Hit A Plateau With Your Strength? Answer Me, These Questions Three...

By Ryan Humphries
Co-Owner: Axistence Athletics

​There are many principles in the world of strength, my favorite of which happens to be
"The Principle Of Initial Gains".

Here's how it works. When a newbie to fitness (or someone who's been out of the gym for a while) starts working out, they'll see rapid decreases in fat loss, while at the same time experiencing rapid increases in muscle gain. The only other time that  this phenomenon happens is with performance enhancing drugs. So either being a newbie or taking time off and coming back is kinda like taking human growth hormone :) Then......well, then things slow down.

When you first start training, you're likely to hit PRs on the reg. Especially if you're hitting the gym a few times a week. All of a sudden you'll start to be able to do things you couldn't before. You'll get your first push-up or maybe your first 10 push-ups in a row. Your first pull-up, or maybe even your first set of 10 pull-ups. You'll hit a bodyweight deadlift and you'll feel pretty good....then you start getting curious as to what you're capable of. Eventually you'll get comfortable with certain movements and you'll end up working with the same weight on the same lifts. You'll feel pretty strong, but eventually you'll feel like you may not be progressing as fast as you once were. That newbie high is over. However, maybe you're not quite satisfied with where you are and you feel like you've been stuck lifting the same weight for a while.

It's possible you've hit the dreaded, dare I say, Plateau..

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