You can't get there from here

It's entertaining how I can think about everything I've done, how I've personally changed since I've really started working out consistently.

I went back through my old emails and my oldest email from MuscleHack.com is date June, 2009. I remember reading a lot of the content on the site before actually downloading the free e-book. I remember thinking to myself, "That's not a lot of working out. I'm a skinny guy as it is. Is this really going to work?".

Well, I can emphatically state that it does work. The volume-style cycles work for me, and the HIT-style cycles work for me without a shadow of a doubt. This confession leads me back to the present-day and my first curveball - I've hit my first honest plateau since starting out with Mark's collected wisdom.

To be honest, it's the one area of myself that does not surprise me as being the "culprit" for plateauing - my shoulders. I've even tested this theory over the last two weeks by split-setting and try to "push through" to get my progression for each workout. So, my overhead press will be dropped by about 10-20 lbs as I look at what it takes to kick-start myself there.

Here's the thing - I'm going to smash my way out of it! I'll run with the lower weight for the next week. I'll then kick back up to where I was as of last night, do 4 reps and then go back to my lower weight and see if that was enough to progress at that lower weight. If so, carry on. If not, re-evaluate again.

This little event is weght training in a bubble - personal adaptation comes to the fore time and again. We all want constant gains when gaining muscle mass. Most of us will enjoy that most of the time. In reality, you won't get it ALL of the time. And by all of the time I mean 100% flat-out. Right now I'm at a 99.5% success rate (to simplfy it a bit). I'm more than happy with that.