Nothing Lasts Forever
Nothing lasts forever.
Whatever you do will not work indefinitely.
When you first start training, no matter what you do, you will make changes.
Some of those changes can be quite spectacular, but they are not going to happen forever.
The same thing can occur when, after several years, you change what you're doing.
People fall into routine, and before they know it, 5 years have gone by, and they are still doing the same thing. So by doing something completely different, you're essentially starting over and that rush of new progress can bring dramatic changes.
Until those changes stop.
There is no better feeling than when your training finds momentum and the changes come almost weekly. We get suckered into believing what we’re doing is going to keep giving us results.
It won't.
The trick is to recognise when those changes are about to stop and make a change to keep your progress going.
This is why measuring your progress is so important.
It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to bulk go up or cut down, at some point whatever you do is going to stop working.
The common mistake is thinking that when things do stop working you need to push harder and do more. People double down. Trying to jumpstart the body which has conked out after months of abuse.
You can try pushing more, but there is only so much food you can take away. There are only so many hours in a week that you can fill with training.
The more you push your body in a direction that it doesn't want to go in, the more it digs its claws in and no matter what you do, nothing happens. Then the inevitable and almighty rebound occurs and can leave a person worse than when they started and permanently damaged.
If each week your results aren't changing despite doing everything right, chances are your body is done.
Not forever, but transformations aren't always one continuous upward or downward trajectory. They can zigzag. There are times for pushing the body. Then there are times you may need to back off and let the body chill before pushing on again.
So long as the overall trend is heading in the desired direction, that's what matters.
Give yourself a period of time and measure everything you do, then assess your progress.
If you gave yourself 20 weeks to go from 30% down to 10%, and you seem to have been stuck at 18% for 5 weeks with no change and your life is falling apart because you're hungry and exhausted all the time, stop doing what you're doing.
Give it a rest. Put some food back into you. Dial the training back a little. Let your body take a breather.
You're still 12% leaner than when you started. You've almost halved your body fat.
Take some time to let your body adjust to this new level of leanness. Remember what it feels like to not hate life and everyone in it.
When everything has settled, and you feel like a normal human being again, you can resume your dieting. Only now you’ll be starting from 18% instead of 30%.
Either learn to recognise when changes need to be made or hire someone who can monitor your progress for you.
Whatever you do, it's not going to work forever. Changes need to be made.