Alternate Title: An Atheistic Perspective On Training progress
As a professional coach, I hear an endless barrage of “I’ve hit a plateau” or “My progress has plateaued” and 36 dozen variants on the theme! Sadly my sincere congratulations seem to be as poorly understood as my Atheistic humor!
Let me be clear a TRUE training plateau is a beautiful thing! I say TRUE plateau because most “plateaus’, as well as nearly every other training issue, can be traced back to either stupidity or laziness!
A true plateau is PROOF of the total exhaustion of a given training modality, meaning (at least temporarily) NO FURTHER EFFORT WILL GENERATE ADDITIONAL PROGRESS in that modality. This boys and girls is a wonderful thing………….first and foremost it validates the efficacy of your current training methods; secondly, it removes a variable from the equation (at least temporarily).
If a true plateau has been reached and NO ADDITIONAL EFFORT WILL GENERATE ADDITIONAL RESULTS, then it’s “KINDA” evident that it’s an ideal time to shift your efforts toward a different aspect of training progress!
Example:
If you’ve “PLATEAUED” in terms of strength progression, repackage your training to plan to maintain your current strength levels and implement strategies to improve/perfect your technique in one or more of the fundamental skills of your sport. The same training repackaging could involve an emphasis on general physical fitness or sport specific flexibility. In truly extreme cases such “esoteric” training factors like emotional/psychological factors could be addressed!
A Plateau Is By Definition
THE HIGH GROUND
an elevated perspective to help see and preemptively react to the future landscape.