Do you feel like you are working out, but your workouts are not effective enough? Do you feel that you are not progressing in your fitness game or that you are stuck at that one number on the scale and that your body has not shown any improvements for a very long time period? If this is what you feel then you may have hit a plateau in your fitness journey and the sooner you break this plateau the better it would be.
Breaking this plateau is not very easy but it isn’t impossible too. There are various tried and tested ways in which you can again start progressing towards your fitness goals. One such strategy is progressive overload.
Let us understand this concept in detail and how it can help your body.
What Is Progressive Overload?
To understand progressive overload let us first know the meaning of each of these words. Progressive means to develop gradually or in stages while overload means an excessive amount of something, in this context it is one of the factors related to your exercise (about which we shall discuss in the coming part). Hence, progressive overload in terms of workout means gradually increasing one or many of the factors that affect the overall amount of exercise you do.
Technically the principle of progressive overload suggests progressively placing greater than-normal demands on the exercising musculature. This is required for a training adaptation to take place.
Without overload, there is no adaptation by the body (1). Put simply, progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on the body during resistance training. In reality, resistance training is only effective for improving health and performance if the human body is continually required to exert a greater magnitude of force to meet higher physiologic demands.
Thus, a gradual increase in demand for the resistance training program is necessary for long-term improvement in muscular fitness and health (2).
How to Progressively Overload? (1)
You need to understand certain basic principles of training before understanding how to progressively overload. These are as follows
Training volume- It is the total amount of work done during a workout session.
Training volume = reps x sets x weight
Training intensity- It is the percentage of maximum weight a person can lift for one repetition.
Training intensity = % repetition maximum (%RM)
Training frequency- It is the number of times a person or a specific muscle group is trained in a given period of time.
Training frequency = number of times a muscle group is worked out/week
Increase any one of these parameters and it will help you achieve progressive overload.
Let us understand this in detail
Increasing the training volume
This can be achieved by either training with a higher number of sets or a higher number of repetitions or by increasing the amount of weight with which you train.
The weight or the load will depend on the goals of the current training program. Usually, if the goal is strength, then the load assignment will be high and if the goal is endurance then the load will be lower. Also, it should be remembered that generally as the load increases, the number of repetitions performed decreases
Increasing the training intensity
This can be achieved by lifting more weight in each training session either by doing more exercises of that particular muscle group in the next session or by prolonging the time of an endurance exercise in a cardio session
Exercise Frequency
This can be achieved by increasing the number of daily or weekly training sessions depending on other factors like intensity, duration, training status, etc, and manipulating them accordingly.
Besides these a couple of other ways to progressively overload are
Exercise Variation
Implementing different modes of exercise periodically. This will challenge your body in new ways while taking stress off more frequently used muscles and joints.
Decreasing rest intervals between sets
Cutting down the rest interval between two sets from one minute to 30 seconds will allow you to do the same amount of work in a lesser period of time and make your body metabolically more efficient.
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Benefits of Progressive Overload Training
Following are a few noteworthy benefits of progressive overload training.
Helps overcome plateau
Doing the same workout again with the same weights may lead to plateauing or a phase where no improvements or gains are visible. As you progressively overload this plateau can be avoided because you are continuously challenging your body to do more intense workouts.
Improves performance
Through the use of progressive overload, a person builds upon their work capacity, strength, and conditioning level in a systematic and logical way. This will indirectly help in improving your performance.
Helps in body adaptations
For progressive loading to be possible, it is necessary to adapt the body to the new effort provided by constant training. Without the adaptation phase, the body cannot continue to use a task that is superior to its possibilities. The technique of progressive overloading pushes the body past its limits, further breaking it down to force adaptations.
Helps in muscle growth
Progressive overloading will help in achieving muscular hypertrophy. Muscular hypertrophy is more dependent upon overall training volume (sets and reps at a given weight). As stated earlier increasing any one of them is progressive overload and this will, in turn, increase the growth of that particular muscle.
Increases strength
Your muscles will do what they must when you push and stress them to move more weight, in order to meet the demands placed on them. The contraction capacity of your muscles will increase as your central nervous system adapts to heavier weight by increasing its contraction capacity. Increased contraction is a sign of growing stronger.
Avoid monotony
Performing the same exercises, again and again, every day many a time gets monotonous and boring. In this progressive overloading helps as it will constantly add something new to your regular routine and help keep it engaging and interesting.
Sense of satisfaction
Although it is not right to go on lifting heavier weights just for the sake of it, a properly planned progressive workout routine will give you a sense of satisfaction and make you feel that you have achieved something during the day.
Important Tips
Certain precautions should be kept in mind while going in for progressive overload in your workout routine.
- Always remember to go in for progressive overloading only when you are able to execute any exercise maintaining a proper form.
- Carry out a training routine for at least two straight weeks before progressively overloading it so that your muscles get adapted to the routine. Do not hurry with the same.
- Understand that progressive overloading should be done gradually. If you add challenges to your workout too quickly, it may prove to be dangerous, leading to an injury.
- If you get injured or feel too sore after progressively overloading your training program, scale back the intensity or give your body some rest.
- Make sure that you are properly warmed up and adequately hydrated before progressively overloading during a particular session.
- Understand your body and look out for any signs of fatigue. Nothing is as bad as ego lifting.
Progressive overload is an effective strategy to reach your fitness goals at a faster pace. The concept may be easy to understand but many of you may find the execution of the same difficult. Fear not, it is always advisable to seek the help of a fitness trainer to guide you with the same, until you get to know how to apply the strategy and personalize it for yourself. An experienced physical trainer may incorporate progressive overloading in your workout itself depending upon your goals and other factors like your history and level of fitness etc.
Hope you could grasp the basics of progressive overload from this article. Let us know whether or not this information was useful for you and how in the comments section below.
Author: Dr Pooja Nilgar (Content writer and editor)
References
- Kavanaugh, A., 2007. The Role of Progressive Overload in Sports Conditioning. Conditioning Foundamentals. NSCA’s Performance Training Journal, 6(1).
- Kraemer, W.J., Ratamess, N.A. and French, D.N., 2002. Resistance training for health and performance. Current sports medicine reports, 1(3), pp.165-171.
- Geantă, V.A. and Ardelean, V.P., 2021. Improving muscle size with Weider’s principle of progressive overload in non-performance athletes. Timisoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal, 14(27), pp.27-32.
