2552: From Plateau to PR... How to Break Through Strength Barriers

Summary

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
Episode 2552: From Plateau to PR... How to Break Through Strength Barriers
Release Date: March 13, 2025
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Introduction

In Episode 2552, the Mind Pump team delves deep into the common challenge many fitness enthusiasts face: hitting a plateau in strength training. The hosts—Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, and Doug Egge—share their extensive experience to provide actionable strategies for breaking through these strength barriers and achieving personal records (PRs).

Understanding Plateaus

Adam Schafer begins by defining a plateau as a period where progress stalls across all measured metrics. He emphasizes the importance of evaluating multiple indicators of progress rather than fixating on a single metric like bench press strength.

“Plateau for me is like, like nothing. Like, yeah, there's no problem.”
— Adam Schafer [01:29]

Justin Andrews adds that consistent tracking over weeks helps in accurately identifying genuine plateaus, distinguishing them from temporary stagnations due to factors like poor sleep.

Common Misconceptions and Mistakes

A prevalent mistake when facing a plateau is the instinctual urge to push harder or add more volume. However, this often leads to further stagnation or even regression.

“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.”
— Adam Schafer [07:20]

Doug Egge points out that many individuals neglect secondary factors like mobility and stability, which are crucial for continuous strength gains.

Strategies to Break Through Plateaus

1. Focus on Strength as a Primary Metric

Adam Schafer advocates for using strength as the primary metric, especially in the early years of training. Strength gains not only indicate progress but also indirectly reflect improvements in nutrition, sleep, and overall training efficacy.

“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.”
— Adam Schafer [16:30]

2. Introduce New Exercises or Training Programs

Justin Andrews emphasizes the importance of incorporating unfamiliar exercises or switching to different training programs to stimulate new muscle adaptations.

“One of my favorite hacks is to introduce new exercises or a new type of program... the combination of the two of those is like a guaranteed plateau buster.”
— Justin Andrews [17:42]

Adam Schafer shares his experience with MAP Strong, a program that introduced him to exercises like snatch grip deadlifts and farmer walks, leading to significant upper back gains.

3. Change Rep Ranges

Altering the rep range can shock the muscles into new growth. Adam Schafer suggests moving to a radically different rep range, stating that this alone can break through a plateau approximately 60-70% of the time.

“Changing the rep range in a radical way is a very easy way. And I'd say probably 60 to 70% of the time that alone breaks you through a plateau.”
— Adam Schafer [21:13]

4. Alter Tempo

Manipulating the tempo of lifts can significantly impact muscle engagement and growth. Justin Andrews highlights the effectiveness of slow negatives and pauses to increase time under tension.

“No, but they didn't mess with tempo. And so messing with tempo, manipulating that... is another easy hack to break through a plateau.”
— Justin Andrews [25:22]

5. Implement Recovery Weeks

Sometimes, the body needs a break to recover and adapt. Adam Schafer recommends scheduled recovery weeks, which can include activities like cold exposure, static stretching, and mobility work.

“Sometimes you need a week off or a week of recovery, a week of exercise or movement that facilitates recovery.”
— Adam Schafer [29:13]

Justin Andrews concurs, suggesting that even fitness fanatics can benefit from planned recovery to prevent overtraining.

6. Make Diet Adjustments

Diet plays a crucial role in overcoming plateaus. Increasing protein intake or adjusting carbohydrate levels can provide the necessary fuel for continued strength gains.

“Changing diets, like bumping your protein or carbs... can dramatically impact your strength and progress.”
— Justin Andrews [33:07]

Personal Experiences and Insights

Adam Schafer shares that despite consistent training since his teenage years, he still encounters plateaus, particularly in areas he doesn’t focus on, such as flexibility or stamina.

“If I'm focusing on mobility, I could break through a mobility plateau... but the ones I'm always focused on are the ones that make me bigger and those aren't those.”
— Adam Schafer [34:02]

Justin Andrews highlights his strategy of continuously shifting focus areas, ensuring he remains adaptable and avoids prolonged stagnation.

“I always have something that I can be switching over or focusing on... nobody should really hit a plateau for that long.”
— Justin Andrews [35:02]

Listener Questions

Sal Destefano addresses common listener concerns:

1. Weight Loss Plateaus:
   Adam Schafer explains that not losing weight doesn't necessarily indicate a plateau, especially if other metrics like strength or body fat percentage are improving.

   “Your metabolism is faster. That's not a plateau. That's a good thing right now.”
   — Adam Schafer [32:00]

2. Diet Changes:
   Justin Andrews reiterates the importance of diet adjustments in breaking plateaus, using the example of a client increasing carbohydrates to boost strength during a demanding period.

   “Breaking strength plateaus can be achieved by simply adjusting your carbohydrate intake.”
   — Justin Andrews [33:26]

3. Frequency of Plateaus:
   The hosts discuss their personal experiences with plateaus, emphasizing that plateaus are a natural part of the fitness journey and can be overcome with the right strategies.

Conclusion

Breaking through strength plateaus requires a multifaceted approach—focusing on strength as a primary metric, introducing new exercises, altering rep ranges and tempos, implementing recovery strategies, and making necessary diet adjustments. The Mind Pump team underscores the importance of consistency, adaptability, and self-awareness in overcoming these barriers. By understanding and applying these strategies, individuals can continue to progress and achieve their fitness goals.

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Relevant Resources:

• Recovery Guide: The hosts mention a 7 Day Rescue Recovery Guide available for free at mindpumpfree.com.
• Training Programs: Check out MAP Strong and MAP Powerlift at mapsfitnessproducts.com using the code PR50 for a 50% discount.

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Connect with Mind Pump:

• Instagram:
  @mindpumpmedia
  @mindpumpsal
  @mindpumpadam
  @mindpumpjustin
  @mindpumpdoug

• Website: mindpumppodcast.com

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This summary distills the key discussions and insights from Episode 2552, providing a comprehensive guide for those looking to overcome strength training plateaus.

Transcript

[Sal Destefano]

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

[Adam Schaefer]

Mind Pump. Mind Pump.

[Sal Destefano]

With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer.

[Justin Andrews]

And Justin Andrews, you just found the.

[Adam Schaefer]

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 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 try joy mode.com mind pump. Use the code mind pump and get 20% off. Also in this episode, you heard us talking about Maps Strong and maps powerlift, both 50% off right now. For this episode, go to maps fitnessprocs.com, use the code PR50. Get one or both of them for 50% off. All right, here comes the show. Plateauing sucks. We're going to talk about how you could break a plateau and actually hit a pr. Let's break some barriers, get your body progressing again. Let's talk about it.

[Doug]

Yeah, it's key. After it.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So plateau. A plateau is when your body just stops progressing and anyway, 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 want to say, and I think strength is the best metric, but I do want to say that I think sometimes think they're pla. 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 problem.

[Doug]

Nothing's moved on all those different metrics. Yeah, you gotta consider the whole thing.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. This is a conversation because when, when I was competing in. 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 strengths, everything about every, every week to two weeks. And I would never allow a, 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 and the body.

[Adam Schaefer]

Doesn'T progress like consistently.

[Justin Andrews]

Right.

[Adam Schaefer]

It doesn't need spurts.

[Justin Andrews]

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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So 21 days. Right. About three weeks is.

[Justin Andrews]

I like that.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. What you're looking at and this is, 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.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean if that were the case, I'd be able to be nice bench press it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. But I also think that I, I think that, and you communicate this well a lot on the show is that you know, there's, there's progress in many other.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Justin Andrews]

Ways that lasts a long time. I think when you become, when you become as advanced or 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, is my sleep been getting better lately? And oh, is my energy, is my skin, is my mood? It's like, you know, those things. Is my mobility feel better? Is my sore 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, you know, a month's time. You should not have trained a month and feel like you didn't. Nothing, especially early on. Yeah.

[Doug]

You mentioned mobility. That's, that's a big one that I see a lot of times, like, 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, and a lot of times, like just getting that stability back in the joint, it breaks, 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. Had worked for so long until it didn't.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. By the way, increasing your range of motion means you're stronger even if you use the same weight. So if you, if you squatted an inch or two deeper with the same weight to the same reps, you're stronger because you have a deeper range of motion.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

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 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 a beat to see no progress. That's incredibly. 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 like, oh, I can't stream work.

[Doug]

In and it's not moving.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, it's still frustrating.

[Justin Andrews]

I'd say it's like showing up to work for a week and not getting paid.

[Adam Schaefer]

Exactly, exactly.

[Justin Andrews]

There's not a lot of job. But also a great analogy too, because we talk about, you know, 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 a. Do something that you, you know, work out because you love to work out and you want to take care of yourself, not because you necessarily need to see results week in and week out, because if you attach it to that, then it can get very discouraging in moments like this because there's going to 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 going to 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

That you do it because you're going to 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 six weeks. And what they do is they go, oh, 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, let's look at everything and change everything and let's employ some different steps.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm trying to think of the scenario where it is. I mean, 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've been doing that for a while, saw good results and then now their body's pretty much adapted.

[Adam Schaefer]

The careful, calculated addition of volume, appropriate volume is when it works, which rarely happens.

[Justin Andrews]

I was going to 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right. And it's usually not a little more.

[Justin Andrews]

It's. Exactly. And it's usually not that that's not the solution to that person. The only time I can think of it 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.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

And so that's probably the only case I can recall where that is the answer to this.

[Doug]

Well, I could see that. I mean I've also seen like 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Doug]

And it like. And really like 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, that's, 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. Like they haven't changed anything.

[Doug]

Yeah. It was years.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. And they just, it's like, oh, I pick. I use the 10 pound dumbbells for this. I put the weight stack it here for that. I do the exact same thing. 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 they. 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.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, no, 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Volume went up.

[Justin Andrews]

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.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's like 5% or something.

[Justin Andrews]

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 more of an exercise. And that will start doing it would just be. I. I don't recommend this to the average person because I don't think the average person is 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 of total volume on my legs this week. So I just need to make sure that I do at least that or 5 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 5,000pounds and other weeks where I'd have 45 and then back up to 5,000. And so you naturally have this having flow. And so my first goal was just be consistent with the volume, be consistent with it.

[Adam Schaefer]

It's funny because, like, diet, when people are trying to. They're not tracking and they're eat, they're trying to diet, but they end up making up for the weekend so much more than they think, and they stay in the same.

[Justin Andrews]

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 does make sense because I know there's those times where you're like, man, it was just a good workout. And what do you do in a good workout? You throw extra work 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

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 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 the sleep. 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. They really, 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 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 going to 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.

[Doug]

When you've hit a well, naturally just builds better behaviors throughout your day. When you're focused on strength and 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 they can focus on strength. It's like you have to get the adequate amount of sleep, you have to rest and, you know, you have to eat well. All these things.

[Justin Andrews]

Accountability factor in.

[Doug]

Yeah, and it's accountability built into that. So I think it's, it's great to steer somebody there first and then, you know, as we go, 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.

[Justin Andrews]

So I, I want to blend this point. If you don't mind with your second point? Yeah, 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 every. 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.

[Doug]

Suck at it.

[Justin Andrews]

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 focus, 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 get up 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 plateau buster.

[Adam Schaefer]

The last time this happen for me, like big time, was when we created MAP Strong. Map Strong is. So, you know, I mentioned a powerlifting routine. Powerlifting for me was very familiar because I've trained that way before. Bench pressing, deadlifting, squatting in the fashion of, you know, 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 in there I'd never done, like snatch grip, high poles and, you know, really heavy trep bar, you know, farmer walk.

[Justin Andrews]

Why? Grip deadlift.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, Z press. Like just all these weird, like wide grip, snatch, grip deadlift. Like, I never did the Zerchercher squat, you know, exercises I'd never really done in programming before. And it was the. 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 and the next week I can add like that. That didn't happen to me since I was a kid.

[Justin Andrews]

It's like newbie gains. Yeah, it's like. You get that. You get it's. It is, it's the hack. Everybody who's been training for a while or a long time knows what like you, 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 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. When I first. Before I knew Sal and I 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 what his first phase, what he was doing, because he. 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 do. How many people do 20 reps of any exercises? That's phase one of strong.

[Adam Schaefer]

I know.

[Justin Andrews]

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.

[Adam Schaefer]

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.

[Justin Andrews]

Close to it, right?

[Adam Schaefer]

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 you, you, 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 that five 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 anything else.

[Doug]

Just take, you don't have to learn a new skill. We're just adjusting this one metric that yeah. Does like feel like completely different workout.

[Justin Andrews]

Especially, 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 6 to 8 rep range and they know there's this 12, the 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 super sets and high endurance type of training.

[Adam Schaefer]

Those are the two areas nobody touches.

[Justin Andrews]

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, that's a plateau buster.

[Adam Schaefer]

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 when we can convince somebody to hire.

[Doug]

Easy for you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah. It's like, like there are certain tricks you learn as a trainer to get people to hire you long like, oh, I'm only going to try you out for 10 sessions. And what you want to do as a trainer is you want to 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 tr. This is a trick. You change the tempo, you take somebody and go, 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 going to do. 5 second negative, pause at the bottom for 2 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 4 second negative. So take your reps, give it a 4 full 4 second negative before you come up. First off, you're gonna have to lighten the load by a good 30, 40%. But watch what happens, your progress. Now, if you are that rare individual that does that, speed it up a little bit. But change the tempo is a very easy way to get the body.

[Doug]

Adjust your rest a bit more with that as well and recovery. But yeah, it's all those factors. It changes the whole dynamic of, 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.

[Justin Andrews]

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 4, 2, 2. And then I went out in the gym and I just started counting everybody's negative. I was 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 messed with tempo. It was, that was like the, 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, Changing the exercises, going after strength, messing with rep ranges. Oh, but I bet they didn't with tempo.

[Adam Schaefer]

Never.

[Justin Andrews]

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 by the Way you.

[Adam Schaefer]

Can be very specific with this. If you plateau in just one area, you could change the tempo. 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.

[Doug]

A lot of times, even if you're more experienced, you can, 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, like, completely respond differently.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's what happened with me with MAP Strong, because MAP Strong has the, like the snatch grip, high poles, which, 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'm guilty of this. A lot of people are guilty of this.

[Justin Andrews]

We all are.

[Adam Schaefer]

You'll change something and then you go back to your old tendencies, of course, and you'll try it for a couple weeks and you go back like, okay, I always back scroll squat. They said try a new exercise. I'm going to 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. They 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 guaranteed.

[Justin Andrews]

And everybody is this. I don't care what anybody says. All of us in here 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 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 to show them the most result. This is everybody, everybody has this. Even if you're good about psyching, cycling through modalities, you still have a tendency. It's human nature. It's human nature. And it's not necessarily. 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. And I. If you made him do a bunch of body bodybuilder bro isolation exercises, he would go, he 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 your, 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

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.

[Justin Andrews]

Recovery, take some time off.

[Adam Schaefer]

Sometimes you need a week off.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

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, we give it away, right?

[Sal Destefano]

Yeah, it's for, for free on mindpumpfree.com.

[Adam Schaefer]

What'S it called?

[Sal Destefano]

The 7 Day Rescue Recovery Guide, I believe.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay, so it's a guide that we wrote. It's free. It's and it's seven days planned out literally to accelerate recovery. Includes things like cold and hot exposure, static stretching, mobility work, some band work, but nonetheless. So you can get [e-mail], 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 my. That's the reason why I plateau.

[Justin Andrews]

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 you want more.

[Doug]

Be different for, like the biohacking tech people just trying to do the least amount always.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. So I, I would, I'd 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 indicator 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 create 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.

[Sal Destefano]

Got some questions here. The first one is, I haven't lost any weight for 30 days. Is this a plateau?

[Adam Schaefer]

Maybe not.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, maybe not. If you got stronger. If it's also weight, you know, they.

[Adam Schaefer]

Said weight in the question.

[Justin Andrews]

You could also be eating. Eating more. 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 like, you're eating 300 more calories a day. You know that, right?

[Adam Schaefer]

Your metabolism is faster.

[Justin Andrews]

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're. You haven't lost weight in a week doesn't mean that we aren't moving in the right direction. In other metrics or, or.

[Adam Schaefer]

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.

[Doug]

Especially if you're not increasing weight.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's right.

[Doug]

I think. Yeah, that's. That's the big thing. Yeah. So weight still, unfortunately, is stuck in people's mind if they're on that journey of like, losing body fat, when in fact, it's probably better for you to keep and maintain the weight. And in the beginning, in the beginning.

[Sal Destefano]

Can diet changes break a plateau?

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah, definitely.

[Adam Schaefer]

That was another easy hack for me when I'd get the typical person and I'd look at their diet and be like, oh, cool, let's bump your protein. And then all of a sudden you see progress.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

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.

[Doug]

Or a reverse diet, even adding carbs back in. I know I did that for a while. 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.

[Justin Andrews]

I was just before we walked in here, I was just talking to Kyle. Kyle is training a friend of ours. It's a famous country singer, and he was just breaking down his diet with me. And he's like, he's like, bro, I'm just gonna. He goes, 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 strenuous that can be. And him being on low carb is like a recipe for losing strength. So he's like, I'm going to show him strength gains just simply by bumping his carbohydrates.

[Sal Destefano]

How often do you guys plateau? What do you personally do?

[Adam Schaefer]

I plateau all the time.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, though I always plateau now because I've been.

[Justin Andrews]

I'm in a perpetual plateau.

[Doug]

Plateau to the next just over here.

[Adam Schaefer]

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 going to 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 place 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, 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 aren't those. I don't think I'll break.

[Doug]

It's mainly what I lose interest in.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I'm not consistent enough to have a plateau. I'm either making change or I'm not.

[Adam Schaefer]

Your goal is to hit a plateau?

[Justin Andrews]

My goal is to hit a plateau.

[Doug]

Yeah, you've been on a good run.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, I, you know, it's. It's really easy. Again, especially when we talk about all the different things that, that measure plateau. It's actually very easy for me to not one. I'm definitely nowhere near the cons. 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. 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's the last I mentioned it earlier? When was the last time I did Turkish getups? I'll start to 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, you know, nobody should really hit a plateau for that long. They, they, if. And if they do, they should definitely be shifting their focus.

[Sal Destefano]

Does sleep affect plateaus?

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, God, of course. I. I can't. I mean, I remember the first time this. 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 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 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 a. It was like a magic. It literally, it was like a magic wand. Everything progressed suddenly because we fetched just.

[Doug]

Unlocked its potential totally.

[Adam Schaefer]

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.

[Justin Andrews]

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.

[Adam Schaefer]

I think once, especially if you're a new parent.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, I didn't know this. Yeah, I think once you reach an age where it's obvious, then you realize, oh, 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, you know, 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 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, I 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.

[Adam Schaefer]

Totally. Now in this, in this episode we mentioned a couple programs, Maps Strong and Maps Power Lift. Both great plateau busters. Both 50% off because of this episode. So half off. If you go To Maps Fitness Products.com Click on Maps 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 Maps Power Lift with the code PR50 50% off. You can also find us on Instagram. Justin is mindpumpjustin I'm mindpump distefano and Adam is mindpump Adam.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. 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 [e-mail] 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 [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.