When I was new to lifting, I used to test my 1 rep max every single week. This worked well for a while; I was able to set new personal records all the time, which kept me motivated and excited to train. I was in what’s called the “beginner gains” phase of strength training when pretty much anything you do in the gym (no matter how stupid or reckless) helps you get stronger.
Read more: You should care about getting strong
Eventually, I grew out of this phase and was no longer able to add weight to the bar every week. Constantly trying and failing to set new personal records left me feeling beat up and frustrated. I needed a new strategy to help me get stronger and reconnect with my love of lifting.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many clients who were in a similar position. After a few months or years of lifting on their own, they found they couldn’t progress past training plateaus and set new personal records. Yet they continued to push themselves to the limit, beating up their bodies and feeling upset and confused as to why they weren’t getting any stronger.
If this sounds like you, you should know there are safer and more productive ways to train. Below, I explain five strategies you can use to bust through training plateaus and see renewed progress.
Read more: How to bust through training plateaus
Improve your technique
If you’re struggling to improve your performance on a particular exercise, the first thing I would suggest is that you make sure you’re actually performing it correctly. How is your set up? Are the right body parts moving at the right time? Are the right body parts staying still? Your answers to these questions can dramatically impact your performance.
In order to get strong, you should spend lots of time honing your skills at lighter weights. Check your ego at the door and make sure you can properly execute an exercise before adding more weight. Record yourself and watch the videos to get external feedback and keep yourself honest. If you’re uncertain what proper form looks like, consider hiring an in-person or distance coach who has experience helping people get strong.
Many times, choosing a different variation of an exercise can instantly improve technique. For example, performing a deadlift from blocks instead of the floor can allow you to pull without rounding your back. Not everyone is cut out to perform the standard barbell lifts. If you aren’t competing in a powerlifting meet, you don’t need to back squat, deadlift from the floor, or bench with a barbell. Your ideal exercise variation could utilize other gyms tools like dumbbells, kettlebells, a trap bar, or a landmine. Get creative and try out different options.
Rack pulls are a great alternative for people who struggle to deadlift from the floor.
Create tension
High intensity lifting necessitates creating and maintaining high levels of internal tension. You can’t just casually walk up to a heavy bar and expect to move it without first supporting your joints and creating an environment in which your muscles can produce maximal amounts of force. If you don’t create tension when you lift, you won’t perform at a high level and will potentially set yourself up for injury.
One of the most important ways to create the necessary tension to lift heavy is by breathing and bracing. Imagine that you’re wearing a thick lifting belt around your waist. Before you begin a rep, take a deep breath into your belly. Push out against your imaginary (or real) belt with your core muscles all the way around your stomach, sides, and lower back. You will hold the low belly breath and all the core tension throughout the entire rep. Exhale and reset only after you’ve completed the rep. This strategy will help keep you stable so you can safely produce more force.
Once you’ve created tension in your core, you need to create tension in the rest of your body. When you’re deadlifting, for example, set up to maximize engagement in your upper back and hamstrings. In a squat, create tension in the outside of your legs by spreading the floor apart with your feet. In a bench press, drive your feet into the ground to create tension in your legs. You must also create tension in your upper back and stability in your shoulders by packing your shoulder blades together.
If you’re having trouble with these concepts, use variations, drills, and assistance exercises to force yourself to create more tension. I like band resisted deadlifts and straight arm pulldowns to create more upper back engagement in the deadlift. Add pauses to squats and bench presses to learn to stay tight in the most challenging position of these lifts. Dead bugs and other core exercises can be performed in between sets of heavy lifting to practice bracing your core.
Read more: Core training beyond crunches
Warm up properly
Here are 3 different warm-up strategies to help you move more weight:
- Always complete a 5-15 minute dynamic warm-up before you lift weights. Make sure to mobilize your hips, shoulders, back, and ankles. Below is a quick and easy warmup I use with many of my clients who work desk jobs.
- After your dynamic warm-up, complete a superset of one power exercise and one core exercise. Power exercises help prime your nervous system for heavy lifting and core exercises encourage you to produce tension. I prefer anti-core exercises rather than crunches or sit-ups.
- Complete several ramp-up sets before you get to your working weight on your big lifts. This becomes more important the more weight you’re trying to lift. You need to work your way up to big numbers to properly prepare your nervous system, muscles, and joints to handle heavy loads.
For example, if your 1 rep max was 225, your ramp-up could look like this:
45 x 5-8
95 x 3-5
135 x 2-3
185 x 1
200 x 1
225 x 1
I like to keep the volume higher (usually 3-5, sometimes as high as 8 reps) with earlier ramp-up sets. As you get closer to your working weights, cut down the reps. If you are completing higher volume at a lower intensity (5×5 vs 3×3), you will need fewer ramp-up sets.
You’ll need to find your sweet spot for ramp-up sets – too many and you’ll accumulate too much fatigue too soon; too few and you won’t have properly prepared your nervous system. Generally speaking, men will perform better with less work close to their 1 rep max and should perform fewer ramp-up sets than women.
Don’t test yourself all the time
The vast majority of people should not be testing your personal records on a regular basis. Instead, spend plenty of time training at higher volumes (3-8 reps). This helps you practice good form and build the base of strength you’ll need to truly push yourself once in a while. Training at higher volumes and lower intensities also helps keep your joints happy. Noone wants nagging aches and pains to inhibit their lifting sessions or affect their daily lives.
If you’re serious about getting strong, you should be following a periodized program that has you progressing from higher volume, lower intensity, to lower volume, higher intensity in an intelligent manner. You can buy done-for-you programs or directly hire coaches you respect. I recommend working with someone who has a proven track record of helping clients, not just themselves.
Use supplemental and assistance exercises
After you’ve left the beginner gains phase of lifting, you won’t be able to continuously build strength through your big lifts alone. To keep getting stronger, you need to diversify your training and address weaknesses through other exercises, rep ranges, intensities, and modalities.
I assign some of my strength clients supplemental strength exercises. A supplemental lift looks very similar to the big lift and targets a specific technical flaw. For example, a client with a sticking point halfway up their deadlift may perform rack pulls starting at the same height as their sticking point. A client who tends to fall forward in their back squat may perform good mornings, zercher squats, or front squats to build more core and lower back strength.
All of my clients perform a variety of assistance exercises. We pick assistance exercises based on a number of criteria:
- Has the client trained all the major movement patterns: squat, hinge, press, pull, single-leg, and carry?
- Does the client need some balance between bilateral (2 arms or legs) and unilateral (1 arm or leg) training?
- Does the client need to build strength or size in a particular muscle?
- Does the client need to train in a different rep range to develop a different energy system or build endurance?
- What exercises or training styles are fun for the client?
Read more: How often should I switch exercises?
If you’re experiencing frustration at your lack of progress in the gym, try implementing 1 or 2 of these changes in your training. Check your form, create tension, and program intelligently by warming up up properly, using a variety of rep ranges and intensities, and filling in the gaps with assistance work. Patience, intelligent training, and hard work will help you push past plateaus and build levels of strength you never thought possible.
Squats and deadlifts are two of the best exercises for building strength. If you want to get better at these great lifts, you need to download your free copy of my ebook Squat and Deadlift school.
I share my favorite form tips, troubleshoot common problems, and provide progressions to help you work toward (or supplement) barbell training.
I’m confident both novice and experienced lifters can use the book and accompanying videos to take their training to the next level.