The Progressive Overload Principle
Progressive overload is one of the most well known principles of strength training. It is one of the best ways to help create healthy and sustainable changes. This popular and science-backed principle states, our training must be guided by a series of progressions to create a slow adaptation in the direction of the end goal. While it seems extremely simple and like common sense, it’s completely against human nature in today’s society. We have access to so much information and so many resources at the tip of our fingers, so it’s easy to fall into the idea that health & fitness results can come just as quickly as the mass amount of info we are able to find about it.
It’s common to see people jump into something well beyond their initial capabilities, either because it looks cool or because they just don’t understand the best place to start. That’s why picking a realistic starting point and progressing based on how your body responds is the key to seeing long term results.
So, where do you even start? Probably the most common question for most people and the answer is almost always the same - “it depends on the person and their situation”. While that doesn’t help much, we can map out a handful of common ways to get started and build onto your routine over time.
WHERE TO START
Rather than over-thinking about where to begin, simply start with something very manageable. For example, if you are currently working out inconsistently, pick a set amount of days and times you know you can commit to and start moving with more intention. Maybe that looks like 3 days per week for an hour each. From there we would suggest splitting up your workouts into a routine that makes the most sense for your goals. Workout breakdown can vary quite a bit from person to person and their goals.
5 DIFFERENT WAYS TO PROGRESSIVELY OVERLOAD
Increase Weights - This is the most commonly used method of progressive overload. The idea is that every time you repeat an exercise (weekly, biweekly, etc.) you would try to increase the amount of weight you would use while still doing the same number of sets and reps.
Example: Go from lifting 145 lbs on an exercise one week to lifting 150-155 lbs the next week.
Increase Volume (Sets/Reps) - With this approach, you would be increasing your total reps at the same workload. So rather than changing weights as you progress, you would simply add another set in or do a couple more reps than you used to.
Example: Go from 3 sets of 8 reps (24 total reps) to 3 sets of 10 reps (30 total) or 4 sets of 8 reps (32 total)
Increase Workout Times - More specifically with conditioning, increasing your total time at a certain intensity is also a great way to build your fitness. This is easier to understand when speaking to intensity as a more objective measure, like using a heart rate monitor.
Example: If you are doing more circuit style workouts or cardio, you could add an extra round or increase the total amount of time you are spending at a given heart rate.
Decrease Rest Intervals - This is a great way to help you build resilience to higher intensity workouts. By decreasing your rest time, you train your body to recover faster after high intensity bouts. It is best done when using your heart rate or breathing to allow for a good starting point.
Example: If you are doing sprints, you would want to recover until you can breath through your nose only or until you reach a base level heart rate, zone 1-2 for those who are using monitors. Even then, your breath is probably the best determinant of intensity once you learn how to monitor it. Once you have decided your method, time how long the first couple of rest breaks are until your breath comes back and heart rate comes down. Then keep that same time interval for your next workout or two. Over time, you would then knock a few seconds off to force your body to adapt to less rest.
Change Tempo/Speed of Exercises - Tempo is one of the most overlooked ways to increase the challenge of an exercise. By slowing things down, or speeding them up, we can completely change the effects of what you are getting from a certain movement.
Example: Slow down your tempo on an exercise and do less total volume or weight. Think negative reps, 3-5 seconds down, then quick up. You could also add pauses in at different points in a movement for the isometric effects. Or speed things up with continuous reps for speed and power improvements. Important that you keep your speed within the means of your control.
The key word in progressive overload is progressive. It is very common for people to rush this process and end up overreaching or getting hurt from progressing too quickly. We generally wouldn’t recommend increasing any more than 10% per week. Even then, it is important to make sure you are listening to your body. Lifestyle factors, your training history, and your genetics will play a large part in how well you recover. This ultimately affects your pace of progression as well.
This is a great time to remind you about the importance of a deload week. Deloads are a great way to allow for increased recovery after spending 4-8 weeks progressively loading stress on your body. We can’t always be pushing the limit and expect our body to adapt without allowing it the time and care it needs to do so. To learn more about deloading, check out our Deload-101 blog post.
We are all about setting short term goals and chasing ways to measure growth, just remember this is ultimately about the long game. Unless you are training to perform at a professional level and getting paid for your fitness/abilities, it is important to consider how what you are doing now will pay off in the long run. It’s all about finding balance between staying consistent, progressing, and managing your ability to recover from the training loads you are exposing your body to.
If you would like more help and information on how to adjust your workouts for maximum results, head over to our coaching page and schedule a consultation on us.
~ Coach Nick