Why am I not seeing progress?

Most clientele come ready and prepared to ask this question at consults. And a good question it is. I always look at someone with a prepared question as someone who can think strategically and develop a sense of need. A need for help, a need for improvement, a need for understanding. So if you ever find yourself asking this very question or any question, think of it not as a weakness or downfall but as a step in the right direction, and an opportunity to improve.

So on to the topic at hand.

Why aren't you making progress?

For the sake of simplicity i'll skip the whole "what progress are you looking for? Specify, isolate, determine course of action." Let's target the elephant in the room and discuss why aren't you losing any weight and / or why am I not getting stronger?

Both these scenarios can be answered with the same approach, and the solution is quite simple. Easy? Not for everyone, but simple enough.

Check yourself!

I mean this in two ways. Firstly, ask yourself if you are actually doing exactly what it is you are supposed to / prescribed to be doing. Are you following the program to a T? Are you eating what you are supposed to? How accurate are you when you log foods or weigh foods?

The only person you are cheating is yourself. More often than not the reason folks aren't losing weight or able to lift more weight is because you simply aren't following each step as it is intended. Too often people shed a few pounds quickly (water weight likely) and get excited and slack off on the accuracy of their food scaling = slowing or evening regaining of weight. On the other hand, some folks hit a 5 pound personal record (PR) and decide "hell why not throw 10 more on there!". Then proceed to be frustrated when they can't lift but 10 pounds more, or go into the next sessions expecting to lift more because their PR "was so easy" last training.

It's warranted to get excited, because it is. you've worked hard and you've earned the reward of pounds lost or pounds gained. But this is where it becomes critical to stay true to the that which has already provided proof of success.

The second iteration of "check yourself" takes another self reflective path, but more on the side of your physical well being. Where it is important to question your personal methods and the accuracies of such, it is equally important to question your physical wellbeing. Losing weight is a lengthy journey and can take a pretty tough toll on the body. Calorie deprivation, excessive volume of training, food restrictions. These can play heavily on the mind and body.

On the lifting side, following a lengthy strength block and performing tough near maximal loads with progressive overload, the body becomes tired and sore.

It's important to confront the fact that progress may have taken a halt because you're tired, mentally drained, or just not into it that day. One day of bad training or one day increase in body weight doesn't mean you've lost at the game of fitness. Just means you need to assess, reassess, and determine the right path moving forward.

So if you find you're hitting a plateau (a word I didn't want to bring into this) here's what you can do.

A) Evaluate your accuracy:

- Are you following your program accurately?

- Are you measuring your food accurately?

- Are you in a calorie deficit?

- Are you applying progressive overload?

B) Evaluate yourself:

- How are you feeling?

- How is your mental and physical health?

- How long have you been trying to lose / gain?

- How do you feel about your perceived effort in training/nutrition/etc. today?

- Is this a one day occurrence?

Solution(s):

C1: Bring the intensity

- The body improves and adapts under new stress, so kick up the intensity and plow through any mental/physical blocks.

- Hammer down on your precision; weighing, measuring, counting etc. Be accurate, especially if you are going over in calories.

C2: Take a break!

- Sometimes the body needs rest. Give it what it needs!

- De-load: Take a week where you do the same program letter for letter but at half the volume.

- Avoid social media and any negative stressors before the gym, after the gym, during work, and around bedtime/waking up.

C3: Switch things up

- If options c1 & c2, don't work or aren't what suits you, switch things up. As mentioned before our body adapts under external foreign pressures, so change it up and re-invigorate your training with some diverse new exercises.

- If you have a coach, tell them how you feel and have them work something up for you that's new and refreshing.

There's many avenues you can take to understand your cessation in progress and how to handle it. But these solutions above are a sure fire way to get back on track as soon as possible, and can be applied to nearly any and all situations.

Plateau's are BS, it's all about re-defining your path and tackling the problem with the necessary solution.

"Progression is built through consistency and tested by passion"

JB