Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is the foundation for making progress in our training.

Practically speaking, progressive overload is achieved by manipulating variables such as weight, volume (e.g., sets or reps), intensity, frequency, rest, or any other variable that increase the challenges faced by the body during training. Regardless of the goal—strength, size, endurance, or otherwise—progressive overload is the key to improvement itself.

Whether you knew it or not, anytime you increased the challenge of your training, you were implementing progressive overload. In this article, we’ll hopefully help you understand it better so that you can harness it to make even more progress.

The Science Behind Progressive Overload

The adaptability of humans is arguably the biggest reason why we’ve become the dominant species on this planet. Our bodies can adapt to varying climates, foods, geographical locations, and so on with relative ease while most other animals are relegated to small areas of the planet.

This adaptability, however, is also what makes progressive overload such a critical component to long-term progress in training. If we did not change our training, our bodies would adapt to it fairly quickly and, eventually, stall altogether. After all, if the body can handle the training we’re throwing at it, why would it even need to make any further improvements?

The increasing difficulty that progressive overload brings about is the stimulus needed to continuously force the body to never stop adapting (i.e., improving). When we strategically progress our training, we give the body a reason to continue improving. Without this consistent progressive overload, our bodies would simply stall. And why wouldn’t they? It is what the body is designed to do.

Methods of Implementing Progressive Overload

Again, progressive overload is achieved when we do anything to make training more stressful. Naturally, this gives us a copious amount of variables at our disposal to manipulate.

Here we’ll outline some of the more common and practical methods:

• Increase in Weight. Usually (but not always) the most sought after method of progressive overload, adding weight to an exercise is one of the most straightforward means of increasing the challenge of training. Over time, our capacity to move more weight should always increase (whether week over week, month over month, or year over year).
• Increase in Repetitions. Adding a single rep to an exercise can be enough to stimulate growth. And this doesn’t always mean adding a rep to every set, but adding a single rep to the total of all sets can be enough progressive overload to stimulate progress.
• Increase in Sets. Adding a set can be a bit more taxing than simply adding some weight or adding a rep here and there. However, if we are not seeing any progress in a movement for some time, then adding a set might be the push the body needs to continue moving forward.
• Increase Exercise Complexity. If a movement has gotten to the point of being fairly easy, we may need to change up the movement entirely. For example, going from knee push-ups to full push-ups to narrow push-ups to clapping push-ups is increasing the complexity of the push-up and, therefore, is a valuable means of instituting progressive overload.
• Decrease Rest. Even if we keep reps, sets, weight, etc. the same but decrease the rest, this is a method of increasing challenge and, therefore, is considered progressive overload.
• Increase in Frequency. This is a big change! An increase in frequency means adding an entire additional training session to a set time frame (generally a week). But as we become more advanced in our training journey increasing

Tips for Integrating Progressive Overload

Progressive overload isn’t just like picking something out of a hat and going with it. And rarely should we ever be progressing multiple variables in a single movement simultaneously as this can exceed our body's ability to adapt adequately.

We want to dose the body with just enough stimulus to ensure it keeps adapting. Progressing things either too quickly or too slowly can both lead to a plateau in performance so it’s important that we do things in a strategic manner.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Start Slowly. Training is an endeavor we should strive to be doing for the rest of our entire lives. So don’t rush it! The reality is the body doesn’t need too much progressive overload to ensure progress. Think about utilizing the minimum effective dose to see a change. Sometimes adding a single rep to a movement might be all we need to see progress for several months on end. That’s perfect! If you’re seeing progress, stay the course. When it’s time to change something, make that change small.
• Track Progress. Seeing how things are progressing over time is one of the best things we can do to see if what we’re currently doing is working. Tracking progress allows us to see if performance begins to stall and, as a result, when we might benefit from a variation (which may include progressive overload).
• Listen to Your Body. Being aware of how the body feels is another significant indicator of whether we should initiate progressive overload or potentially reduce it.
• Adjust Accordingly (Based on the Data). Having this data at our disposal will enable us to determine in real-time when performance begins to stall and, consequently, when we might benefit from a variation (which may include progressive overload).
• Repeat! Consistency with these principles (change things slowly, track progress, listen to the body, and adjust) will ensure that progress is both sustained and largely predictable. The best predictor, above all else, of long-term progress is the ability to stay consistent with training. No matter what type of training or method of progressive overload you prefer, consistency will always come out on top.

Common Mistakes

• Overloading Too Quickly. This builds on the “Start Slowly” concept we talked about earlier. Yes, we want to ensure that we’re pushing ourselves hard enough to get better. However, we don’t want to push ourselves excessively hard on a regular basis. This will give ourselves enough wiggle room to recover enough to push it hard the next time. If we overload too many things at once, we may see some short-term progress but eventually, we’ll run the body into the ground and be forced to take time off from fatigue or, worse, injury.
• Neglecting Recovery. When we implement progressive overload, we inherently increase the stress that we place on the body. Staying aware of overall recovery is key to ensuring we’re not overdoing it and can reap consistent progress week over week. If recovery is starting to suffer, then we need to manipulate something in training or outside of training (i.e., nutrition, sleep, or stress) to get things aligned.

To Review

Progressive overload is essential for effective training, driving continual physical improvement by strategically increasing training demands.

By carefully manipulating variables such as weight, movement complexity, and training frequency, along with attentively monitoring progress and the body's responses, we ensure consistent progress and minimize risks of stagnation and injury. This methodical approach not only supports long-term development but is fundamental to achieving and maintaining peak physical fitness.