Progressive overload is a term used in training to describe the controlled addition of work to your training.
Progressive overload is a key element for increasing strength and building muscle. It is one of the most supported pathways for muscle growth when applied scientifically.
For physical training to be productive, it must be systematic and methodical. The structure allows us to measure, track and analyze our progress or lack thereof with precision.
I. Understanding Progressive Overload in Strength Training
A. Defining Progressive Overload
The core concept of progressive overload in strength training is to gradually increase the demands on the musculoskeletal system to continually make gains in muscle size, strength, and sometimes endurance. This involves increasing the intensity, weight, frequency, number of repetitions, and number of sets in your strength training routine over time. By doing so, you challenge your body and allow your musculoskeletal system to get stronger.
The principle of progressive overload suggests that the continual increase in the total workload during training sessions will stimulate muscle growth and strength gain by muscle hypertrophy.
Progressive overload helps you avoid plateaus. When your body adapts to the type of exercise you’re doing, you may stop seeing results.
By changing up your workouts and adding additional tension to your muscles, you can keep your muscles challenged and get stronger. Progressions are a continuum that is regulated based on client performance, injury avoidance, and goals.
B. Adaptation and Muscle Hypertrophy:
Muscle adaptation and hypertrophy are the physiological processes that occur in response to progressive overload in strength training.
Hypertrophy refers to the increase in muscle size associated with long-term resistance training.
The process of hypertrophy is a result of subcellular changes within the muscle, including an increase in the size of individual muscle fibers. The following are the subcellular changes that occur in muscle adaptation and hypertrophy:
1 – Increase in the cross-sectional area of the muscle: With resistance training, various signaling mechanisms are activated, and these initiate the creation of new proteins and the enlargement of muscle fibers and muscle cell size leading to hypertrophy.
Muscles get bigger when you train them – this is the most apparent training adaptation.
2 – Changes in muscle architecture: The muscle fibers become more organized and aligned in the direction of force production, which improves the efficiency of force transmission.
3 – Increase in the number of myofibrils: Myofibrils are the contractile units of muscle fibers, and an increase in their number leads to an increase in the force-generating capacity of the muscle.
4 – Increase in the number of nuclei: The number of nuclei in muscle fibers increases with hypertrophy, which allows for greater protein synthesis and muscle growth. The nuclei of muscle cells are theorized to be like “managers” of a certain area within muscle cells. The more nuclei you have, the more managers you have, and the more muscle mass you can manage.
5 – Increase in muscle fiber size: The size of individual muscle fibers increases with hypertrophy, which leads to an increase in muscle mass and strength.
It is important to note that the number of muscle fibers you have is established by birth and remains fixed throughout the rest of your life.
Therefore, the hypertrophy adaptations seen with resistance training are a result of subcellular changes within the muscle. Any evidence of muscle fiber splitting (referred to as hyperplasia), as has been described in animal studies, is presently inconclusive with human subject research, but conceivably possible.
Progressive overload triggers the physiological processes of muscle adaptation and hypertrophy by placing a greater demand on the musculoskeletal system during training.
The following are the ways in which progressive overload, and strength training in general, triggers these processes:
1 – Increased mechanical tension: Progressive overload increases the mechanical tension on the muscle fibers, which stimulates the production of new proteins and the enlargement of muscle fibers. This increase in mechanical tension is achieved by lifting heavier weights, increasing the number of repetitions, or doing your repetitions more quickly.
2 – Increased metabolic stress: Progressive overload also increases metabolic stress on the muscle fibers, which leads to an increase in the production of growth factors and hormones that promote muscle growth and hypertrophy. This increase in metabolic stress is achieved by performing exercises with shorter rest periods, higher repetitions, or slower tempos.
3 – Muscle damage: Progressive overload can also cause muscle damage, which triggers the repair and growth of muscle fibers. This muscle damage is achieved by performing exercises with eccentric contractions or by using new exercises that target different muscle fibers.
Progressive overload not only stimulates muscle hypertrophy but also stimulates the development of stronger and denser bones, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage.
II. Implementing Progressive Overload Strategies:
A. Increasing Resistance:
Resistance should be gradually increased over time. It is only one component of progressively overloading your workouts. And adding resistance is the most simple to understand, you simply add a small amount of weight from one session to the next.
Some practitioners use a percentage of weight, attempting to add anywhere from 2.5-10% of the load per week. So if you were using 100 lbs for a squat on week one, during week two you would use 102.5-110 lbs while keeping sets and reps equal. If you reduce reps or set the workload effectively evens out and no overload is applied.
If the performance of sets and reps or technique of exercise breaks down on the addition of weight, then regress the weight back to what you were using previously. Never allow your ego to trick you into using more weight than you can complete with good form.
Progression Approaches
Linear Progression: Linear progression is the most common approach to progressive overload. It involves adding the same amount of weight to the load lifted each session. For example, if you’re squatting 100 pounds for three sets of eight reps, you would add 5 pounds to the bar for the next session. This approach is suitable for beginners who are still making rapid progress in their strength training. However, as you become more advanced, linear progression may become too difficult to sustain.
Double Progression: Double progression involves increasing the weight and the number of repetitions over time. For example, if you’re doing three sets of eight reps with 100 pounds, you would increase the weight to 105 pounds for the next session and aim to complete three sets of eight reps again. Once you can complete three sets of eight reps with 105 pounds, you would increase the weight to 110 pounds and repeat the process. This approach is suitable for intermediate lifters who are no longer making rapid progress with linear progression.
Wave Loading: Wave loading involves alternating between heavy and light loads within the same workout1. For example, you might do three sets of five reps with a heavy weight, followed by three sets of ten reps with a lighter weight. This approach is suitable for advanced lifters who are looking to challenge their muscles in new ways and break through plateaus.
B. Manipulating Repetitions and Sets:
Reps and sets are the ways you quantify the total work being done.
If you complete 1 pushup, that is 1 repetition of a pushup, and if you do 5 pushups, that is 5 reps, but you likely know that already.
If you do 2 rounds of 5 pushups, that is 2 sets.
Another simple way to progressively overload is to add sets or reps of the same exercises to your workouts. This will increase your weekly volume which is key for overloading and muscle growth.
Weekly Volume is simply your total sets multiplied by reps [Sets x reps], but many just track the total number of sets across a week.
The sets you should be counting are your working sets, which are the challenging sets that are done when you are finished with your warmup sets.
For example, if you are going to complete a bench press and your goal is to use 100 lbs, you start with 50 lbs for a few reps, then 75 lbs for a few reps, and then maybe a set at 90 lbs or you go straight to the 100 lb set. Either way, those warmup sets do not count in your total volume.
When you complete working sets, you should be training with no more than 3 reps in the tank for most working sets. Training too far from failure will not activate the muscle growth response.
Most muscles will grow with the application of 10-20 weekly working sets.
To add weekly volume, try just adding sets.
So if you complete a leg workout where you do 3 sets of squats and 3 sets of lunges, the following week try 4 sets of squats and 3 sets of lunges. A safe estimate is to try to add 1-2 sets per week to your total weekly volume.
Keep volume and intensity balanced week to week.
Intensity is how heavy you are training. Technically speaking, it is the percentage of your 1 rep maximum [1RM]. So if you can lift 100 lbs on a squat, 85 lbs would be 85% of your 1RM.
Note that the greater the intensity, the fewer repetitions you will be able to complete. And it seems to be the case that you need at least 5 repetitions to be effective for muscle hypertrophy, while you can get away with fewer reps if your goal is strength.
As long as you approach failure on your working sets, anywhere from 5-30 repetitions can effectively stimulate muscle growth.
Another tool for progressively overloading is to keep the sets the same, but attempt to increase the repetitions.
If you complete 3 sets of 10 squats and 3 sets of 10 lunges on week 1, attempt 3 sets of 12 reps on squats and 3 sets of 10 reps of lunges. Attempt to add repetitions to at least 1 of the sets. The more sets you can add reps to, the more potent the growth stimulus [to a point].
C. Adjusting Training Frequency
In order to stimulate muscle growth, muscles must be stimulated often. In this article when we have used examples, we often seem to refer to one workout per week. But most muscles can easily be trained 2x per week, if not more.
How much each muscle can be trained varies from person to person, but will be somewhere around 2-6 times per week.
Muscles that are larger and more fatiguing to train like legs will be difficult to train often and may benefit from just 2 weekly exercise sessions. While smaller muscles like biceps or side deltoids are not fatiguing to the system to train, and can often be trained more frequently than larger muscles, benefitting from 3 or 4 up to even 6 weekly sessions.
A gradual increase in training frequency can help stimulate muscle hypertrophy.
When you first start training, your muscles will be sore for quite some time after each workout. This is called delayed-onset muscle soreness [DOMS] which shows up 24-48 hours after training.
This soreness will make it difficult, if not impossible, for a novice lifter to train muscles more than 2 times per week – the muscle will simply be too painful to train and may, in fact, not be fully recovered from the previous training session. But as the lifter gins experience, and muscles become adapted to levels of training, the DOMS effect will be greatly reduced and it will be easier to train muscles more frequently.
A workout that might leave a novice lifter sore in the chest for 5 days might only keep an intermediate or advanced lifter sore for 2-3 days, allowing the intermediate to the advanced lifter to train more frequently and more comfortably.
Each person will have different speeds of recovery. You have to experiment and see how long it takes each of your muscles to feel recovered and ready to train again – which generally means they are either not sore or mostly not sore.
Start with the smallest frequency of 1-2 times per week when training each muscle group. then slowly add training to each muscle as your recovery allows.
Novice lifters should also include frequent rest days, placing a rest day between each training session, or completing 2 training days, then having a day off and repeating. Pay attention to your body – it will tell you if you are overdoing it.
III. Tracking and Progressing:
A. Keeping a Training Journal:
One of the simplest ways to track progress, volume, and intensity is by the use of a training journal. Simply write out your workouts including exercises, sets, and reps.
Using any notebook you like, write out your exercises first. Decide how many working sets of each exercise you will perform, and how close to failure you will train [how many reps will you “leave in the tank” – remember this should be no more than 3 usually]. Then as you complete sets, write down the weight used and the number of repetitions completed.
Then just repeat this process from workout to workout. You can then track your progress. As you look at your notebook, ask yourself:
- Am I increasing the sets I am completing week to week?
- Am I increasing the reps I am completing in each exercise?
- Am I able to increase the weight I am using in each exercise?
- Is my progress in an upward linear trajectory or is my performance going down [if performance goes down for a few workouts, we can consider a deload].
- Am I feeling recovered in my system? How are my overall fatigue levels?
The answers to the questions will help you know if you are progressing, hitting a plateau, or need to take some additional recovery time.
B. Monitoring Performance Indicators:
Performance indicators are measurements used to track progress and guide progression in strength training. Here are some common performance indicators used in strength training:
One-Rep Max (1RM): 1RM is the maximum amount of weight you can lift for one repetition of a given exercise. It is a useful performance indicator because it allows you to track your progress over time and adjust your training accordingly. While it is not always safe or necessary to load up an exercise with the maximum weight you can use, there are plenty of online calculators that allow you to estimate a 1RM based on a 5RM or 10RM. This will allow you to know if you are progressing without overloading the system.
I have nothing against 1RM lifts, but we should all appreciate the risk of these lifts, and attempt them only sparingly as a result.
Time Under Tension (TUT): TUT is the amount of time your muscles are under tension during an exercise. It is a useful performance indicator because it allows you to track the intensity of your workouts and adjust your training accordingly. A simple way to monitor this is through prescribed lifting tempos, such as 2 seconds of lifting the weight [concentric contraction] followed by 2 seconds of lowering the weight [eccentric contraction]. So not counting the pause at the bottom or top of each rep, each would have about 4 seconds of TUT. This metric is perhaps not as vital as simple volume tracking, but it can provide information for some lifters. My recommendation would be to keep lifting tempos similar or the same for exercises from week to week. This will keep your assessment of your work volume fairly consistent.
Training Volume: Training volume is the total amount of weight lifted during a workout. It is a useful performance indicator because it allows you to track your progress over time and adjust your training accordingly. We have mentioned this before, but it is the simplest measure to track and possibly the most important for the goals of muscle growth.
These performance indicators can guide progression and track improvements in strength training in the following ways:
Guide Progression: Performance indicators can guide progression by helping you determine the appropriate weight, sets, and repetitions for each exercise. For example, if you know your 1RM for a particular exercise, you can use that information to determine the appropriate weight to use for each set. By knowing your total weekly volume, you can add sets and reps on a weekly basis.
Track Improvements: Performance indicators can track improvements by allowing you to compare your current performance to your previous performance. For example, if you know your reps for a particular exercise, you can compare your current reps to your previous reps to see if you have improved.
C. Periodization and Deloading:
Periodization is a training approach that involves manipulating training variables over time to achieve specific goals. In hypertrophy training, periodization is used to optimize muscle growth and strength gains by varying the intensity, volume, and frequency of training. Here are some common periodization models used in hypertrophy training:
Linear Periodization: Linear periodization involves dividing training into phases, with each phase focusing on a specific training goal. The most common phases in linear periodization are hypertrophy, strength, power, and transition. This approach involves gradually increasing the intensity and decreasing the volume of training over time. Linear periodization is suitable for beginners and intermediate lifters who are looking to make steady progress in their training.
Undulating Periodization: Undulating periodization involves varying the intensity and volume of training within each workout or week. This approach involves alternating between high-intensity, low-volume workouts, and low-intensity, high-volume workouts. Undulating periodization is suitable for advanced lifters who are looking to challenge their muscles in new ways and break through plateaus.
Reverse Linear Periodization: Reverse linear periodization involves starting with high-intensity, low-volume workouts and gradually decreasing the intensity and increasing the volume of training over time. This approach is suitable for endurance athletes who are looking to improve their muscular endurance.
Deloading
After a few weeks [4-6] of hypertrophy training where sets, reps, and/or weight were added from session to session, you will being to experience some fatigue. This fatigue will begin to accumulate. this is normal, but at some point, it will accumulate until it negatively impacts performance.
When you can no longer make progressions week to week and your performance starts to worsen, it is time for a deload.
A deload is a planned reduction in training. It can be completed by the following:
1 – Reducing the weight of exercises while performing the same volume [sets and reps] for 1 week.
2 – Reducing sets by half [if you complete 20 sets per week for a muscle group, cut it to 10 sets for a week. Do this for all muscle groups].
3 – Reducing exercises by as much as half for 1 week.
4 – Take the week off.
Each of these are ways to complete a deload. This deload should last a week. This is enough time to reduce systemic fatigue and allows for a reintroduction of an overloading stimulus.
IV. Avoiding Plateaus and Overcoming Challenges
A. Plateau Recognition
When your performance stops increasing week to week, this is a plate. Many people stop progressing and just stay there for months and years. They make no attempt to increase training intensity, add volume, or progress in any way. But you, as an intelligent lifter, know there are other ways to progress.
As before, if your performance is decreasing, you may need a deload. But even with simple plateaus a deload may be enough to restart the progression.
If a deload is not necessary, consider adding sets or exercises to your workout. Consider training closer to failure with fewer reps in reserve [fewer reps in the tank]. Also, consider changing up your exercises. After a few weeks, the same exercises can start to become stale. Switch up exercises while maintaining focus on the target muscles [trade flat barbell bench press with incline dumbbell bench press, for example].
B. Technique Refinement
Good technique is critical for accurate progression and risk management. There will always be some innate danger in weight training, but there is no need to compound it without additional benefit by using improper technique.
When you complete a new exercise or one you are unsure about, it is worth watching demonstration videos or getting help from a physical therapist or personal trainer to perfect form.
While not all bad technique will lead to injury, it should be the goal of a lifter to progressively refine his technique.
Good form allows us to guarantee that we are loading the target muscle and getting a growth stimulus to those muscles. The improper form could mean that the muscles we think we are targeting are not getting any of the real growth stimuli. These muscles then become lagging groups which are underdeveloped compared to our other more developed muscle groups. We may not understand why this is happening, but it is usually because we are not training the muscles we think we are.
Perfect technique by learning online. And then use your judgment to determine if the muscles are actually being trained.
The best way to do this is to complete an exercise and then ask yourself if you can feel a ton of tension in the target muscle. If you are doing bicep curls and your bicep feels like it is on fire, or it is straining against the weight, this is good. But if you are doing bicep curls and you feel like your forearms are doing most of the work and you aren’t really feeling anything in your biceps, then the forearms are likely getting the growth stimulus while the biceps are missing out.
You must then tweak your form to keep the exercise safe but shift the focus onto the target muscles. With bicep curls this can be done by slightly extending the wrist, or just switching out the exercise completely with one you feel more in the biceps.
C. Mental Resilience and Motivation
Motivation: Motivation is another essential psychological component of hypertrophy training. Staying motivated can help you stick to your training program and achieve your goals.
Discipline: Discipline is also an essential psychological component of hypertrophy training. Staying disciplined can help you stick to your training program, even when you don’t feel like it.
Positive mindset: A positive mindset is essential for success in hypertrophy training. Focusing on the positive aspects of your training, such as progress and improvements, can help you stay motivated and committed to your goals. Progress will not always be linear. There will be times of slow progress, obstacles, injuries, and other hurdles to overcome. The ability to orient your mind to the positive will be vital to your sustained progress.
Mental toughness: Mental toughness is another essential psychological component of hypertrophy training. Developing mental toughness can help you push through challenging workouts and overcome obstacles in your training. The interesting this about physical training is that it both requires mental toughness and develops it simultaneously. When you push yourself just slightly beyond what you thought you were capable of, you deposit a nugget of confidence in your personal bank and develop a little more mental toughness. And this toughness will translate to other aspects of life.
V. Injury Prevention and Recovery:
A. Prioritizing Rest and Recovery
Rest and recovery are significant in preventing injuries in hypertrophy training, along with the importance of listening to your body and incorporating adequate rest days:
Muscle Repair and Growth: During hypertrophy training, you subject your muscles to intense stress and resistance, causing microscopic damage to muscle fibers. Rest days allow your body to repair and rebuild these damaged muscle fibers, leading to muscle growth and adaptation. Without sufficient rest, this repair process can be compromised, increasing the risk of overuse injuries.
Central Nervous System (CNS) Recovery: Hypertrophy training involves high-intensity exercises that stress the central nervous system. Rest and recovery days give your CNS a chance to recover and adapt to the training stimulus. Ignoring the need for rest can lead to CNS fatigue, which can impair performance, and coordination, and increase the risk of injuries.
Injury Prevention: Overtraining and insufficient rest can lead to chronic fatigue and overuse injuries. By incorporating rest days, you allow your body to recover, reducing the risk of muscular imbalances, joint stress, and connective tissue injuries. Rest also helps prevent mental and physical burnout, which can impact motivation and adherence to training.
Hormonal Balance: Adequate rest plays a role in maintaining hormonal balance. Hormones like testosterone, growth hormone, and cortisol play crucial roles in muscle growth, repair, and recovery. Sleep and restful periods help regulate these hormones, optimizing muscle-building processes and reducing the risk of hormonal imbalances that could lead to injuries or hinder progress.
Listening to Your Body: Every individual responds differently to training stress, and it’s important to listen to your body’s signals. Pain, excessive fatigue, decreased performance, and persistent muscle soreness are signs that your body needs rest. Ignoring these signals and pushing through can lead to overtraining, compromised immune function, and increased susceptibility to injuries.
B. Warm-up and Injury Prevention Exercises
Warming up is an often neglected component of physical training of any kind. We pay for this later in life, but give no thought to warming up while we are young.
In hypertrophy training, a simple warmup could be just completing the exercise with a lighter weight, slower repetitions, and perfect form to fire up the muscles. I would say this is an excellent way to prepare the body for a workload.
Warmups have the following benefits:
Increased Blood Flow and Muscle Temperature: Warm-up routines increase blood flow to the muscles, delivering oxygen and nutrients while removing waste products. This helps raise muscle temperature, making the tissues more pliable and less prone to injury. It also improves the efficiency of muscle contractions during the workout. Examples of warm-up exercises include jogging, cycling, or rowing for 5-10 minutes.
Improved Joint Mobility and Range of Motion: Mobility exercises enhance joint mobility and increase the range of motion around the joints. This allows for more efficient movement patterns during exercises and reduces the risk of compensations that can lead to injuries. Examples of mobility exercises include leg swings, arm circles, hip rotations, and shoulder dislocations.
Activation of Stabilizer Muscles: Warm-up routines and mobility exercises help activate and engage stabilizer muscles, which are important for maintaining proper form and stability during exercises. By targeting these muscles, you improve joint stability and reduce the risk of imbalances and injuries. Examples of exercises that activate stabilizer muscles include planks, glute bridges, and bird-dogs.
Injury Prevention Exercises for Different Muscle Groups
Upper Body: Rotator cuff exercises help strengthen the muscles around the shoulder joint, reducing the risk of shoulder injuries. Examples include external and internal rotations with resistance bands or light dumbbells.
Lower Body: Glute activation exercises help improve hip stability and prevent injuries, such as knee and lower back pain. Examples include glute bridges, clamshells, and lateral band walks.
Core: Core stabilization exercises target the muscles that support the spine and pelvis, reducing the risk of lower back injuries. Examples include planks, Russian twists, and bird-dogs.
Legs: Hamstring exercises help prevent strains and imbalances in the posterior chain. Examples include Romanian deadlifts, Swiss ball hamstring curls, and single-leg Romanian deadlifts.
Shoulders: Scapular stabilization exercises strengthen the muscles that stabilize the shoulder blades, reducing the risk of shoulder injuries. Examples include scapular retractions, face pulls, and prone Y-T-W-I exercises.
Conclusion
Follow these basic guidelines and you understand more than most people do about physical training, progressive overload, and the development of the body through hypertrophy.
