Tip The Minimalist Approach Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip The Minimalist Approach Progress stagnated Simplify Here' s how to do it and why it works by Eirik Sandvik January 5, 2017June 29, 2022 Tags Tips, Training No Gains Drop the Fluff If you're not happy with your progress in the gym and your motivation is lagging, don't add more to your workout plan. Instead, simplify. Take a look at how you've been training the last couple of months. There's a chance you've been overdoing it, either by having done way too much work or way too much shitty work. If you're used to combining a lot of high intensity work with a high volume approach (lots of heavy work, lots of sets, reps, and exercises), you're heading towards trouble. This is especially a big pitfall when you create your own training programs, since we all tend to think we're advanced and can always handle more. When stagnation hits and motivation lags, ask yourself: What can I get rid of in my training? What makes me better? And what am I doing that's just busy-work? Your body is a system of systems that requires recovery from the stress you place on it. When you reach a plateau, or even worse, your performance regresses, it could be a training problem, but it's probably a holistic problem. There are things that take your stress beyond your recovery capabilities. Figure out where the stressors are coming from. A simple and highly effective strategy is to make your training as minimal as possible. Sometimes doing the least amount of work will create the most amount of progress. Consider the Pareto principle. It states that 20% percent of what you invest tends to be responsible for 80% of your results. If you look back on your training history, you can probably see this. There are certain strategies and exercises that are responsible for where you are today. Dump 80% of your training, do shorter training sessions, and see what happens. Not only will you likely perform better, you'll probably start to build up your enthusiasm for training again since you'll have more energy. If you're a powerlifter or athlete, it's not the biceps curls and side raises that have been foundational to your training. If your program is full of accessory work, remove all of it for a couple of months and see what happens to your performance. All that extra work may be overstressing your system via accumulated fatigue. It's telling you to change something. If you don't, what do you think will happen? Certainly not progress. We do need to push the envelope from time to time, but not all the time. The Olympics aren't held every week, all year round. They're once every four years. Have you ever considered looking at your own training with this kind of timeframe? Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training 5 Redundant Exercises You Just Don t Need Many popular exercises work the same muscles the exact same way. That's a waste of your time. Here's what to avoid and what to do instead. Bodybuilding, Training Nick Tumminello May 18 Training Cardio Kills Endurance training may make you leaner, but it'll eat up muscle, damage your cardiovascular system, elevate cortisol, put you in an acidic state, and might just kill you. Fat Loss Training, Metcon, Training Mike Sheridan June 2 Training 5 Realistic Tests of Strength How much weight should you be able to lift? How many reps should you be able to do? Here are some guidelines for natural, non-mutant lifters. Powerlifting & Strength, Training Lee Boyce October 12 Training Ribcage Expansion Fact or Fiction Didn't it seem that the bodybuilders of yesteryear had bigger chests? (We're talking chest circumference here and not pec size, mind you.) Ellington thinks so and he knows why - it was all due to the all-but-lost art of ribcage expansion. Bodybuilding, Chest, Training Ellington Darden, PhD March 22