Plateau Is The New PR

Apparently, this is world first research, but I hate to think it is because Bro-Science has known for several decades that weight training can prevent bone fractures in people with osteoporosis. Simply managing an external load while standing means that balance and stability improve thus reducing the likelihood of falls, add to that stress on bones which requires remodelling and there is absolutely nothing surprising about this research except it has taken until 2022 to produce it.

In 2013, Rippetoe wrote “I think it's important to be able to fall down when you do a barbell exercise so that you have to make sure you don't. The balance aspects of the movement are critical to the training effect, and when this is removed you're left with a Glorified Exercise.” If you want to watch a really cool video, watch this 91 year old trainee at Rippetoe’s gym in Witchita Falls. Good thing, Rippetoe did not wait for the research to come out.

In my own training, after reading the P:E Diet, I decided I would test out the “train to failure” recommendation but not everyday, which would be not merely soul destroying but tissue destroying as well. I am aiming for three days per week, which is just about every other day, and am two weeks into what will be a 6 to 8 week strength training block.

As expected, I am stiff and sore every day, which is reminiscent of my Crossfit days, when, I alternated daily between feeling kick arse strong and crippled up old. So far, I am getting stronger (reps are going up), but I expect to plateau on this program sooner rather than later. But, as Pat Flynn pointed out for aging athletes “Plateau is the new PR.”