Progressive Overload?
Progressive Overload is a necessary practice when it comes to reaching fitness goals. Whether your goal is putting on muscle mass or getting stronger you need to progressively overload your muscles in order to stimulate adaptation.
What is “Progressive Overload?”
Very simply, progressive overload is progressively increasing the stimulus of your training. Our bodies are amazing in that they adapt to the environment and stressors we are put in or we put ourselves in. We get stronger and build muscle because our bodies feel that they need to in order to “survive” the workouts. If we adapt to a training routine and do not increase the difficulty our bodies won’t have any reason to change because it is already capable of accomplishing and surviving the workouts. Keep in mind, that recovery is also important and necessary for our bodies to actually grow and come back again.
Ways to Progressively Overload:
Say you are doing four sets of ten of Dumbbell Bench Press.
Adding more weight: The most obvious way to do it, but it can be challenging knowing when to actually add the weight. If you are able to do all four sets of ten with good form for more than two workouts in a row, it is more than likely time to add weight. Adding just five pounds a week really adds up!
Perfecting form/technique: If you do four sets of ten with poor form, staying at the same weight but fixing the way you perform the movement is progressively overloading the exercise. This is because as you get better technique you will target the intended muscles more effectively creating a better stimulus. If you are not getting a full range of motion with the bench press your are missing out on a lot of the exercise. If you are flaring out your elbows on the bench press you are recruiting more help from your anterior deltoids and less from your chest (the intended targeted muscle).
Increasing number of sets and/or reps: Increasing the volume you put on your muscles can be a great way to continue to challenge your muscles. Especially if you are working with limited equipment, like many of us had to during quarantine with our little home gyms or even with just our body weight. However depending on your goals and the availability of equipment you have, you don’t want to just increase the volume. If you are training to increase strength taking your Dumbbell bench press from sets of ten to twenty-five will not take you to that goal.
Decreasing rest time between sets: Decreasing the rest time between sets increases the intensity of your workout. This is again better used in programs with limited equipment, because you are more so working your muscle endurance and less of a muscle growth stimulus. If you are training for hypertrophy or strength, appropriate rest time between sets is necessary for you to really push yourself during the sets.
Slowing down the tempo of each repetition: Slowing down the tempo of the eccentric portion of repetitions can increase the time under tension. This can be helpful for again, less available equipment situations. This is also something that can be beneficial for new people who need to gain more control and work on form before increasing weight and or volume. It can also be good for strength programs to again gain more control and keeping tension on the muscles throughout the entire range of motion without any use of momentum or bouncing.
