Fitness Principles: Progressive Overload

Everything in life is about challenging yourself appropriately and fitness is no different. The key word there is appropriately. You don't start school as a kid learning calculus, you have to build there by exposing yourself to new stimulus and concepts for years. Progressive overload no different. Progressive overload is the way we continue to challenge ourselves appropriately.

Take for example, you start a new strength program as a total beginner and at first it's very difficult and you struggle to finish each workout. After a month or so the weights have become easier to lift and are not as challenging, then a few months later they're easy, not quite light but the challenge is definitely gone. But so too has your growth, you aren't making gains in strength or hypertrophy anymore.

As famed bodybuilder and eight-time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman once said, "You always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got."

Progressive overload is how we avoid stalling on progress in the gym and in life and is the backbone of all effective training programs. Understanding how to implement progressive overload is the key to getting where you want to go in fitness.

Here's some ways that that can look:

1. Increase Resistance – Adding more weight to your lifts is one of the most straightforward ways to progress. For example, if you’re squatting 100 lbs for 5 reps, increasing to 105 lbs is applying progressive overload.

2. Increase Repetitions – Performing more reps with the same weight before increasing the load ensures muscular endurance and strength improvements. If you bench press 135 lbs for 8 reps, try pushing for 9 or 10 reps before adding more weight.

3. Increase Sets – Adding more sets increases the total volume of work your muscles perform, leading to growth and adaptation.

4. Improve Exercise Execution – Refining technique to better target what you want by either a) increasing range of motion, especially into end ranges; b) isolating particular muscle(s); or c) slowing down the eccentric (lowering) portion of a lift to enhance the challenge without adding weight.

5. Reduce Rest Time – Shortening rest intervals forces your muscles and cardiovascular system to work harder, promoting endurance and metabolic conditioning. This sort of training can be found in supersets or circuits.

6. Increase Training Frequency – Training a movement or muscle group more often can reinforce neuromuscular adaptation and skill acquisition.

You've maybe heard of the 80/20 rule where 80% of outcomes are derived from 20% of causes. Well, a lot of what we do in the gym is to get us to the 20% that matters most. By pushing yourself hard in the 20% you get more gains in the 80% of work it took to get you there. If you work right up to the 80% and leave yourself there then you're leaving a lot of gains on the table.

A few things to keep in mind: you shouldn't progressively overload multiple adaptations at once, generally you should pick one adaption (maximal strength, hypertrophy, endurance) per workout or sometimes per exercise. But you can work on multiple adaptations throughout the week or throughout a program. So if you wanted to work on maximal strength on Monday and lactate threshold on Thursday that would be okay. Working on several adaptions at once throughout the week is generally my own training focus.

I'll leave you on an important note: if you train hard then you should recover hard, otherwise you may accidentally push too far into overtraining then, potentially, your body won't adapt and you won't achieve supercompensation, at least not as optimally. We'll talk about both of those next week.

One of the best ways to insure that you're in the sweet spot of overloading instead of overtraining (or under training) is to work with a trainer or follow a program made specifically for your goals. People of all levels, whether they're a total beginner or a professional athlete, benefit from having a coach and a well formulated training program.

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