• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

plateau.. and how to break it?

BoyFromAus

New member
Hi guys

Alright, as the title suggests, i'm in a plateau at the moment. I can't seem to get beyond 3 x 10... 100kg on my squat.

I weigh 72kg at roughly 12% bf. I eat 3000 calories a day at about 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fats.

I've been stuck on this for a few weeks now. Everytime I get to the last 2 reps on the last set of squats, i am f***d.

what tactics i can use to break this plateau?
 
lower your reps, go heavier. Eat heaps of food.

What do you do for 3x5 reps, 140kg ?
 
Last edited:
The easiest way is to simply eat your way through it.

A few days on 4000cals will sort it out.

Otherwise variety is the spice of life. Change up your reps. Start doing some 20reppers for a few sessions, then maybe do 8 heavy triples for a few sessions.

But as I said, eating your way through plateaus is the easiest.
 
You should mention exactly which point you fail in those last 2 reps: e.g in the hole, near the top.

It could simply be mental.

You can try the breathing technique that people use to do 20 rep breathing squat. It helps with lower reps too.
 
I can't give advice on getting past 100kg, since that's the highest I ever squatted ;)

But I can say the taking a few breaths at the top of each rep makes a big difference, I'd never have even got to 100kg without it, call me a wuss, I don't care, I lifted it so I was happy.

I would definitely try to eat more. I was eating 3,400-3,800kcal at the time, though I am bit heavier than but still... Try eating more, worst thing happens is you poo it out.
 
More calories...

Right now I'm chugging through 600cals of creamed cottage cheese. Only 500grams so ideal as an afternoon snack and its got 51gm of protein in it too. Luverly! :D

Cheers,
Mike
 
Rasika, I would guarantee you one thing will be consistent with every solution offered to you here by Ausbb members; be they Nick, Markos, Kyle, Katie, myself, or whoever else. Can you guess what it is that each and everyone here would be saying (and everyone in the above replies) have said already?

It's to do something different from what you're currently doing. The reason is that that type of formula opposes the definition of a plateau as I like to describe it and that is; reaching a plateau is a sign that you have overstayed your welcome and it's about time you've packed your bags and moved on...


Fadi.
 
Just load more weight and eat more u can do it. i got stuck there as well i think its more of a metal thing

after eating more and mentally adjusting i was upto 120kg in not long after.

good luck
 
My 1st big squat plataue was at 110kg, I thought it was at 100kg since I thought oly barbells only weighed 10kg for some reason
I reduced the volume abit and upped the milk per day to 3lts
 
I can't give advice on getting past 100kg, since that's the highest I ever squatted .

how tall are you & how much do you weigh ?




Anyway, There's a few options you can do to get around your rut, or what you call 'plateau'. For a long time, a really long time my bench press was stuck at 87.5kg. I could hold 90, i could get it off my chest without any help, but i couldn't seem to push it up.

Increasing your calorie intake would help. Changing your set/rep scheme would help. Maxing out (to prove to yourself that 100kg isn't that much!). Working on your hamstrings / glutes may be helpful, depending on what stage of the squat your losing it (not failing) at, or it's possibly your glutes. Possibly doing other type of squats, such as pistol (one legged) squats, bulgarian squats. One of my fav things to do right now, is single leg presses on the 45* incline leg press. Once you increase weight & both legs are at roughly the same strength, your squat quite possibly will be higher!
 
cheers everyone. Ima up my calories to 4000 and just 'shock' my system by changing around my routine by doing 3x5 with a weight greater than 100kg.

I'm not doing normal deadlifts atm, it's just the stiff legged ones
 
That could be your problem,

they are mainly a stretch and are never as heavy as normal deadlifts.

Add normal or ukranian to your routine and you should see improvements.

you would probebly be better with smaller sets longer reps for romanian's.


Give it a go
 
Good move on upping the cals and increasing your work weight.

Don't worry about changing your deads. Squats will increase your dead, the opposite rarely works.
 
Lame.... i'm down with the flu & fever for 3 days now. My f***kn immune system wont kill it already.

I've been eating at 4000 calories a day though. It's tough for me to eat clean at this much but i'm getting used to it.
 
Lame.... i'm down with the flu & fever for 3 days now. My f***kn immune system wont kill it already.

I've been eating at 4000 calories a day though. It's tough for me to eat clean at this much but i'm getting used to it.

treat yourself. Why eat clean all 4000 calories ?
 
Sure, next time you fill up your car just put 50% hi octane in and 50% regular...

Its not just making up the cals thats important, its the right KIND of calories.

If hes eating 3000 a day and is plateauing, how is adding 1000 cals of liquorice going to help?
 
Top