When it comes to strength training, fat loss, flexibility and athletic development, the last thing you want to encounter is the nasty P-word.

Plateaus?
I Beat Them With This Stick.

Plateaus

What is the definition of a Plateau? I checked out the dictionary and here are the first two definitions.

1. a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.

2. a period or state of little or no growth or decline: to reach a plateau in one’s career.

Definition 2 is the one we want to avoid – the point in your training where your growth and development ceases.

No More Training Plateaus

Today, you’re gonna learn two ways to demolish your training plateaus and to keep them from ever showing up in the first place.

The primary cause for plateaus is lack of variety. People get in the habit of doing the same stuff all the time in their training, never varying from the norm, and as a result, their results drop off and they see the same numbers going up in their lifts, the same movement quality in their sports, and the same body in the mirror every day.

What I’ve got for you today are a couple of examples of how you can slightly modify the Deadlift, and more specifically in this case, the Trap Bar Deadlift, in order to break through plateaus and enjoy continuous Gains, PR’s and Progress.

What’s cool is, you can use the same exact amount of weight on the bar, but make that weight feel more challenging in your hands with just a couple small changes.

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Straight Weight

Here are some clips from a recent Trap Bar Deadlift training session. I am using Fat Gripz on the handles because I am preparing for a Deadlift and Hold in an upcoming Grip Contest, the Holdfast Gauntlet.

So, nothing out of the ordinary. Just pulling straight weight and going for 5 sets of 2. With the Fat Gripz added, this was a bit too heavy to get all the doubles I wanted.

But let’s imagine that I completed all 5 sets of 2 reps.

Now, let’s look at a couple of ways to modify the lift in order to make it slightly harder.

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Chains

With Chains attached to the Trap Bar, the weight in your hands gets heavier as you lift the bar further. This allows you to hold heavier weight at the top, as if someone is throwing a couple on 10’s on each side once you hit lockout.

So, what you could actually do is perform your first few sets of, say 300lbs, with straight weight. Then, you could do a few more sets with chains added to make the lift target your lockout strength more and make it even more taxing on your grip.

Trap Bar Deadlifts Pulling Against Band Tension

Now, let’s look at a way to make the same movement, with the same weight, even harder – Bands. With these giant rubber bands placed over the bar, the challenge to keep hold of it all the way to lockout is increased even further for both the hands nd the lower back and glutes.

Now, these videos were all taped during different sessions with different weights used, but the potential is there for you to incorporate all three techniques in the same workout to gradually increase the difficulty of the sets, and to help you plow through plateaus in your training.

Where to Get Chains and Bands

Chains and Bands are available in many places, and many of these suppliers operate through Amazon.com. In fact, here is an entire page of various Lifting Chain Suppliers

That page will give you a whole variety of options, including different chain sizes, and packs of various chains so you can save on shipping and get a better value.

Training Bands are available there too. There used to be only on good supplier of exercise bands, but now there are lots of them. Go to this page, Fitness and Strength Training Bands, and you will find all kinds of different bands to choose from.

Where to Get Fat Gripz

Naturally, if you don’t have Fat Gripz yet, I consider them a must. These thing stake up no room at all and they go on so fast, you waste no time at all. They are a fraction of the price of thick-handled dumbbells and barbells, and make more sense for the person who is just looking to increase their hand strength but not interested in accomplishing world-class feats of Grip Strength.

Grab your set here => Get Fat Gripz

Screw Plateaus!

With these kinds of tactics, you’ll never have to worry about Plateaus in your training again. Any time you start to see stagnation in your training, you can start adding chains and bands into your training in order to shock your muscles and your mind into additional growth and strength increases.

And, you can head these plateaus off before they can even set in by including this type of work in your training on a regular basis. It is very popular to throw in band and chain training once a month to your target movement, and every 3 weeks of training is what Josh McIntyre highlighted in the recent interview I did with him.

You are going to feel like a MACHINE when you start including these things in your training. Especially, the chains, due to the awesome mechanical sounds they make. Its like training inside a Strength Building Factory.

All the best,

Jedd

Hey everybody, thanks for coming by to check out the site. Today I have a post for you that I’d really like your opinion on. I hope you can take a minute and post a comment below before you move on to whatever else you have going on today.

Before we get into that, here’s a picture of me and my little girl, JayCee Lynn. She’s doing great and she loves to stay up every night and party.

Here’s a picture of her and me a week or so ago taken around 3 AM one night after giving her a bottle. I am so delirious in this pic, I don’t even remember who took it.

JayCee Lady and Me

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP (more…)