Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is exactly what it sounds like - it's the idea of progressively doing more.
To get technical:
‘The principle of progressive overload suggests that the continual increase in the total workload during training sessions will stimulate muscle growth and strength gain. This improvement in overall performance will, in turn, allow the athlete to keep increasing the intensity of his/her training sessions.
Now before you tell me you don’t want to get bulky, it’s important to know 2 things. (1) females don’t produce enough testosterone to create that much muscle mass and (2) progressive overload goes far beyond just lifting heavier weights. This is due to the fact that it's extremely hard to consistently increase your deadlift weight by 2.5lbs every session.
To break it down, here is a list of other ways you can overload your training:
Increase load lifted (adding more weight to the bar)
Lifting the same weight for more depth or range of motion
Lifting the same weight for better form,more control and less effort
Lifting the same weight for more reps
Lifting the same weight but increasing the number of working sets
Lifting the same weight for more speed
Decrease rest time between sets
Increase total work in the same timeframe (increasing amount of working sets in a time frame)
Performing the same amount of work in less time
Increasing the weekly training sessions
Performing the same work at a lighter body weight (think pull ups here)
Implementing Intensification methods (drops set, extended sets, static hold, rest/pause sets, partial reps - you know what, I'll do a blog post on different intensification methods and how to use them effectively)
To give you an idea of what this looks like in real life, let’s use the example of a beginner - someone who hasn’t really been on a gym floor.
First things first, we need to find their starting point. For someone this novice, that usually means focusing on their form before even thinking about increasing load.
**note - everyone's starting point per exercise will vary** .
So let's break this down so it all makes sense.
Imagine you have just walked into the gym for the very first time, and your is to be able to do a barbell back squat….but you’ve never squatted before….
First things first, we need to perfect form and the movement pattern.
We start off by getting you to squat to a bench (standing to sitting). - Why so simple? Because this is your starting point - you’ve never squatted before so we need to start you with the basics. Once you perfect that, we implement our first overload principle.
Squatting without a bench - Doesn’t seem like a lot but what we’ve done here is adjusted the depth of the movement and with that we will have added in more control (so we have successfully completed the one of the overload principles - Lifting the same weight for more depth or range of motion)
From here our next course of action is
Squatting with external load - Now we add in weight. Since the goal is a barbell back squat we’ll start with something as simple as just a wooden rod - this is because adding the load to the back will mean we need to relearn the movement pattern (hand position adjustments can make a lot of difference to balance). But adding that little bit of load ment we have Increased load lifted( another progressive principle)
At this point it can be as simple as continuing to increase the load on your back until you reach the barbell. But you could also add in a selection of interfication methods - things like slowing down the time it takes to reach the bottom of your squat, adding in a pause at the bottom or completing a quarter rep at the bottom of each full rep.
This also isn't the only way to progress someone's squat but it's here to give you an idea of the multiple ways you can progress your own training.
To sum this one up. Progressive overload is more than just adding in extra weights, it's about getting better and better in every form of the meaning.
Author: Edward Pimley