Breaking through the Plateau

There comes a point in any type of training from the martial arts to body building where you seem to stagnate. You don't make any significant gains and it seems that your skill level never improves. One of the main causes of this is that your training routine hasn't changed. The body has no time to adapt and grow if there are no new challenges. The Plateau seems like a never ending plane where most people get tired of putting in effort where they never see any results. As a result boredom sets in and they abandon their training altogether. I am currently seeing this in my own training and I am taking some steps to try and make some changes:

1. Self Assessment

In order to figure out where you need to go, you need to first figure out where you are. You need to identify your areas of weakness. Here is a sample of mine:

• Cardiovascular conditioning - My cardiovascular fitness needs major improvement. I would like to have greater endurance. I need to include more cardiovascular training into my current regimen.
• Strength - I would like to add 10 pounds of muscle and drop to 10% body fat. My last measurement as of last week was 195 lbs with 20% body fat which was eye opening. Adding 10 lbs of muscle would improve my striking power and overall strength. A sub component of this is going to be improving my Core strength which I think is essential in Shaolin Kung Fu and most martial arts. A good core helps you maintain balance which is essential when trying to rapidly change direction.
• Flexibility - More advanced Kung Fu forms require greater levels of flexibility. Drunken System requires catterpillar rolls, cartwheels into splits and a host of other techniques that if done correctly would require me to be more flexible.
• Timing - I need to improve the ability to deliver strikes and counter attacks as soon as openings present themselves. I also need to be able to deliver techniques from muscle memory without thinking. This way I don't miss opportunities when sparring.
• Knowledge - I would like to increase my overall knowledge of my art and other arts in general. This includes doing more reading on history and philosopy of martial arts.
• Nutrition - I need to eat a lot healthier. One of my goals is to have a Vegetarian diet. Although I realize that most people would say that it is incompatible when trying to build muscle. There are a host of olympic level athletes who are vegetarians like Carl Lewis.

The regimen I devise is going to incorporate each of these areas into my new routine. I will be doing a lot of research in trying to come up with the best plan to achieve my goals. I am also going to have to keep track of my progress on a weekly basis. I plan to start my new regime next week.