You've hit a road block.
No matter what you try, the scale hasn't budged, the body fat percentage won't change.
You're understandably frustrated.
Well...
Congratulations!
Wait. What? What do you mean?
Yeah, congratulations! This is a plateau.
In order to to have hit a plateau, you must have had success prior to that, and that's awesome! Look how far the climbers in this photo have come before hitting that plateau. They're not done climbing - they're just readjusting their approach and what they do next.
Take a moment - celebrate your success. Stack the small wins.
I'm damn sure those climbers are stoked to be standing where they are. Every step up that rock face put them closer to their goal. Now they're taking a moment, resting, recharging for the next push.
I get it though. Just like the climbers, you want to move past your plateau and hit that next goal.
So now let's get down to how to accomplish this.
Here's my checklist. If you have done the first thing 100%, you can check it off and move on. However, you can't move on until you've mastered the one before it. Think about our climbers again - one foot, one hand at a time moves them up the mountain. Can't move the right hand until the left foot is firmly planted. So here we go:
1. You follow a 90/10 rule with nutrition. 90% of the time you're eating high protein foods. 90% of the time you're getting enough fruits and vegetables. 90% of the time you're fully hydrated. Only 10% of the time and that's a big ONLY, you steer off the path. One glass of wine. One Mexican fiesta dinner out with friends. One morning sleeping in vs. getting up and working out. You can't expect continued results if you let these things happen more than 10% of the time.
2. You're training 3-4 times per week, every week. Consistency - that's awesome. It's the key to success and the key to achieving measurable results - lower body fat, lower # of the scale, bigger #'s on the weights. Your results are a series of those small wins stacked on top of each other.
You will never get results from only one workout, from only one week, or only one month. The biggest brick wall was built by laying one brick on top of one brick, on top of one brick. How are you building your wall?
3. You focus on increasing intensity, not duration. You focus on pushing the weights up each week. You follow the 2 rep rule. If it says to do 10 reps, and you know you can do 12, it's time to bump up the weight. You need to progress each week in volume. That could be increasing weight, increasing the speed of a cardio bout, adding another set, or increasing the incline of your next walk or run. Something needs to improve each week. And by mixing up which element you focus on each week is a key ingredient to continued results. You keep your body guessing and that's what allows you to improve.
4. So nutrition is dialed in, you're training consistently, and you are bumping up intensity each week? Still no results? Last box to check:
Life.
Sometimes, life just gets in the way. Are all aspects of your life where they should be? How's your stress level? Are your kids sick? Are you going through a job change or financial change? Any of these things is going to affect your workouts, nutrition, mindset and overall health. Sometimes your focus needs to be temporarily shifted to something else, and that's ok.
We are often way too hard on ourselves. All aspects of our life will never be perfect. When we focus on one element, we need to be ok with the others not getting as much attention.
When I was at a peak of building this business and growing our team, I was in the worst shape I had been in since high school. And that was ok for that moment in time. I was doing 16 hour days, and something else was a priority. Spread yourself too thin and you do nothing well.
Coach Trent talks about how the first year of his daughter's life, he was in the worst shape he's been in years. Why? His focus was on being with his daughter through those precious moments, not how many times he got to the gym.
Fitness is important. Nutrition is important. However, we need to understand it's all part of life, and we can't be focused on everything at once.
You will go through ebbs and flows.
Mindset matters most and if your focus isn't on seeing the gains in the gym or on staying the course with your diet, you will stop making progress and find yourself on that plateau. But if you take a moment like our climbers and figure out where you want to go next, the "how" you do it will be that much easier. Remember, one foot, one hand, one brick at a time. And if you need to look away for a moment and focus on something different, that's ok. Just remember to bring it back. We'll be here waiting for you.
Keep Getting 1% Better,
Doug Spurling
I 100% believe that mindset matters most in life, especially in fitness and nutrition. We know we have to exercise. We know we should eat healthy. Why are we afraid? Why do we lose motivation? Why do we get so down on ourselves? Mindset.
I'll be hosting a workshop right at our gym in Kennebunk, Spurling Training Systems, titled "Mindset Matters Most" on Wednesday, April 27th @ 7:00pm. I'd love to have you join, as I hope to share some valuable tools that I have learned over the years to make sure your mindset is in the right place to conquer all of life's battles.
You can RSVP by clicking here ---> Mindset Matters Most: Wednesday, April 27th @ 7:00pm