More than likely you are getting results and you have not hit a plateau.
Stop and think about your situation for a moment. Can your progress ever really stop if you are consistently putting forth your best effort? If you are training with any type of regularity and intensity and supporting that training with sound nutritional practices, you can rest assured you are not really stagnant—regardless of what you may think. (If you are not putting in this degree of effort, then you now realize you are not hitting a plateau.) Oftentimes, you will be improving even when you don’t necessarily feel you are.
One of my favorite illustrations of what I am explaining comes from motivational speaker Zig Ziglar. In his story “Primin’ the Pump,” Ziglar talks about a man who goes to an old-fashioned well to pump some drinking water. The man pushes the pump’s lever over and over again and is seemingly making no progress whatsoever.
The man is indeed making progress, however; it just isn’t visible to him at the time. Deep in the underground pipes, suction is being created and is slowly siphoning the water to the surface. If he gets discouraged and stops pumping, the water will fall again—and he’ll have to start all over.
If he is persistent, the man will eventually see results from his efforts and enjoy a surging flow. At this point, he’ll no longer need to pump as hard because now only a little force produces enough water to equal ten times the effort he gave at the beginning.
Sometimes it feels as though you are putting ten times the effort into your training than you seem to be getting in improvements. But, if you are persistent, you will enjoy the benefits of bodybuilding that could be ten times greater than the effort you invest—just like the man who was primin’ the pump. You just never know.
