Simply put, the principle of progressive overload is the gradual increase in stress put on the body.
To improve fitness and maximize improvements, progressive overload is a necessity for everyone. Whether to increase muscular endurance, lift heavier weight or to perform more difficult movements, progressive overload is one of the key concepts that any person should consider. To understand this concept better, a person who is new to training will need to begin with easier movements or less demanding training before they can move to more difficult movements or more demanding training. For a runner, they may begin with shorter distances before moving to longer ones. For a weightlifter, they may begin with bodyweight movements before progressing to loaded movements. Both these examples apply the progressive overload principle but with different goals in mind. This article will give you a general idea of how to use this principle. In short, the 3 main ways to use progressive overload is to add more repetitions, more sets, more weight or a combination of the three.
The Science
Progressive overload is the gradual increase in demand placed on one’s musculature. Training adaptation happens due to progressive overload. Training adaptation is where the body gets used to the demands placed on it, as the demands become gradually greater. There are many components that fall under training adaptation, the first adaptation that occurs is neuromuscular, then muscular, connective tissue strength, and bone mass. All of these are essential to exercise improvements. However, for the purpose of this article, we will not go too deep into these physiological components.
So, to achieve training adaptation, progressive overload applies stimulus. Stimulus can be applied in different ways. Here are some of the more common ways to use progressive overload:
Increasing repetitions (Reps)
Let’s use the example of a person that wants to improve the amount of push ups they can do. If this person does 10 repetitions of a push up 3 times (3 sets) comfortably, they will eventually need to do more than 10 to be able to improve and do more. This person has to progressively increase the amount of repetitions that they do. By increasing repetitions, this person may do 3 times 12 reps in their next workout. At first, it is natural that this increase may be much more difficult, and it may not feel good. But once this person does 12 repetitions instead of 10 repetitions in multiple workouts, that will become the new comfortable repetition amount that they can do. The process of increasing reps can happen multiple times before getting greater improvements becomes much harder.
More Sets
A “Set” is the block of repetitions. A person doing 3 sets, or 10 reps will need some rest in between the 10 reps. This can be 30 seconds or even up to 5 minutes for certain people – I do not recommend 5 minutes for most people. The amount of time in between sets varies depending on one’s objectives. Typically, a power lifter will lift more weight and will require more time in between sets compared to a runner who would typically lift less and require less time in between sets.
In order to get proper training adaptations, you may choose to increase the amounts of sets. In the push up example, if you are feeling comfortable with the 12 reps, you may choose to add another set of 12 reps. That would make it 4 sets of 12 reps instead of 3 sets of 12 reps. This is a different stimulus than the reps and is another way to improve using progressive overload.
More Weight
By now you may be starting to understand where we are going with this. For this stimulus, let’s use an example of someone doing a bench press. A person doing a bench press may currently be able to accomplish 3 sets of 6 repetitions at a weight of 100lbs, comfortably. This is great, but let’s assume this person wants to do 3 sets of 6 repetitions at 150 lbs, what do we do? Well, the answer is that this person will have to increase the weight. Keeping in mind that we want to increase the weight gradually in order to be successful, the person may want to start by increasing from 100 lbs to 105 lbs for 3 sets of 6 repetitions. Just like the previous examples, this may be difficult at first, but once this is done in multiple training sessions, they will be able to move to 110 lbs for the same sets and reps until they eventually reach their goal of 150lbs. Everyone’s body reacts to a stimulus differently. The jump from 100 lbs to 105 lbs may be very easy for some and much more difficult for others. If adding a certain weight seems too easy, then you may need to add more weight to give your body the appropriate stimulus. But if adding a certain weight is too hard than you may need to add less weight to start with.
Combining the Three Types of Stimulus
Choosing the appropriate stimulus is quite difficult. The examples mentioned above, use the three ways of using progressive overload. For most people, it may be hard to only use one of them at a time. It is why you may choose to combine them. There are many ways to do this but let’s look at the bench press example. If a person cannot move up from 100 lbs to 105 lbs keeping reps and sets the same, they may choose to up the weight but decrease the reps so that their muscles can handle the new stimulus. This would mean that a person could move from 3 sets of 6 reps at 100 lbs to 3 sets of 4 reps at 105 lbs. Once the body becomes used to the weight, you could bring up the reps to 5 and when ready to 6 – with weight and sets remaining the same i.e. 105 lbs and 3 sets. This would achieve the same type of outcome as just adding the weight, but it is more progressive. For most people, progressive overload should be a combination of the three types of stimulus. This would lessen the possibility of failure and injury.
Using Progressive Overload the Right Way:
The best way to use this training principle is to use periodization (hyperlink to periodization article). In brief, training periodization is a way to organize your workouts by considering current fitness (or health) and fitness goals, and to carefully map out the process of achieving these goals. Periodization should carefully plan each workout and phase of training by assessing the weight, the volume, the choice of exercises, rest and much more. Extensive periodization is not necessary for most people, but a certain amount of periodization can be very useful. By applying the concepts of progressive overload, we are already involved in the periodization of our training!
Is This Only Applicable for Strength Training?
The answer is No! We have mostly covered progressive overload from a strength training perspective. But many athletes across all sports use this concept in different ways. A cross country runner may increase distances. A swimmer may increase the number of intervals they do during a given workout. A rock climber may attempt more physically demanding “walls”. The thing to keep in mind is that progressive overload is not only for beginners. It is essential for any person of all levels to consider this concept. Without it, you are sure to reach a plateau. To avoid the much dreaded plateau, periodization is the answer! Read the following article on PERIODIZATION to avoid reaching a plateau.
