What do you do if your functional training progress has plateaued?

One of the first things I recommend you to do is to evaluate your current goals and how they align with your functional training program. Are you training for a specific event, skill, or challenge? Or are you just looking for general fitness and health benefits? Depending on your answer, you may need to adjust your frequency, intensity, duration, or variety of your workouts. For example, if you're training for a marathon, you may want to focus more on endurance and less on power. Also keep in mind that recovery is essential for your body to adapt to the stress you impose on it. Without adequate recovery, you may experience fatigue, injury, or burnout. Recovery taking care of your nutrition, hydration, sleep, and stress management.

If you've hit a plateau in your functional training, try mixing things up. Change your routine by adding new exercises or increasing intensity. Focus on proper form to ensure you're targeting muscles effectively. Consider consulting a trainer for personalized advice. Give your body enough rest and recovery time to avoid overtraining. Stay patient and persistent, and you'll break through the plateau.

1. Assess current workout routine for weaknesses or imbalances. 2. Try incorporating new exercises to challenge different muscle groups. 3. Increase intensity or volume gradually to stimulate progress. 4. Focus on proper form and technique to maximize muscle engagement. 5. Consider consulting a fitness professional for personalized guidance. 6. Incorporate periodization or varied training methods to break through plateaus.

You cannot progress if you do not know where you started from. Tracking progress not only helps you record your progress but helps you determine your next move. Depending on your goals there are different tools to track progress. You can record your workouts in apps or a journal with the weight, reps, tempo or each exercise, along with the rest in between sets. You can also track sleep and nutrition. You can also do fitness test, such as a Functional Movement Screen to see how your mobility, balance and stability has improved. Progress can also be tracked by body composition by recording weight and body fat percentage. Tracking your progress can help you identify what needs improvement, what your next move is and help set realistic goals.

If you are hitting a plateau it is time to change something. Over time our body adapts to the stimulus we place upon it. We can change the stimulus in different ways depending on what our goals are. Some of the variables we can manipulate are the weight, sets, reps, time under tension, rest in between sets, the equipment used, etc. One of my favorite ways to change the stimulus I place on my body is to add a balance and stability component. For example I may turn a step up into a step with a high knee to single leg balance. I may turn a cable row into a single arm row balancing on one leg. Adding a balance and stability component to my workout gives me the extra challenge I need. Not only is it a challenge for my body but also my mind.

I cannot say this enough: Recovery is just as important as the work you put in. If you are hitting a plateau you may not be giving your body proper time to recover. Recovery is essential for it to adapt, repair and grow. Recovery is more than 60 seconds in between sets. Scheduling actual rest/recovery days in your program is necessary for progress. Without proper rest, you risk a decline in progress, fatigue, injury and a lack of motivation. Recovery also involves more than just not training. It involves proper sleep, nutrition and hydration. Neglecting any of these areas can affect or progress. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep. Be sure to a proper amount of marco and micronutrients. Keep yourself hydrated and remember rest is a must!

Do not be afraid to seek feedback. Sometimes we get stuck in our own routine and do not realize its time for a change. As humans we love comfort. Seeking feedack can help you identify your strengths, weakness and some necessary changes. Feedback can help you determine your next move. Feedback can come from a coach, trainer or peer who is familiar with functional training. Feedback can also help you gain new perspectives, insights and problem solving skills to help you break though that plateau. While seeking feedback on your personal routine, do not forget to keep learning about the process in general. Listen to podacast, join online communities, etc. Sometimes one line in a podcast is all it takes to inspire you to try something new.

Here are the 7 best ways I've found to break a plateau: 1) Take a full rest week (don't be scared, you won't lose your strength). 2) Go back to the basics, even if it's boring. 3) Work with a lighter weight, do sets of 15 reps. 4) Work with a heavier weight, do sets of 5 reps. 5) Do the same exercises in an unstable environment (free weights, gymnastics rings etc.). 6) Stretch to become more flexible, and treat it as training. 7) Train doing less sessions per week for a while, and take more time for recovery.