Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut? Are you having trouble losing the last few pounds, or your strength gains have reached a plateau?

A successful fitness program will help avoid reaching plateaus in order to keep improving.  If you seem to be stuck, then ask yourself these questions:

Do you feel tired before you go to the gym?

If you said yes to this question then you may be overtraining.  Any part of a successful fitness strategy should incorporate rest periods.  Depending on your age, body, and type of training, you may need to rest more between days in the gym, or even a week off.  For example, lifting heavy weights everyday will not get you big muscles; it will give you overtrained, tired muscles, which can lead to overuse injuries such as tendonitis and chronic fatigue.

Have you tried anything new lately?

If you know your routine by heart, and what order you go in, it’s probably time to switch it up.  In order to keep challenging your body, you should try to do different things to maintain overall fitness.  Ways to do this could be working with a professional to design new workouts, and develop a long-term plan to keep seeing results.  Another option could be adding cross training like biking, swimming, or a yoga class.

How is your diet?

A junky diet is one of the fastest ways to throw your efforts out the window.  Eating a diet high in saturated fats and sugars will waste many of your efforts in the gym.  Make sure that you are incorporating whole grain carbs, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and enough protein to support your muscle growth.  Note, enough protein does not mean 300 grams per day! A good plan would be to contact a professional that is educated in Nutrition to help you design a diet that works for you.