Every now and then I’ll have a coaching client (online or in-person) get flustered when they hit a plateau. They try to find out if there’s something special they should be doing, drinking, avoiding, sleeping on/in/with/near to help improve their performance to squeak out some more weight on the bar than last week.

Maybe there’s some magical combination of foam rolling and pre-workout tacos that can automatically guarantee more mass to smash that ass, but I haven’t found it just yet when someone has hit the sickly sweet sundrance of a plateau.

But if pre-workout tacos are magical, it’s likely when they give you an extra scoop of meat, maybe even 2 extra scoops.

First, a plateau isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You spent a lot of time and energy working hard to get to the point where you could now be at a new plateau, so automatically all of your workouts are a bit heavier or with more volume than they were a few months ago before your plateau, so enjoy that progress and live a little while in that new level of excellence.

Second, a plateau in the amount of weight you can put on the bar can give a lot of options for further progressive overload that don’t simply involve sliding another plate or two on the bar. Sure, it would be nice to toss around more plates than a coked out dishwasher at Denny’s working the Friday night shift, but unless your nickname is the Mountain and you live in Iceland, it’s likely not going to happen for you.

Third, a plateau in one variable of your training program does not necessitate plateaus in others.

Say I have a max squat of 200kg for 1 rep, and can do 180 kgs for 3. A realistic workout for this could look something like this:

Set 1: 170 x 3

Set 2: 170 x 3

Set 3: 175 x 3

Set 4: 180 x 3

Set 5: 180 x 1

This would give 5 sets of 13 reps total volume, working between 170-180 kg.

We could do a couple of things with this to produce a different overload. We could include more sets or reps at a heavier weight with subsequent sets. Something like this:

Set 1: 170 x 3

Set 2: 170 x 3

Set 3: 175 x 3

Set 4: 180 x 2

Set 5: 180 x 2

Set 6: 180 x 2

Set 7: 180 x 1

Here, we kept sets 1-3 the same, but expanded the number of total reps used at 180 kg, moving from 4 reps to 7.

Conversely, we could do more work at the lower weight with some back-off sets, like this:

Set 1: 170 x 3

Set 2: 170 x 3

Set 3: 175 x 3

Set 4: 180 x 3

Set 5: 180 x 1

Set 6: 165 x 3

Set 7: 165 x 3

Set 8: 165 x 3

Set 9: cry in the corner

In this example, the total volume went up by 9 reps with a significant load

Adding in some additional volume at a higher load can have a significant impact of producing progressive overload on the working tissues, which can help eventually spur some growth and strength improvements.

A further option could be to use the sub-max loading, but crank out more reps per set before pushing into the heavy sets:

Set 1: 170 x 5

Set 2: 170 x 5

Set 3: 175 x 3

Set 4: 180 x 3

Set 5: 180 x 1

Here, the sub-max build up volume went up from 6 reps to 10, while the top sets stayed the same.

Maybe we could do something where we jump up to an earlier heavy set, then back off with some soul-crushing volume:

Set 1: 170 x 3

Set 2: 180 x 2

Set 3: 190 x 1

Set 4: 175 x 3

Set 5: 175 x 3

Set 6: 170 x 3

Comparing total volume of weight lifted by reps, this scheme delivers 2620 kg over 15 reps for an average load of 174.67 kg per rep, whereas the first scheme delivers 2265 kg over 13 reps, delivering an average load of 174.23 kg per rep. The loading is fairly similar, with a higher volume in the last example.

These are some simple and effective ways to produce a degree of overload on different workout plans. The big element to consider isn’t just the total weight on the bar, but the workload being performed within the workout. Progressive overload doesn’t just have to come with the number on the bar, but by producing a higher volume of work at a given resistance, or a higher total workload at a similar average weight per rep. Play with the numbers, have some fun, and pay the extra for a second scoop on your tacos.