You Don't Have Enough Workout Variety
Paul said that another factor contributing to a plateau might be lack of variety in your workouts. "If we don't have enough variation in our training, then eventually we're going to adapt," he explained, and these workouts aren't going to be strong enough to keep having an impact on our bodies.
That doesn't mean program hop every week, he said. Stick to a type of training all the way through, and then, if you feel like you're seeing progress, change it up a bit. He gave a simple example: Let's say you like squats (don't we all). Sure, changing the reps can be effective, but you can't expect to see results if you're just doing basic squats over and over. Change how you do these squats over time so you're adding "different stimulus" to your body, he advised (check out a slew of variations here and, for the record, building your glutes requires more than just squats).
You still want to be consistent, but some ways Paul said you can add variety to your workouts aside from finding variations of exercises are:
- Keeping the same weights and adding reps
- Keeping the same reps and adding weight
- Reducing rest time in between sets