Signs You've Hit a Plateau and Why Cardio Won't Fix It

Nikkiey: What is going on, everybody? Welcome to this bonus episode featuring a collection of the best moments from The WarriorBabe Show during Season 1. Get ready, because Season 2 is launching on February 5th, and this season will be packed with brand new, complete episodes. For now, tune in to this bonus one.

Consistent effort with no results. That is how you know you're on a plateau. If for four to six weeks you're not seeing these changes reflect in your progress photos, and if you're not taking progress photos, you need to be taking progress photos. But let's say you're not seeing progress in the progress photos, and some things have stalled elsewhere. This is how you would know you're in a plateau.

The second thing that marries with the first one is that you've stalled strength or endurance gains. You're stalling in the amount of weight that you can lift. If you're not progressing in the weights that you lift, or let's say you're focusing on some type of endurance running and those levels are pretty much stalled at this point, you're not experiencing progress with it, and you're consistent with your training. I just need to add this in there: you're consistent with your training. You're hitting your four to five strength training sessions a week. You're doing whatever is in alignment with the endurance training that you're doing, if you're doing it, and you're consistent with that. Then you might be in a plateau.

What I mean specifically speaking to weights is, let's say for the last four weeks you have been using the same weight each time, and that is a challenge to you. And I would say going up five to ten pounds is too much of a challenge to you, where you can't finish the prescribed sets and/or reps. This might be a point where you're experiencing a plateau, and the littlest adjustment to nutrition can help with that. That's why it's really good to have a coach on your side.

The last point I want to make on how to know you're in a plateau is diving a little bit deeper into point one, where I talked about progress photos. Maybe you're somebody who's taking measurements and you're using the measuring tape. Some clients do this and some clients don't. It's not necessary; it depends on all of the things. But let's say you're taking measurements with the measuring tape, and you're doing your waist, your hips, your biceps, all of these things, but they're not changing in those four to six weeks, especially your waist. If you're decreasing weight and you're overweight, then you should see changes in your waist. If you're decreasing body fat, you may see changes in specific areas of your body. People lose body fat in different areas. All women do, but the majority of women will lose it from the top down first. And let's say in those four to six weeks we're not seeing much movement in terms of measurements over that time. These are all possibilities of you being in a plateau.

But the first one I spoke to is probably the most obvious one: consistent effort with no results. You're being consistent. You're honest with your consistency. And we're still not seeing any progress. So then we would make some adjustments. I'm not going to dive into adjustments, because we're just speaking to when you know you're in a plateau and what you can do to overcome it. Adjustments would be very individual to the person: whatever that person may be experiencing, why we're in a plateau, what's going on with lifestyle, X, Y and Z. There are many factors that could be at play. But I just wanted to give you these strategies in terms of how to know you're in it. These are the ones to know you're in it.

With strength workouts, your workouts don't really burn that many calories, but those workouts require strength and muscle. Now your body is like, let's build this muscle, and we can be less efficient with calories so that you can build that muscle, which is what will speed up your metabolism and help aid in the fat loss that you want to see with your body.

You see all these people who routinely go into the gym. Maybe you can picture the people on the cardio equipment when you walk into the gym, and you're like, oh my God, I see this person all the time doing the same thing every week. They're in there for one to two hours doing cardio on all different cardio equipment. They go from the treadmill to the elliptical to the StairMaster. And they may be paying such fine-tuned attention to how many calories they eat during the day. Maybe they're trying to eat better. They're like, I'm counting calories, I'm paying attention, I'm eating better. And now I'm going in and I'm watching the equipment tell me I'm burning X, Y and Z. So they're watching that during their workout sessions, and they're using that measuring tool built into the machines: I ate 1,800 calories today, and I burned 600 calories on this treadmill. Awesome.

That number on those machines has virtually nothing to do with anything, okay? What those people on those machines don't realize, or maybe this was you, and this was definitely me, so you're not alone if this is you, and I'm hoping I'm going to make some light bulbs go off in your brain today, is that over the long period of time they've been doing the same exact thing, they've actually been slowing down their metabolism by conserving calories for that activity. You train your body to get better at what you're teaching it to do, or what your workouts are doing. So if your workouts are high-calorie burning and require very little muscle, then your body learns to adapt to that workout by slowing down its metabolism.

Guys, that's probably why you've seen these people in the gym every single week for the last 52 weeks, and they look virtually the same. Maybe they've lost some weight, okay? But it's not conducive to building muscle.

Strength training is essential for building muscle, increasing strength, and so, so much more. By using resistance to target specific muscles, such as weightlifting, resistance band training or bodyweight exercises, you're causing micro tears in the muscle fibers, which then repair and grow back stronger and bigger. This is how you build muscle mass. This is how you increase muscle mass, which is what being toned means.

Side note, I freaking hate that word toned, you guys. Toned is building muscle, but women get so afraid to build muscle, and I'm going to talk about this in another podcast, because they think it's going to make them bulky. That is so not true, okay? Strength training, breaking down these fibers and making them grow back stronger and bigger, is how you build muscle and increase muscle mass. That's just how you get toned. That is how you get a lean, toned body. And it's important for overall health, strength and your metabolism.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in. And don't forget, Season 2 of The WarriorBabe Show launches on February 5th. Guys, I am so excited. I cannot wait to share more engaging and insightful episodes with you all. Until then, keep listening, and I will see you on February 5th. Thank you.