Progressive Overload
What is Progressive Overload? How Can I use Progressive Overload in my Workouts?
Progressive overload is widely used in strength training to help increase muscle and reduce the risk of plateauing over time. This technique involves increasing the loads placed on your muscles over time to challenge them and promote growth.
If you continue to use the same weight for the same number of reps and sets every time you workout, then your muscles will eventually begin to adapt to that workload and continued muscle growth becomes much more difficult. This is why progressive overloading is so important: by increasing the weight, reps, and sets, or by changing the rest time between your sets, you can keep challenging your muscles and promote further growth.
There are several ways to incorporate progressive overload into your workout routine:
Increasing weight: This might be the easiest and most straightforward way to practice progressive overload. As your muscles begin to adapt to a certain weight, you gradually increase the amount of weight you're lifting for that exercise. For example, if you're currently squatting 95 pounds with a barbell, you might increase that weight to 115 pounds after a couple of weeks. This increased resistance will challenge your muscles and help them grow.
Increasing repetitions: Another way to apply progressive overload is to increase the number of reps you perform for exercises in your workout routine. For example, if you're currently doing 8 reps of bicep curls, you might gradually increase to 12 or 15 reps over time. This will increase the total amount of work your muscles are doing and promote growth.
Increasing sets: Adding sets is another way to progressively overload your muscles. For example, if you're currently doing 3 sets of push-ups for 12 to 15 reps, you may begin to increase the number of sets to 4 or 5, and lower the total number of reps for each set. This is important because it means you are switching up the way your body is experiencing the workouts so that your muscles do not become too comfortable doing the same things over and over again.
Decreasing rest time: By decreasing your rest time between sets, you can increase the intensity of your workout and challenge your muscles in new ways. For example, if you're currently resting for 75 seconds between sets, you can begin to decrease that time to 60, 45, or 30 seconds.
It's important to note that progressive overload should be applied gradually and systematically to prevent injury and allow your muscles to adapt. Aim to increase the weight or reps by no more than 5-10% per week, and be sure to switch up your exercises and incorporate rest and recovery periods to prevent overtraining and optimize your recovery time.