Progressive overload is a principle of fitness. It’s the idea that if you slowly increase the amount of work you do each session you will consistently move forward throughout training whether that means you build more muscle, strength, endurance, etc. There are many different ways to imply this principle in your training with ease so don’t be intimidated because it’s not complicated at all.
Focusing on progressive overload with your program design is a great way to keep making gains because it gives a steady and easy way to keep pushing yourself harder. It’s also applicable to any aspect of fitness regardless of what your training looks like (bodybuilding, h.i.i.t, pilates) so you can always resort back to this system once you hit a plateau.
One thing to keep in mind though is this, as you begin to feel more comfortable in the gym and you start to understand your muscles more, there will be days you don’t feel as good as you did the last time you hit a PR and on these days it’s important to still train but take it easier that session. Otherwise, you can end up injured and that’s only gonna set you further back than the progress you would’ve made if you came in and did more than last time.
Ways to Use Progressive Overloading
- Range of Motion
- Volume
- Intensity
- Training Density
- Frequency
Before you worry about how to progress throughout your program it’s necessary to remember a few things:
1. ALWAYS Maintain Good Form.
Yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen big guys cheating their form in order to get a few extra reps in but unless you want to risk hurting yourself don’t follow what these guys are doing. This isn’t a bad way to push yourself closer to failure but these guys have been in the gym so long they know exactly how their muscles are going to react and still, they injure themselves every now and then.
2. Change One Variable at a Time
In order to figure out what’s working and what’s not when you’re trying to make progress at the gym you need to be patient and experiment for yourself because everyone’s body reacts differently. So to make this easier on yourself don’t try to do too much at once, that way you’ll know exactly what to do and what not to do. Remember, small consistent progress is always going to outweigh inconsistency.
3. Keep Track of your Workouts
Keep track of your workouts, I recommend this to everyone. No matter how much time you have or haven’t spent in the gym this will be beneficial.
I started tracking my workouts about 3 months into the gym and I’ve never understood how folks got by without doing this. You can literally just download an app on your phone and you’ll be able to keep track of every single thing that goes on during your day at the gym. Doing this allows you to always be able to look back to see how you’re progressing or what you need to change to get past a plateau.
Although there are 12 different ways to change up your routine, for the sake of simplicity we’ll group it all into 5 variables.
1. Range of Motion
The range of motion of a movement is quite literally the movement path of the weight being lifted, this matters because more movement is equivalent to more stress or tension on the muscle making the movement harder.
For example, when you bench press if the bar stops 2 inches away from your chest at the bottom try letting the bar come all the way down and touch your chest. Doing this will create more of a “stretch” on the muscle meaning you’re recruiting more muscle fibres to lift the weight so you’re essentially hitting a greater area of your chest with this movement.
2. Volume
Training volume is all about the number of reps and sets you do for each exercise. This one’s pretty self-explanatory, the more work you do the more tension you’re putting on your muscles resulting in more gains. Don’t go overboard and do more than 5 working sets or 20 reps of an exercise unless you’re an advanced lifter, this is just a needless waste of energy. If you’re training for strength go for 1-8 reps for your compound lifts and if it’s muscle growth you’re interested in 8-15 reps is going to be ideal for your work.
3. Intensity
Intensity may just sound like it means how hard you push yourself but in training terms it directly translates to the load or amount of weight you’re lifting each rep. So to increase the intensity of a squat you have to increase the weight you put on the bar. More weight = more gains… you get the idea.
4. Training Density
Your training density is how much rest you take in between sets. If you take a smaller rest between sets you’re not giving your muscles the chance to recover so much but this is actually a good thing! Our muscles will adapt to the stress you put them through which is the main idea of building muscle and endurance so by getting less rest your muscles will build more endurance, and in turn, you can do more work without getting so fatigued.
5. Frequency
The frequency is about the work you do for each muscle. So if you hit your chest three times a week instead of twice a week but do just as much work each day, you’ll get more gains on your chest. This is great once you start seeing imbalances in your muscles and/or strength because if you have a small chest compared to your back you can start focusing more on your chest to balance them out. You can actually break it down even further, for example, you can work on certain a head of the triceps to balance the size of each muscle in your triceps.
Don’t overtrain though, you still want optimal time (48-72 hrs) to let your muscles recover because, after all, that’s when muscles grow.
Bonus Tip!
Be creative! There are variations of certain exercises that will give you certain benefits that can really help you push through plateaus and give you more of a personalized workout.
