Shoulder Joint Pain From Weight Training (and What To Do About It)

SA Spotters looks at the causes of joint pain and how to solve it.

When I first experienced shoulder joint pain, I decided to ease off the exercises that aggravated the pain and allow my shoulders to recover before it became worse. The problem is that SO MANY exercises include the shoulders. I stopped my back, chest, bicep, triceps and shoulder exercises, meaning that almost my entire routine was affected and I basically stopped all upper body training. That was a huge setback. Shoulder joint pain can lead to serious injury if left unchecked and can significantly decrease your performance.

Here are a list of reasons why you might be experiencing shoulder joint pain and what you can do about it:

1) Bad Form

Make sure that your form is right for every exercise that you do. Pull ups, bench presses, dips, bicep curls and dead lifts (among others) are all exercises that could lead to shoulder pain and injury if performed with incorrect form.

2) Overuse

The shoulder joint is one of the most susceptible joints to damage from overuse. Using the shoulder too much can damage the joint and continuing with overuse when the shoulder is already in pain can cause permanent damage that might require surgery to correct.

The cure: Use it less

This sounds simple because it is. Decrease the amount of strain the shoulder takes when it feels sore and give it time to recover and adapt before resuming your usual exercise regime. For example, when my shoulder starts to hurt one of the first things I do is decrease the intensity of my shoulder workout. Remember, your shoulders are used during your chest, back, bicep, triceps AND shoulder days, so they often don't get enough rest.

3) Imbalance

Most people focus on the body parts they can see in the mirror and less on the ones they can't. This means often, that more emphasis is placed on the front of the body like the chest, abs, and biceps with less attention being paid to the areas at the back of the body like the lower back and triceps. Therefore, muscular imbalances often occur. Many shoulder injuries occur because people focus more on pushing exercises and less on pulling exercises. This leads the front part of the shoulder to become over developed and the back part of the shoulder to become underdeveloped. This can lead to joint pain in the shoulders. For example, when you do a bench press the front part of your shoulder is involved in moving the bar, but the back part of your shoulder is needed to stabilize the shoulder during the movement. 

The cure: Keep the balance

Make sure that the amount of pulling exercises performed is greater to or equal to the amount of pushing exercises that you do. Pulling exercises like pull ups and rows develop the back part of the shoulder muscles, which will help to support pushing exercises like the bench press. 

4) High Weights, Low Reps

As great as low reps are for muscle growth, they can have a cumulative strain on the muscles. The reason for this is because muscle grows and adapts faster than joints, which adapt faster than bone. For example, your chest, triceps and shoulder muscles might already be adapted to move a bench press of 120 KG, so you increase the weight. However, your joints haven't gotten used to it yet and therefore need to catch up. Bone density increases at a slower rate than joint strength, which is why in extreme cases lifters who increase in muscle mass and performance too quickly cause fractures in the bones as they move on to higher and higher weights without giving their bones a chance to increase in density, which takes more time. 

The cure: Alternate between high and low reps

Your shoulder joint might not be used to the weight that your muscles have already grown accustomed to. Instead of keeping on the same weight and rep count while the joint adapts, which will slow down muscle growth, change to a lower weight, higher rep routine while your shoulder joint adapts to the higher weight. This way, you are still growing muscle while you give your joints a chance to recover, since higher reps can also stimulate muscle growth. Scientists have found that higher reps help joints recover from low-rep, high-intensity workloads.

5) Not Warming Up the Shoulder

By warming up the shoulders before placing them under heavy weight, they are less prone to injury and are more 'ready' for the workload that follows. This is done by many as a 'prehab' instead of a rehab, as it is better used to prevent injury. An example of warming up the shoulder joints would be doing light shoulder work with an extremely light weight (like a 5 kg dumbbell) like lateral and front raises. Do about 20 reps each (no need to count, just do them until you feel a light burn). This increases blood flow to the area and activates the muscle fibers. Another way to warm up the shoulders is to do perform a warm-up set. Do the exact same exercise you would do with only half the weight before doing it properly.

How you can Speed up Shoulder Joint Recovery

1) Go easy on the shoulder for a while

Take as much pressure on it as you can so that it can heal without needing to perform. You can buy a shoulder brace from sports shops or chemists if the joint pain is serious and if it hurts with ordinary movement. Wear this until it is no longer painful to move around normally and then start training it on lower weights until it becomes strong enough to take on heavier loads. Make sure to increase the load you put on it slowly, because an injured joint is much more likely to become injured again and recurring injuries are very hard to correct.

2) Massage, Hot and Cold Treatment

See a physiotherapist in order to speed up recovery. They might also pick up a deeper injury which needs correcting. Cold temperature (ice) will decrease inflammation to the area and hot temperatures will increase blood flow. A common practice is to mix hot and cold therapies (ice, then a hot bath, then ice) to bring blood to and from the area to speed up recovery. This works for muscle recovery as well.

Nutrition for Joint Health

Many supplement companies sell joint supplements that can help protect and aid joint recovery. Other things that can also help are:

1) Fish Oil

Fish oil will lubricate the joints which help speed up recovery and prevent injury. I personally take fish oil (1000 mg) each day especially for joint protection.

2) Gelatin

Gelatin is what makes jelly firm and comes from cow hooves and animal joints. The best source of gelatin is bone broth. By increasing your gelatin intake, you give your body the component it needs to rebuild joints, ligaments, nails, hair etc. as this is what they are made of. 

Be wise and don't let joint pain turn into a life-long struggle. Stay Strong!

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Feeling Light-Headed After Squats and Deadlifts And How To Solve It

Some of us get light headed after doing squats. The good news is that you are not alone. This happens to more people than you think - so no need quit the gym before 'something bad happens'.

Firstly, don't give up. Squats are one of the best exercises around. Along with deadlifts, they increase testosterone and other muscle building hormones.

What is the cause and what can you do to make sure everything is OK? There are a variety of possible reasons why this could happen. See our list below to find what best suits you according to your personal situation.

Why power lifts can make you dizzy

1. Core pressure (The Valsalva maneuver)

You could be light-headed because of the pressure that is placed on your core when doing squats and dead lifts. Strengthening of the core is always essential for doing powerful lifts like the squat. Additionally, the way you breathe will have a massive impact on allowing your core to cope with the pressure placed on it during these lifts. The core is placed under a lot of pressure as it is the connection between your legs pushing against the floor and the bar you are pushing up.

DO NOT inhale during the concentric (standing up during the squat) part of the movement because this opens up the core and massively decreases its ability to cope with pressure. By exhaling whilst restricting the amount of air that exits through your mouth, you force your core to tighten. When the core is tightened, it can withstand more pressure when you lift the weight further away from the ground. Breathe in as normal when you go down and exhale whilst restricting the amount of air leaving your mouth to tighten your core when returning to a normal, standing position. Don't worry about focusing on your breathing throughout your entire set, just focus on tightening your core by exhaling forcefully when you straighten your legs during the squat or dead lift. It is recommended NOT to block airflow entirely with your mouth during the movement, as studies have shown that this will dramatically increase your blood pressure momentarily.

This helps most people with their light-headed feeling from squatting.

2. The bar is on your neck

If you do back squats with the bar resting on your shoulders, then there is also a big chance that the pressure between the bar and your neck could be restricting blood flow to your brain. This could explain why the light-headed feeling only comes once you have place the bar back on the rack and off your neck, allowing blood flow to eventually get to your head.

As a solution, you could replace back squats with front squats, which will be harder to master at first, but will be beneficial for other reasons, like the fact that front squats minimize lumbar spine flexion, and stabilize the core better.

Additionally, if you are going to do back squats then you should ease the pressure between your neck and the bar mid-set, either by lifting the bar off your neck with your hands if the weight is not too heavy or by racking the bar and spacing it from your neck for a few seconds to allow for some blood flow before finishing your set. I push up against the bar with my hands during my set. I don't lift it off my shoulders at all, but it decreases the weight placed on my shoulders.

3. Lack of oxygen

The light-headed feeling could also be from a lack of oxygen in your blood - for two reasons. Firstly, you could not be breathing enough during the lift thus allowing less oxygen to enter your system. Secondly, the massive stress placed on your whole body during the squat forces your muscles to burn up more oxygen at a faster rate to cope with the load. Since there are so many muscles being used at the same time during the squat, oxygen is used up a lot quicker throughout your body. You could feel light headed after the squat as oxygen levels return to normal.

Remember to breathe during your set and don't hold your breath. See Point 1 above to make sure that you are breathing properly during each rep.

If you think that temporary lack of oxygen is the problem, try doing some HIIT or skipping (link shows how skipping is great for bodybuilders) to increase your body's oxygen efficiency.

4. You are pushing too hard 

Don't push your squats through the dizziness. Many people pass out because they try to push through it. Others puke (we've all seen those videos online). The risk of sustaining serious injury if you pass out with the bar on top of you is very real. If you start feeling light-headed during your lift, make sure to place the bar back on the rack and sit on the ground so that you don't fall over and hurt yourself if you pass out. Most likely, you will start to return to normal after a few seconds. Rather safe than sorry! If this is the case, regular practice will ease your body into this high-intensity action.

5. Blood pressure

Both people with low high and low blood pressure have experienced light headed symptoms during squats. The best way to help with this is make sure you don't hold your breath during the movement and to make sure that you are always breathing properly - again.

6. The exercise intensity

The sheer intensity of the exercise could be placing your body under a level of pressure that it is not used to. This is because so many muscles are recruited to work under a very heavy load all at once. The light-headed feeling could be similar to the feeling you would get if you were an amateur runner who just ran a marathon. The difference is that the intensity is not brought onto the body over time, but all at once. If this is the case, take it easy. Reduce the weight or rest longer in between sets until your body gets used to the movement and the weight. If you keep at it, your body will adapt and be able to perform the workload without feeling so faint afterwards.

If the intensity is too high, use a lighter weight with higher reps to ease into the extreme pressure. High reps can also drastically increase muscle growth.

7. Blood circulation

During the squat, a large portion of the muscles in your body contract, forcing blood out of them, like squeezing a wet sponge and the water runs out. Once you finish squatting, the muscles relax, allowing lots of blood to run back into your muscles. Since a lot of blood runs back into the muscles (think of how large your leg muscles are), there is less blood momentarily available for your lungs and heart to send oxygen to your brain, causing the light-headed feeling your feel afterwards.

The countermeasure for this is to remain standing under the bar once you place it back on the rack. This way, your leg muscles don't relax fully like with sitting, so that your body gets a chance to return to normal instead of moving from one extreme to another (max intensity of squats to low intensity of siting down). Hold onto the bar above you once you have placed it on the rack so that if you pass out you have something to grab on and stop the fall.

Drinking more water during exercise can ease symptoms associated with blood circulation (and yes, it is actually possible to drink too much water).

Always make sure that you do squats properly. Try these causes and cures to see which one works best for you. Stay Strong!

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How to break a plateau

Get back to progress.

If you follow the same workout program for too long, you will start to see diminishing results (fewer gains in muscle size and strength) over time as your body adapts to the stimulus placed on it. This is called homeostasis.

You want to grow as fast as possible, right? A gym program is only as good as the strength and size gains that it brings you. 

There might be nothing wrong with your program, but if you’re doing the same thing over and over, your body will have adapted to it and stop growing to meet the same old physical demands.

Signs that you've hit a plateau

1. No increase in physical performance for two weeks or longer
2. You aren’t losing fat or building muscle anymore: Your body weight isn't changing
3. Your gym regime seems more like a daily routine instead a challenge
4. The work seems easy but you still reach failure and can’t push past your previous bench marks

Change it up.

1. No increase in physical performance for two weeks or more

You aren’t increasing your reps and weights anymore. You're stuck at the same place that you were two weeks ago. 

It needs to be for two weeks in a row for you to be concerned, because all of us suffer from drops in performance for a day or two, every now and then. If your physical performance is not improving, your body won't either.

2. You aren’t losing fat or building extra muscle: Your body weight isn't changing

This is a classic plateau symptom. Your body has adapted to your exercise routine and has become comfortable. It does not feel the need to change because it feels safe with its physical expectations and output.

3. Your gym regime seems more like a daily routine, instead a challenge for your body to overcome

This is a psychological symptom of a plateau. If your workout no longer challenges you, and if you don't need that much determination to finish your workout, it might be good time for change. 

I personally change my workout plan whenever I feel like it is getting boring to avoid hitting a plateau. This will also encourage that lack of motivation, since you aren't feeling or seeing any physical changes as a result of your hard work anymore.

4. The work seems easy but you still reach failure and can’t push past your previous bench marks

This is a classic, common sign that you've hit a plateau. If you don't feel like your workout is taking a lot out of you, even though your body won't let you go any further, you've most probably hit a plateau. 

If the maximum volume, time, reps or weight that you can do stays the same; you've hit a plateau. If your maximum output decreases, you might have over trained.

Change is awesome.

Although over training and plateau’s can interlink, they are not the same thing. 

It is possible to over train without hitting a plateau - and it is possible to hit a plateau without over training.

A plateau leads to a lack of physical progress. Over training leads to reversed progress (you get weaker instead of stronger), joint pain or injury, and exercise-induced depression.

Signs of over training 

If you’ve overtrained then you need to remedy that instead of trying to break a plateau. Click here to heal from over training.

1. Insomnia or oversleeping

2. Lack of motivation

3. Extreme appetite changes (no appetite or extremely high appetite)

4. Moodiness, frustration, depression or emotional outbursts

5. Diminished physical performance

6. Muscle spasms and twitches

7. Low immune system

8. Constant, unquenchable thirst

Note that it is extremely unlikely to get any of these symptoms from a plateau (except for the emotional response for people who tie their self-worth to their exercise performance or physical progress).

Don't push your body too far.

1. Sleep: you suffer from insomnia or oversleeping

Ironically, struggling to get good sleep, sleeping too much or the constant desire for more sleep is all caused by over training. All three symptoms can arise from too much physical stress being placed on your body. 

For people who struggle to sleep, your body is under so much stress on the central nervous system that it can't calm down to recover properly. Read more about your central nervous system, how over training affects it and how to help it recover here. 

Sleeping for too long is common among others who are over-trained because your body needs more time to recover, but the stimulus placed on it is so high that it never catches up on needed recovery.

This will also explain lethargy, fatigue and the desire to sleep all the time. This is how to fall asleep ASAP.

Sleep problems are rarely caused by a plateau, though.

2. Lack of motivation (could also be present in a plateau, but not as much)

While a plateau can also sap out your motivation to further your goals, over training attacks your motivation more aggressively. 

Some people don't lose their motivation when they've hit a plateau. They just fall into the monogamous routine of doing the same thing over and over again - even when they don't see new results anymore. 

Over training is the most common culprit among athletes who begin to wonder why they are putting so much effort into their sports or exercise efforts in the first place. 

Many of them start to hate the sport that they do or dread the idea of practicing or exercising. Over training can cause depression, whereas hitting a plateau does not have as a big an impact on your emotional state.

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3. Diet: lack of appetite or constant cravings for high calorie/fast food

This is a very common sign of over training that isn't usually present in people who have hit a plateau. 

Since their bodies are bombarded with physical stress and they are frantically trying to recover, they might not be able to regulate their hunger (ghrelin) and satisfaction (leptin) hormones properly.

Again, different people will experience this in different ways. Some people will lose their appetite completely because their bodies are starting to break down from too much physical stress. 

Others crave high calorie and high fat foods because their bodies try to get as much energy from food as possible to compensate for drastic energy depletion. 

If you feel like this might refer to you, you need to recover from over training.

4. Moodiness

This is commonly seen in athletes who have over trained. Since the physical stress starts to crush the body from the inside out, the emotional state suffers as well. 

The brain does not have enough time to recover during sleep, since the body is taking as many resources as possible to recover physically. 

Also, mood-regulating hormones fall out of balance along with the rest of the body's normal mechanisms.

5. Halted or diminishing physical performance

When you train more than what your body can recover from, your physical performance will not increase but slowly start to decrease. 

The longer you stay in this overtrained state, the faster the rate at which physical performance declines. The longer you over train, the longer it will take to recover.

Too much of anything is unhealthy.

6. Muscle spasms and twitches

This is due to the central nervous system being over stressed. It starts to fall apart. Getting this from hitting a plateau is almost impossible.

7. Lowered immune system: Falling ill more easily and more frequently

Your immune system also takes a big hit when your body suffers from over training. If you are getting sick more often, you might have over trained and your body probably needs a good long break.

8. Constant, unquenchable thirst

This is another common symptom that is associated with over training. You might also feel nauseous often as well. In other cases, it also becomes harder to follow your normal daily routine (waking up, working, spending time with friends and family, bed time, etc.)

There 8 other possible reasons for extreme thirst from exercise.

If you have over trained (nearing or at the point of over exertion), a few rest days might be all that you need. Here are great ways to make your rest day the best recovery day that you've ever had.

Rest is good for you.

Now that we've distinguished the difference between over training and hitting a plateau, read on if you think that you have hit a plateau.

How to break a plateau

There are 8 ways to break a plateau. These methods can turn your workout routine back into the body-enhancing agent that it is meant to be.

1. Take a rest week

2. Change your diet

3. Use creatine

4. Change your exercise routine

5. Get more sleep

6. Increase sunlight exposure

7. Invite a friend to your workout

8. Mix in some music

Do this and prosper.

1. Take a rest week

A rest week might be all that your body needs. 

Your body adapts between workouts the best that it can for the time being, but there is also a long-term recovery that the body can use to maximize your progress. 

It is recommended to take a rest week off every 10 weeks that you spend hitting the iron so that your body can repair itself on a deeper level. 

Lack of long rest might be causing your plateau as the need for deep recovery starts to accumulate.

Avoiding this kind of long rest for too long and you risk eventual over training.

Benefits of a rest week

Have you ever noticed that your muscles look bigger when you've skipped a few days of exercise?

A rest week will allow your body to re-align muscle fibers, strengthen bones and joints and stock up on inter-muscular nutrients without the stress of quickly recovering as best it can before the next workout. 

Many people have larger muscle growth rates in their rest weeks than on normal training weeks! I am one of these people. 

People often return to the gym with increased strength, stamina and motivation. I recommend that you spend two days during this week at the gym - only stretching and relaxing in the sauna, which will help to maximize your body’s recovery.

It is hard to avoid the gym, road or studio when you've finally built up the dedication to make exercise a daily habit. Trust me when I say that the results (and mental benefits) are worth it. You will return with more motivation than ever.

Try it out at least once and see how you feel when you return. 

In the meantime, use this opportunity to clean your house, spend some extra time with the family or do something fun. 

A nice, relaxed walk can do wonders for you, both mentally and physically, during a rest week. The goal is not to stop moving completely. It is to allow the body to go into a deep state of recovery.

Not sure what do to with your extra time on rest days? Turn an awful rest week into an awesome recovery week. 

Here is the perfect rest guide if you're only doing it for a single day.

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2. Change your diet

You’ll be surprised how often too much or too little of something is the cause of that annoying plateau. 

Are you consuming enough calories to sustain muscle growth or energy output? Are your macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat, fruit and vegetables) in the right proportion and size according to your current physical needs? 

There are many ways to customize your diet.

1. Try a simple/fast-acting carbohydrate food straight after your workouts to replenish glycogen stores in your muscles quickly

Your body might need more energy to advance to the next level. Use MyFitnessPal to monitor whether you eat enough calories.

2. Increase protein and water intake (throughout your daily meal plan)

You need water to recover. Avoid beverages that cause dehydration. You can't build new cells or repair them without protein.

3. Increase the total daily calories you consume

If maximum muscle growth is your primary goal, try a diet high in calories for maximum muscle gain.

4. Switch out your protein sources (too much whey, too little fish?)

Try taking protein supplements according to the way the protein enters your body so that your body always has the protein that it needs to recover.

5. Add micro-nutrients like vitamins, minerals or oils

Are you eating enough fruit and vegetables to get important nutrients that your body uses for recovery? Do you need more minerals or electrolytes? You lose precious nutrients every time that you sweat.

6. Check your supplements: Are they really perfect or is it time for a change-up?

I've seen many cases where simply changing supplements increased muscle growth. Here are the supplement basics that everybody should know.

7. What else can you add or subtract to help your body get its growth back?

Is all the sugar in your diet slowing you down? Perhaps you eat too much junk food or too little carbohydrates for sufficient energy production.

Try a few of the points above until you find what works for you. I battled with a shoulder joint injury until I supplemented with fish oil daily.

Try different things to find what works.

3. Go on a creatine cycle or use a pre-workout

A good pre-workout or creatine cycle will give your body a boost to blast past that wall it can’t climb over. 

Start with a half dose for 2 weeks. Advance a full dose for 2 weeks. Go back to a half dose for the following 2 weeks. Keeping the same reps and weight numbers you did on the full dose when you do the second half dose. 

Sometimes our bodies just need a good push in the right direction to get them growing again.

Find the form of creatine that works best for you. Don't use creatine for too long without giving your body a break. You should always cycle creatine.

Try other types of supplements for muscle performance.

4. Change your exercise program

This is the most common way to overcome a plateau. I've listed it at the fourth best way to overcome a plateau (instead of the first) because you should automatically change your program at least every 2 months.

How long have you been following the program that you are currently on? Go back to the other points if you've hit a plateau and you've changed your program within the last 2 months. 

It’s time to change things up if you use the same exercise plan that you did 2 or more months ago (regardless of whether you hit a plateau or not).

Change the whole program completely (like from a standard 5-day split to a Push-Pull-Legs (PPL) program or vice versa) or change a few small things within the program if you want to keep at it a little longer. 

If you are ready for a real challenge (advanced weight lifters only), try the GARRY workout program. You can also check out our research on what the best workout split for muscle growth is.

There are many things you can change in your existing program to bring back your body’s awesome adaption mechanism.

Change equals growth.

1. Rep range

Many people cycle between a week of higher reps and a week of lower reps to keep the body in its prime adaption phase. Try using heavier weights with fewer reps or lighter weights with more reps.

Changing your rep range can have a great counter-plateau effect. High reps can also build muscle mass.

2. Rep times

Increase your TUT (total time under tension) with each rep. 

If your reps are usually under a second, take a full second to lift the weight, another second to hold it there and two seconds to lower the weight back to your resting position. 

The burn you feel in your muscles after doing this will definitely be an indication of greater stimulus being put on the muscle.

3. Number of sets

Change the number of sets to a higher or lower number. 

Would your muscles benefit from a few more sets per exercise? Are you doing too many sets for them to recover sufficiently before the next exercise session? 

4. Change the exercises

Switch rows with pull-ups. Replace cable presses with bench presses. Do hack squats instead of knee extensions.

This will help you to bust out of that plateau instantly.

5. Change your grip

Reverse the grip on all of your exercises to work the muscles from an angle that they are not used to. This will force them to adapt to a new form of stimuli.

I was shocked at the positive change that this simple hack brought to my own training regime when a friend recommended it to me.

6. Change your set format

Swap the standard 8, 8, 8 set for a pyramid style (15, 12, 10, 8, 6); drop set (6, 10, 12, 15, 20) or super-set (bench press and dips in the same set) to keep forcing your muscles to grow.

7. Intensity

Decrease the amount of time that you rest in between sets. 

Now muscles will need to get stronger and bigger to be able to cope with less recovery time they have before being recruited to work again. 

You can also increase your rest time, so that you have more strength with each set.

Discover which rest times work best between sets.

8. Exercise order

Change the order of exercises you do, so that different fibers in the muscles are recruited at different exercises. 

The bench press might be exhausting your triceps before you hit the dips. 

Now your triceps can do more on the dips and your chest will need to step it up to complete the bench press afterwards.

9. Rest between exercise sessions

You might rest too little in-between sessions that use the same muscles. They therefore aren’t at their full potential next time round. You might rest for too long. In this case, they are over-rested and have started shrinking back to normal before they are stimulated again.

Keep it fresh.

You don't have to implement all of these changes at once. Choose the ones that you are going to change and take it from there. 

The next time you feel a plateau coming on; you can change a few of the other elements. 

Sometimes, all it takes is one good change instead of many. 

If you really want to change everything up at once, go ahead. That's also okay.

5. Get more sleep

You might feel fine, but an extra hour or two of shut eye might be all that your body needs to recover to the max for its next workout session.

Most muscle growth happens when you sleep. It is important that we get enough of it and have the right nutrients in our bodies when we sleep so that our muscles can do what we want them to – grow!

This is how to fall asleep efficiently at night.

6. Get some sunshine

Expose your skin to the natural rays of the sun. This will increase your testosterone levels naturally through the vitamin D that our skin makes during contact with sunlight.

No wonder why our energy levels are lower and we're just plain lazy during winter!

There are many ways to increase your testosterone naturally.

Sun and sleep help with performance.

7. Add a friend to your workout session

Studies show that people perform better at physical exercises when their friends are with them. 

Some healthy competition between you and a bud will increase your muscular output. This might sound crazy, but who cares if you're getting stronger?

8. Mix some music into your workout

Music can increase physical performance during exercise.

Imagine beating your personal best just because the right track was playing!

My personal, top 3 methods to blast past a plateau

Everybody hits a plateau (although some plan ahead and make changes before they plateau). My personal, favorite ways to speed up muscle growth are:

1. Taking a rest week

I like the idea of getting a good, deep recovery every few weeks. I personally feel like it sets my last cycle’s gains well into my new cycle’s starting point. 

After a week of rest, my new size and strength gains become the new ‘starting stats' for me to improve on before my next rest week. 

I take a rest week every 8 weeks.

2. Going on a creatine cycle

I feel like creatine can be the jumper cables to a body that wants to start slow down. 

It is natural for our bodies to save energy whenever they can. They will only grow when it feels like it has to in order to survive. 

A helping hand from mister C never hurts.

3. Change of program

I generally do a rest week and then a creatine cycle once I've maxed out. 

I then create a total change in my exercise program (different exercises, reps, split and everything). 

I love the soreness in my muscles when starting a new program because I feel like the muscle is being forced to grow even bigger. 

If my muscles aren't suffering, why would they grow?

STAY STRONG!

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