Progressive Overload!

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

What is it?

Progressive overload refers to a training method where various aspects of training are adjusted progressively to overload the muscles in order to elicit muscle and strength growth.

Have you ever performed an exercise program that initially provided great results, then eventually you saw little to no progress after months of continual training? This may be due to having little or no progressive overloading within your program. Without some form of progressive overloading, muscle growth will plateau, and results will become less than stellar. This goes for aerobic (i.e., walking, running, cycling) and anaerobic (i.e., HIIT, strength training) exercise programs.

The principle of progression states that increases in either time, weight/load, or intensity should be no more than 10% of your current workload. This means if you are currently running 3 miles, you shouldn’t suddenly increase your running distance to 5 miles.

Keeping progressive adaptations to 10% or less of your current workload allows for a more gradual adaptation, which minimizes your risk of injury while continuing to challenge your neuromuscular or cardiorespiratory system.

With consistent progressive training, your body will adapt in order to meet the new demands of stress you’re demanding from it. As your body adapts to your strength or cardio training program, the easier the training program will start to feel. At this point in your training, you’ll want to implement progressive overloading to some aspect to your program (i.e., reps, sets, intensity, tempo, distance).

How do you use it?

There are several aspects of your training you can adjust to increase demands on your muscles. You can increase reps, increase sets, increase distance, change tempo, or increase weight/load. The most common progressive overloading aspect in strength training is increasing reps or increasing weight/load. The most common for cardio training is distance, intensity (incline), or speed (tempo).

If you’re working with a trainer, your trainer will (or should) be utilizing progressive overloading in your program, so he/she will be doing all this for you. A trainer takes your personal goals, limitations, and current fitness level to create a strategy to improve your health and fitness goals while preventing injury and avoiding fitness plateaus.

Examples of programs using progressive overloading

Strength training

Here is an example of progressive overloading for a strength training program for hypertrophy (increase muscle size) using reps and weight/load:

Program: 3 x 10-12, using a weight load intensity of 75% of your 1-rep max (RM) and a rest interval of 60 seconds between sets.

The goal would be to start & stay with a weight load (75% of 1-RM) using good form. You would begin your program performing 3 sets of 10 reps. Once 10 reps become easy, you would increase reps to 11 moving up to 12. Once you can easily lift 12 reps, using the starting weight load (75% of 1-RM), you would increase your weight load (by 10% or less) and return to lifting 3 sets of 10 reps. You would repeat/continue this progressive overloading cycle until you met your strength training goal.

Cardiorespiratory endurance (Cardio)

An example of progressive overloading for a running program using distance would be as follows:

Program: running 3 miles, 5 times per week, using a “moderate” to “somewhat hard” tempo, with a goal of running 5 miles, 5 times per week keeping the same tempo.

If running 3 miles, using a “moderate” to “somewhat hard” tempo, 5 times per week, has become easy/takes less effort, you would increase your mileage per run to 3.25 miles.

This would increase your weekly distance from 15 to 16.25 miles. This is a slightly less than 10% progressive increase, which is exactly where you should be training to minimize risk of injury. You would repeat/continue this progressive overloading cycle until the goal of running 5 miles, 5 times per week is met.

Final thoughts

Remember, you should never progress more than 10% (of your current level) each week in any exercise or exercise program (i.e., running, strength training, walking, cycling).

Properly using progressive overload in your training should allow you to perform any exercise with good form. Proper form in any exercise is more important than speed or load!

Using progressive overloading, along with sufficient recovery, will allow your body to build strength and improve athletic performance. This means sweet gains and impressive results for all your hard work!

All programs offered/purchased at Guns & Gams can and should be used by implementing progressive overloading aspects on a continuous basis in order to maximize muscle growth and minimize plateaus.