Progressive Overload – What is it & Why is it important?
What is progressive overload?
Progressive overload is an important if not the most important strength-training principle. Progressive overload is a concept to make your workouts gradually more challenging over time to place stress on your musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
By implementing progressive overload in your training routine, you will gaing strength as well as stimulate muscle growth and build indurance. By doing this, you avoid plateauing in your lifts.
Why is progressive overload beneficial?
If you keep doing the same workouts over and over with the same amount of weight every time you train, your body is simply plateauing – meaning you won’t progress at all.
While reaching a stage of plateau may be seen in a positive way, it simply just means you’ve made some gains in your strength training journey but it also signals that it is time to try something else to stimulate your muscles.
By progressively overloading your workouts, you will keep your muscles stressed and challenged – which is needed to get stronger and have your muscles grow.
Examples of progressive overload
There are a number of different ways to add progressive overload to your training routine. This depends on your workouts. Below are examples of how you can implement progressive overload in your workouts.
Increase weight over time – Resistance Training
- Week 1: Perform 6-8 squats with the same amount of weight.
- Week 3: Perform 8-10 squats with the same amount of weight.
- Week 5: Perform 10-12 squats with the same amount of weight
- Week 7: Add weight to your squat and start over with your repetitions – 6-8 again.
By adding additional stress to your muscles over time you allow them to break down and rebuild to get bigger and stronger.
Please understand that if you’re capable of doing more than 12 repetitions for an example, you should by no means stop your set if you’re capable of doing more.
If you underperform on a set hitting 4-5 reps on a set that calls for 6-8, it’s not the end of the world. You’re supposed to improve and progress in your training routine. Lower the weight by a little, until you hit the sweet spot. You’re supposed to improve little by little, with every time you hit the gym.
Increase endurance (cardiovascular endurance)
To increase your cardiovascular endurance you can for an example increase the length of your exercise. If you cycle or run, you can additionally increase your mileage or the length of your exercise.
Increasing the intensity of your workouts can and will help you get stronger. By having less rest time in between sets, you can stress your body enough to gradually make gains over time.
This can be done by simply using a lighter weight and having less time to rest between your sets.
A final note
Progressive overload should only be done and implemented in your training, when you’ve mastered your exercises with proper form. Ideally, you should’ve been doing your training routine for at least 2-3 weeks before implementing the concept in your regimen.
If you’re ever in doubt, working with a certified personal trainer in the gym or online can help you reach your goals and prevent future injuries.
Your body should always have time to rest between your workouts. Therefore, you should ideally never train the same muscle groups back to back, on a daily basis.
