit a wall and can't go forward, I take a break and reset the whole thing to much lighter weights...about a month's work lighter than my current 5RM. So basically I get a month to recover before I'm back to the heavy (for me) and moving into getting stronger.

[EliteLift]

hey William. I think everyone who wieghtlifts has or is going to plateau at one point or another, so dont
be discuraged. I myself had trouble benching for more than a year, I had doubled the weight I was using on rows but in the same timeframe my bench did not change at all!

I agree that temporarly changing your routine will help. if that means differnt push-up/pull-up variations or going from barbells to dumbbell for a few weeks I would give that a shot.

you also have to listen to your body though. if you are working out very frequently with a fair amount of intensity you might build more muscle lying on the couch for a week than in the gym. I remember last christmas I layed off the gym for two weeks and came back making gains (and then some) I was working all year to achieve.

Good luck!

[.V.]

Note: I know you said bodyweight exercises and we are talking about other weight lifting exercises. But the principles are the same, you are working against resistance. Change things around, take a break, get past the plateau.

Good luck to you.