I've hit some plateaus with nearly all of my lifts, and I'm unsure of how to break past them and get the weight back up. For the past few weeks, I lowered all the weights and upped the reps to try and get my technique and form back to their proper states but I'm ready to start lifting heavy again. Is this a good way to overcome a plateau or should I overhaul my routine? What's the best way to get past this?

What has always worked for me is a combination of two things:

Vary the order of the excercises that you do. If you usually do a chest workout consisting of Bench, Incline, and Flies, try doing Flies, Incline, and Bench.

Switch to dumbells for a week or so. You will likely use a wider range of motion and really work some of those smaller supporting muscles that the bar doesn't quite hit as well.

Also, don't underestimate the importance of working deep muscles. It may not seem like you are doing much, but using light weights to work stuff like your rotator cuff will pay huge dividends over the long term.

Above all, mix it up and have fun!

WhitePimp said:

I've hit some plateaus with nearly all of my lifts, and I'm unsure of how to break past them and get the weight back up. For the past few weeks, I lowered all the weights and upped the reps to try and get my technique and form back to their proper states but I'm ready to start lifting heavy again. Is this a good way to overcome a plateau or should I overhaul my routine? What's the best way to get past this?

Click to expand...

Its one lest drastic way of getting things going again. Werman suggested another few.

There are a number of other things as well. Do some reading in the vault and on ironaddicts.com.