It's a tough one this week, and it's one that contains a bit of a hard truth. I'm here to help though, and you're more than welcome to speak to me whenever you need to.
First off, here's the image to help you visualise the performance curve over time:
This is from a book entitled Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe. It's a book I still haven't managed to finish even after two years of trying to get my head around the massive amounts of information it puts across all at once. If you're really serious about training and don't want to employ a coach, I'm sorry, but this is pretty much a necessity for you.
Some people argue that Rip, the author, is old-fashioned and a bit out-of-date with his info, but the methods work and he's observed hundreds of people benefiting from them over the course of his career. Regardless of opinion though, the information in the above image is correct.
As you go through your journey form novice towards advanced, you have less room to improve as time goes on. You also get harder to stress, meaning that your adaptability rate drops, causing your training complexity to have to rise to compensate for it.
It might sound over-complicated, but think about each element on the graph for a minute and it'll click.
I also mentioned including some budget training plans in these notes to put my money where my mouth is. I didn't write this episode to sell you a training plan, so here are some you can use if you need them. Obviously, I'm more than happy to work with you if that's what you prefer.