Do you workout often but still feel like you should see more muscle definition? You must utilize progressive overload. If you aren’t getting results from weight training this may be why.
What’s progressive overload?
Progressive overload a principle used in creating strength training programs that ensures your muscles are getting the stimulus they need. Muscle fibers need to be worked hard enough that they’re broken down and re-built.
Now, there’s a caveat to that.. you must also recover “harder” than you train. So if you lift five or six days a week but you only sleep six hours a night, don’t eat enough, get adequate macro or micro nutrients, have jacked up cortisol from chronic stress, etc, you may not be recovering enough for the muscle tissue to repair itself. So if you’re always sore, tired or not getting results, look there first because no program or amount of progressive overload is going to help you.
Now, let’s talk about what progressive overload looks like. There are four ways you can do it.
1. Increase your volume.
This simply means doing more, but here is what that looks like in a strength program..
If you’re just starting out, perhaps you do
One set of 10 squats
One set of 12 bridges
One set of 20 lunges
Then next time you do two sets of that, then work your way to three sets.
Or it may look like doing
3 sets of 8 squats
3×8 bridges
3×8 lunges
Then next time doing 3×10 squats, 3×10 bridges and lunges. Then working your way to 12.
Or you could do a combo of increasing your reps AND sets.
I like this for bodyweight movements. For example if your goal is to go from doing one pull-up to doing five you could do one every minute for ten minutes, then the next week alternate between doing 1/2 every TWO minutes for ten minutes. You may be increasing the rest between, but you’re still accumulating more volume.
2. Increase your load.
This just means LIFT HEAVIER. To execute this you’ll first need to track your weights so you know how much you can lift.
Let’s say we are talking about overhead pressing. If you know you can press 100 pounds overhead one time you can work percentages.
For example, week one you could do 5×5 of this at 70% of your one rep max, then 5×3 the next week at 80% and finally 5×1 at 90% on week three. Your rest period may increase, your volume decreases, but the load increases.
Another way of doing this would be to follow the same workouts for 3-4 weeks like the following..
Chest press x 10
Bent over row x 10
Bicep curl x 10
Tricep kickback x 10
And the track your weights and make sure you bump them up a little each week.
3. Increase your intensity.
This means doing more work in less time so there’s less recovery between sets.
Let’s say you’ve been doing four sets of eight bulgarian squats with two minutes rest between your sets. Perhaps the next session you’d keep your weight and volume the same but decrease your rest period to 90 seconds, then a minute and so on.
It is even possible to build muscle doing supersets like a dumbbell chest flys immediately followed by push ups, for example, with minimal rest between. Or doing metcons like three rounds for time of 15 deadlifts, 10 box jumps and 5 push presses. When doing this you’ll likely decrease the load, but you’re still increasing intensity.
4. Increase your time under tension.
This means slowing things down or add a pause. Let’s take RDL’s for example. You might go slowly, lowering the bar on a five second count, you could pause at the bottom before standing up, you could come up slowly, or even pause at the top. You could even do all of those in a single rep.
I also love adding time under tension to bodyweight movements, especially if you’re working to master something new. For example, if you don’t have pull-ups, you can jump to get your chin above the bar and lower slowly to build the strength.
Any of these strategies for progressive overload are great for building muscle and strength. However I do not suggest doing more than one at a time, like if you’re going to choose tempo, don’t choose volume as well. Because remember, you can only build and gain if you can recover. Doing too much at once can prevent that.
If you want a workout program that takes care of all of this for you so you don’t have to think or worry about this, sign up for online personal training with me!
Join here: kyrawilliamsfitness.com/signup
Your Coach,
Kyra