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cofactor · 3
The body adapts only to a stimulus a little harder than it is used to, so the stronger you are, the bigger the stimulus needed for the largest gains: in pooled dose studies, untrained people gained most at an average of 60% of their one-repetition maximum, trained people at 80%, and collegiate and professional athletes at 85%. In powerlifting competition records, the strongest quarter of the men gained only about half as much per day as the weakest quarter.
Training both builds strength and leaves fatigue, so after weeks of heavy training the strength you can show is dragged down. When powerlifters cut training volume before a competition while keeping the intensity, the squat rose by 2.3%–5.9% and the bench press by 1.8%–6.4%; a scoping review likewise found that a short spell of hard training often brings better results after recovery, and only prolonged overload with too little recovery turns into non-functional overreaching.
Part of a one-repetition maximum is a skill the nervous system practices. When light and heavy loads are both taken to failure, muscle grows about the same, but the maximum rises more with heavy loads; untrained people who did nothing but single maximal attempts for 8 weeks raised their maximum as much as a high-volume group, though their muscles grew less.
contrast · 3
A strength plateau is often blamed on the training plan, but the cause may be sleep: a systematic review found that one night without sleep had little effect on maximal strength, and only after several nights of short sleep did strength in multi-joint lifts such as the squat fall, while single-joint movements did not.
When people get stuck, more protein is often the first thought. Extra protein does add about 2.49 kilograms to the one-repetition maximum; what is larger in trained people and shrinks with age is its effect on muscle growth; but when you eat less than you burn for a long time, the energy gap mainly holds back muscle growth, while strength rises about as much as in people who eat enough.
A strength plateau is often mistaken for overtraining, but usually it is not. Training hard for a short spell, seeing results dip and then coming back stronger after rest is functional overreaching; only results that keep falling, recovery that never comes, often with low mood, worse sleep and frequent illness, point to overtraining syndrome, and illness, infection, long-term undereating and iron deficiency must be ruled out first.