A plateau is when you have been working out or dieting and suddenly you know longer see any results. What the heck is going on? Everyone progresses quickly at the beginning of an exercise routine or diet, but after a few months you began to notice that your process has slowed. Maybe you don’t see any change at all.

A plateau can last for weeks or months and during this time you may be training harder than ever or restricting your calories more and more. Neither situation is optimal or healthy. If you continue to stress your body too much and don’t get enough rest or you continue to restrict your nutrition you will reach exhaustion phase and training will be ineffective and your metabolism will be impacted by poor diet.

Over-specializing and over-training - performing one activity for too long, can be the problem. Not only can it cause performance plateaus but it also can cause injury. This happened to me. I love endurance sports and that’s all I wanted to do. I did not strength train, nor did I stretch. Core, Circuit, or HIIT training was not a part of my training regiment. Everything I did was to improve my speed and/or distance. Not only did my speed plateau, but eventually all the miles I was putting in took a toll on my right knee and it required arthroscopic surgery for meniscus repair. Recovery was slow and I was impatienc and consequently, I did not heed the warning my doctors gave me. So as soon as I recovered from surgery, I started running again. However, the knee was weak and the next injury was really bad. I stepped in a hole while running on trails and re-injured the knee so badly that I could not walk or bend it at all. It meant surgery again but this time they took most of the meniscus that was left.

I was forced to stop running and had to learn to do something different, both from a nutrition and exercise perspective. It was very frustrating starting over.

Most people mistake a plateau as the best they can do or the most weight they can lose. Everybody plateaus at some point. Even the best-trained athletics or the weekend warriors plateau. The body is not a machine, it doesn’t improve on schedule. Plateau is a sign to do something different.

If your progress has stalled try doing less of what you're good at and do more of what you are not so great at. If your nutrition stalls, change it up. For example, I eat fairly healthy but could not get as lean I as I wanted. I chalked it up to age, but this was not the case. I change my diet and for 10 days, I eliminated all forms for sugar (alcohol, processed foods, etc.) with the exception of fruit. This really made a big difference.

If you’re a distance runner, focus on sprints. If you lift heavy weight, try lightening the weight and do more reps. Another idea is to cross-train in your off season by doing something completely different. You will come back stronger and with more excitement and energy for your sport of choice.

I try to mix it up by hiking, yoga, hitting the gym, or doing a video routine. Have questions, please drop me a line.

Dr. Darlene