[disgruntled]

i just saw some advice on a body building show about how to get past a plateau in your work out.

- take a week off. often a plateau is because you are over training.

- start exercising after that at 20% weight, but more focused on the muscle you are working. you want to use less weight so you can concentrate on training your body how to do a movement (lift) while isolating a specific muscle. you goal is to create neural pathways, not muscle. but by focusing on a muscle and isolating it you will gain muscle and a lot of strength during this period.

- change the movements that you have been doing. if you are isolating the muscles, you have not been over training and you are still at a platue it could because your body has adjusted to doing the movement that you are doing. try to find another movement that works the muscle you want. it will use the muscle differently and thus give it a work out.



how can we translate this to martial arts?

i have some ideas how this method can be used in MAs. like above, take a week off.

after, we cannot really work at 20% given the nature of MAs, but we can do all of our techniques 20% speed. slow down all you movements and make sure you are doing the motions perfectly. this will achieve the same goal. you are isolating the muscles longer for each movement and strengthening those neural networks.

after you have mastered that, you could add wrist/ankle wraps. normally on this website, we would strongly discourage the use of ankle/wrist wraps, but if you are doing all your motions slow and controlled, you will not injure yourself.

finally, if you have done all that and you are still at a plateau, you need to change up your routine. that could mean shifting your concenration to: speed, strength, or height. but it also might be a good time to incorporate some cross training into your routine to move those muscles in a novel way. or you could start incorporating weight training into your routine.