Why is it that we plateau when learning to do/working to get better at things? For example, during lifting why do we plateau at weights then feel like we get weaker over time? Or learning a skill sometimes feels like we are at our peak but know that we should be able to get better?
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Most skills have things that are easy to pick up, and you’ll see quick progress. After a while those easy gains get harder and harder, requiring more challenge and effort.
For lifting in particular, you have biological constraints that will start to limit how much you can see gains. Depending on how much time/effort you can devote, you’re eventually going to tap out.
Repeating the same exercises or drills without introducing new challenges can lead to stagnation. Your skills may plateau if you’re not pushing yourself to explore different aspects of the skill or facing more difficult tasks.
Without constructive feedback, it’s challenging to identify areas for improvement. Regular self-assessment and external feedback are crucial for continued growth. If you don’t recognize and address weaknesses, you may plateau or even regress.
Overtraining or burnout can lead to a decline in performance. Pushing too hard without adequate rest and recovery can result in diminishing returns and may even lead to a decrease in skill level.
The brain will start to automate processes once you are used to them. Which requires less cognitive input, which is efficient but can lower the quality of the action.
I’m a person that loves learning things. From studying plants, to playing musical instruments or study of languages, I’ve hit “walls” many times. In general my walls tend to come from burn out. I study and practice obsessively for months or years, then get burned out from repetition or simple boredom.
This is when I switch things up. I put down the thing I’ve been obsessed with for a while, move to something else. I just give things a little time for some perspective to grow, some other manner of looking at things. When I go back to something I set aside previously, I often have a light bulb moment and things start clicking in a way I hadn’t seen before.
Sometimes, though, there are good reasons to let something slip. Life happens, other interests arise, other things require more time. People grow and change. What “sticks” are the useful things. The things that make your life better and give you purpose.
There’s no general rule to this — some people will continue to work harder and smarter and continue to get better.
However, the general concept is that (1) people will try hard at something because it’s new and exciting and they’re seeing rapid growth, then (2) they’ll eventually hit a plateau because continued improvement requires more and more effort, then (3) they’ll get bored from the stagnation and get worse because they’re not putting in the same effort.
When we first start learning/improving a skill, the progress at the start is much faster because we are constantly figuring out new things. As we get better at a skill, it’s difficult to learn more because we already know most of what we can learn and our improvements become harder to notice.
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