Progressive Overload
Before getting into the nitty gritty of progressive overload, it’s benefits, how it should be employed and why it is so fundamental in all forms of training, we first need to explain what it is.
Progressive overload is defined as a gradual increase in training frequency (number of times an exercise is performed over a given time period), volume (the amount of sets and reps being performed in a given time period) or intensity (amount of weight used for a given exercise).
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s get into it. Progressive overload (we’ll call it P.O for short) is fundamental for everyone who goes to the gym, practices endurance sports or is an athlete in individual or team sports, that may seem self evident to some, but unfortunately one of the most common errors I see being made on a DAILY basis in gyms is people doing THE SAME THING over and over again, now by that, I don’t mean the same exercises, I mean the exact same exercises, in the same order, with the same weight and the same reps week after week, and often these people wonder why they’re not making any progress in their physique or performance.
Unfortunately or indeed fortunately depending on how you view your training, if you wish to progress in some way, that entails pushing yourself harder than last time, now that could translate into adding a rep to your set, adding 1.25kg to each side of the bar, adding a set or even doing the exercise twice as many times in the same week or microcycle.
Often for clients who are new to the gym and have little to no training experience, my first option will be to increase the weight on the bar of whichever compound movement they’re doing by 2.5kg a week. That may seem like not very much to some but if you can continually add 2.5kg to a bar for 2 months you’ve added 20kg to your lift, and in the case of newbies 20kg may well represent a doubling or at the very least a ⅓ increase in their lift. Now, of course this cannot go on forever, and everyone’s baseline strength may differ significantly, but the fact remains that you can build a very solid base for most by simply adding that incremental weight to the bar until you start to hit a plateau, for me that plateau will either be a failed rep or a breakdown in form and a partial loss of control of the movement. In which case when it arrives, we still have A LOT of variables to play with in order to improve, the next logical modification to make would be to add another rep to the set with the same weight, and if this is not possible to do the same weight and same reps but to add another set. So for example if you can do 2 sets of 5 reps with 50kg on bench press but you can’t get 52.5kg for 5, my next step would be to add a rep with 50kg and if that fails, to add another set, now imagine you build your volume up until you can do 50kg for 4x5, trust me when I say that one set of 52.5kgx5 reps is possible at this point, then we need to add more volume with this weight by adding another set. RINSE AND REPEAT.
Now we may get to a point further down the line where even this is impossible, no matter what you do, you can’t add a rep, you can’t add weight and you can’t add a set, well at this stage it may be time to either change your frequency, or change your rep range, instead of staying in the 5 or 6 rep range, it may be time to go to the 3-4 rep range or add an entire other bench session in your week, now bear in mind when doing this (i.e. increasing frequency) you are going to dramatically increase fatigue and may well feel terrible for a short period of time while your body adjusts to the increased frequency.
Now with this new set-up you may have something that looks like this: 57.5kgx3x3 once a week OR Day 1: 52.5kgx3x5 + Day 2: 42.5kgx3x8.
Powerlifting, weightlifting and strongman coaches i.e. strength sports coaches will know that these classic training principles are the fastest, most effective, and most useful long term. In the bodybuilding world I unfortunately know too many individuals and coaches whose focus is solely on getting a “pump” with the occasional attempt at a rep or weight pb on a lift, this however is not conducive to long term success and is not in any way a good marker for progress as you are solely basing your workouts efficacy on whether you were unable to walk/lift your arms above your head when the workout is done. A good bodybuilding coach however knows that just like in any of the other aforementioned sports, a bodybuilder will derive the greatest and most evident gains by incrementally increasing weights over time. I refer to Jordan Peters (TrainedbyJP) as a very good example of effective bodybuilding coaching as the goal is to overload the muscle in order to see progress on that body part, whether that be by increased reps, weight, or times performed per week. The classic example that I see in the gym is young guys doing 16kg hammer curls week in week out, with no attempt to increase the weight or rep range but rather just to curl until it hurts and then stop, the same may go for more advanced lifters who perform 100kg bench press for 3x8 or 140kg squats for 3x8 every week and don’t push themselves sufficiently for growth, so this example can apply to beginners and more advanced individuals, but it in all cases it is not the optimal training style conducive to improvement.
We will go over “the pump” in my next post, why it can be useful but how it is often overused as a metric for successful workouts and also its potential pitfalls in my next post. Thanks for reading!
Comments