Using Progressive Overload to Reach Fitness Goals
No progress is made without practicing progressive overload. Progressing strength often means you are increasing muscle mass over time, usually. Progressive overload simply means progressing training over a period of time. It can refer to not only strength training but also cardiovascular training or really any type of training. Just as we practice sports we may progress over time, so we should also have a plan to do that in our strength training plan. Progressive overload is both the means to increase muscle mass and strength and also a sign that those increases are happening.
The body is an incredible machine that is built to adapt. Different stimuli allow us to progress in many facets of life. There are many reasons for this, particularly, in strength training, a weight lifting stimulus sets off a series of activities in the brain. Their brain is the master center of all adaptation. When we train a part of the brain, the anterior pituitary gland signals a variety of hormonal activity. This hormonal activity allows hormones to go to work in your cells and illicit changes to your cells. It is important to consider that not all progress in the gym is exclusively related to muscle mass increases, but as a general rule, as strength increases, over time, as does our muscle mass. This is primarily through hormonal activity that increases protein synthesis, but also as our central nervous system becomes better trained.
When we work out our body increases strength in a number of ways. One of these ways is simply explained by practice. When new and novel movements are introduced to the body it can be very inefficient from a nervous system perspective. The body is trying to coordinate the nervous system to fire the right muscles, at a rapid rate, at the right time. Over time your body will become better at coordinating this activity. This is a large reason we increase strength, particularly in the beginning of a workout plan. This is not exclusive to the nervous system, but this increased nervous system activity can trigger muscular adaptations.
If we want to improve our muscle mass we can use our strength as a good metric. Though not exclusively due to muscular adaptations, progressing over time can provide us with an ever increasing stimulus that can improve our physiques. There are many ways to progress through a workout program. Keeping track of these improvements can be a great way to understand your progress over time and help you adhere over time to a plan. When you see yourself progressing you can visually see the momentum that can help you stay in the game. For these reasons, writing your number of reps and weight lifted each workout rotation is a great practice to get the most out of your program. Writing these numbers down can also give you a baseline of strength and allow you to appropriately choose weights and rep goals each rotation.
When we think of progressing in the gym we usually think of lifting more weight over time. That is an excellent standard. The number of reps may also come to mind, which works well too. We can use the number of reps and weight as our basic method of measuring progress. We can increase volume over time even with weight and repetitions aren’t increasing. Increasing the number of sets slowly over time can provide a gradually more challenging net load to the body. These should be done in moderations depending on the effectiveness of recovery. Often when strength and repetitions are increasing, we can gradually add in volume. Doing so too quickly may have us hit plateaus too soon.
Now, overcoming more weight or reps may not necessarily mean true progress. More weight and reps can be overcome through momentum, using elastic tendencies of connective tissue, or speeding through the reps. For these reasons it is crucial that we standardize each rep. We make each rep look the same, keeping a similar pace, and most importantly, we keep tension on the target muscle. Once we get good at standardizing each repetition, weight and rep increases are more true to progress.
Beyond repetition increases and weight increases we can measure progress in even more ways. For example we can get a better stimulus from slowing a rep down. We can progress and improve our execution. We can also increase the tension on the target muscle through practice and awareness of our body over time. So progress can be made even if the obvious numbers aren’t clearly improving.
While it would be great if we could progress forever, at some point you may hit some sticking points. This is all part of the process and by no means the end of the road. Utilizing programmed rest periods such as deloads, extra days off or starting a new plan can help you break through some of those sticking points. We can discuss these in later blogs when discussing recovery.
It is important we keep the concept of progressive overload at the center of the goal of each lift. As beginning lifters we can often move numbers up quickly, but as we become more skilled numbers may grind up very gradually. It is important to remember even if a week goes by and progress isn’t made on paper, we still may be moving in the right direction. More long term stalls may require volume decreases or recovery increases. As a very skilled lifter you may not see numbers improve over a couple of weeks or even some months at a time. I encourage you to not become discouraged but to keep on the plan. Starting your new plan, aim to standardize each rep, execute to a high level and focus the tension on the target for the best stimulus. If done correctly the numbers will increase and often shoot up as a beginner. Take the big jumps as they come and be okay when they slow down. By recording your info on each lift and working to progress over time you are sure to get the most out of each lift and reach your fitness goals in a quicker manner.
