If you’ve been to the gym, there’s one term you’ve probably heard before. It’s often the thing that lifters of all ability levels obsess over and rightly so. At a high to elite level, it’s something you can’t escape and in reality, something you need to make progress. 

Before you think it, no it’s not the imaginary 30-second post gym protein window with magic muscle-building effects. It’s the vitally important, scientifically proven principle of progressive overload. 

This is something that should be applied to all types of training, from hypertrophy to strength, endurance, and bodyweight exercises. Without it, you’re pretty much a ship without a captain. 

Now that you’re suitably introduced, what is progressive overload training? Let’s take a look at what it is, ways to do it, and the many benefits it brings.

What Is Progressive Overload?

Progressive overload is an important training principle that requires you to progressively make your workouts harder over time. This can be done using several methods, each of which has certain applications. We’ll discuss this more in the next section. 

For now, remember that the main ones involve increasing intensity, boosting volume, reducing rest time, and changing the exercise variation.

The main goal of progressive overload is simple enough. It aims to continually increase the training stimulus placed on the musculoskeletal system to force the body to continue adapting. 

When done correctly, this can improve aspects including your strength, muscle mass, and general health. This happens as the body adapts to improve its response the next time the stimulus presents itself. 

When you think about this from an evolutionary perspective, this makes a lot of sense. As humans, we are designed to adapt to the environment around us and with it, the stresses on our body. This allows us to grow, flourish, and survive our surroundings. 

Applying this principle to the gym means we adapt to the training stimulus placed on us both mentally and physically. We can thank our ancestors for working hard to forage and use the land and limited technology around them. 

If you don’t progressive overload, your progress will stop after a certain point — it’s that simple. 

Your body will get used to the stimulus meaning it won’t bother to get bigger or stronger. Why is that? Because it simply doesn’t need to. 

Knowing what the principle involves is one thing. Being able to correctly apply it to your training to make meaningful progress is a different thing altogether. 

Here are the most common ways of doing it so you can apply it to your training. The same principles apply whether you’re doing dumbbell exercises or something totally different.

Methods Of Progressive Overload

Even if you don’t know what progressive overload is, you’ll have likely applied it in some form without realizing it. Think of progressive overload as a broad term for a lot of different methods. As the old saying goes, many paths lead to the same outcome. 

Progressive overload is about doing more work over time. Because of this, you have several ways to approach it. 

Increase Lifting Intensity 

Out of the four main methods we describe, this is perhaps the most commonly known and performed. In simple terms, it involves adding weight to any given exercise to increase the resistance, making the movement harder. This means that you’ll be performing the same movement but at a higher lifting intensity. 

In most cases, this is the main variable that’s changed when muscular strength is your main goal. 

It’s also commonly done when trying to gain muscle. This is when you’ve increased your lifting volume to a point where it can’t be increased more without affecting recovery. 

Weight is increased when the previous weight can be performed with perfect form for the suggested sets and repetitions. This may be done in a linear fashion (progressed in a series of steps) or go up and down. 

This largely depends on your progress and the periodization method being used. This refers to the different methods that intentionally manipulate your training, of which progressive overload is at the core.

Here’s a simple example to put the theory into practice using suggested loading recommendations:

• Week 1 — 5 Sets x 5 Repetitions @ 80% Of Your 1RM.
• Week 2 — 5 Sets x 5 Repetitions @ 80% Of Your 1RM.
• Week 3 — 5 Sets x 5 Repetitions @ 85% Of Your 1RM.
• Week 4 — 5 Sets x 5 Repetitions @ 85% Of Your 1RM.

This is another simple method. In the first two weeks, you use the same weight as you get used to the movement. Because you found the weight easy on week two, it’s time to increase the lifting intensity. This is a simple strength training example. 

Increasing Lifting Volume

Lifting volume refers to the amount of work performed over a set period. 

The formula for calculating training volume is:

Lifting Volume = Sets x Reps x Weight Load. 

This would be your lifting volume if you did 3 sets of 10 repetitions using 100 pounds for the bench press. 

• 3 x 10 x 100 = 3000.
• Lifting Volume = 3000 Pounds.

This can be increased by changing the repetitions performed, sets performed, or amount of programmed exercises.

This should be done while managing recovery and fatigue, meaning there is a limit to how much you should increase. For this, you’ll maximize volume before adding weight. 

With volume identified as a key determinant of muscle growth, it’s often the main focus in most hypertrophy programs. Within this, intensity and rest periods will also be considered. 

Here’s a simple example of progressing the volume while using hypertrophy repetition ranges:

• Week 1 — 2 Sets x 8 Reps x 100 Pounds. 
• Week 2 — 2 Sets x 10 Reps x 100 Pounds.
• Week 3 — 3 Sets x 10 Reps x 100 Pounds.
• Week 4 — 4 Sets x 8 Reps x 100 Pounds.

Again, this is a very simple example where the reps and sets are changed to increase the volume. The volume in week one is 1600 pounds while in week four you’re doing 3,200 pounds. 

Reduce Rest Time

Before we get into this section, we want to start by saying that rest is important. It’s needed if you want to see progress take place. 

Because of this, you must read this section carefully. You still need to rest and should but you can change the rest periods and sometimes not rest at all. This can be used as a way of progressive overload if it’s not making up the majority of your training.

Generally speaking, the suggested rest periods are 60–90 seconds for hypertrophy and endurance and 2–3 minutes for power and strength. 

Let’s say that you’re resting 90 seconds between your hypertrophy sets. Reducing this to 60 seconds in week two would mean you still get sufficient rest but the session becomes harder. This is a less common way to progressively overload. 

This may also involve special programming techniques such as supersets and drop sets. A superset is where you perform multiple exercises with no rest. A drop set uses the same exercise but progressively lowers the weight for the set. 

Both offer ways to reduce rest, increase intensity, and increase volume. 

Changing Exercise Variations 

Changing your exercise variations is another way to progressively overload your training. Again, it’s not as commonly done as intensity and volume but it’s equally as effective when done correctly.

Bear in mind that performing too many exercise variations may actually hinder gains. Therefore, there should be a correct balance between the amount used and maintaining the workout focus.   

In most cases, this increases or decreases the intensity when the variation is changed. Different variations may involve performing the same exercise but using a different movement pattern or exercise angle. 

This may also involve changing the lifting tempo. For example, performing part of the movement slower and part of it faster or more explosively. 

This can help to build different characteristics and change the difficulty level. For example, a slower eccentric movement (muscle lengthening) may be better for hypertrophy. A faster concentric (muscle shortening) may be better for muscular strength gains.

Changing exercise variations is especially useful for bodyweight exercises. This is because bodyweight can only offer a certain intensity level and volume can only be increased so far.

For example, a normal squat can be turned into a jump squat. A push-up can be turned into a clap push-up. These variations add dynamic elements that increase the intensity while using the same exercise. 

Benefits Of Progressive Overload Training

Implementing each of the variables above offers several benefits when correctly applied. Here are some of the main ones. 

Increase Muscle Growth

Muscle growth, also known as muscular hypertrophy, refers to the increase in muscle tissue size. This improves the overall muscle size and therefore appearance. This is one of the most common lifting goals, especially for recreational gymgoers. 

Muscle growth requires enough protein intake to build muscle tissue and adequate resistance training to provide a suitable mechanical stimulus. As mentioned above, training volume is the main determinant.

Increases in training volume have shown a positive correlation with muscle growth. In other words, the more you increase your training volume, the more muscle growth you’ll see. 

This can only be done up to a certain point. After this, you’ll need to increase intensity and drop volume to start again. This way of progressively overloading ensures muscle growth. 

Better Strength Gain

Muscular strength refers to the amount of force you can generate or the amount of weight you can lift. Increasing this means you’ll be able to generate more force or lift more weight.

Progressive overload is vital if you want to increase your strength. For your body to become stronger and overcome the resistance, it needs to be exposed to the resistance. This allows it to adapt to the increased difficulty.

With this, using progressive overload to increase lifting intensity allows you to increase your strength. This can help with strength performance in sports or specialized lifting events. 

Psychological Benefits

The physical benefits are the ones that often get the most focus. This is because they are the ones that are easily seen. However, the psychological, or mental benefits of lifting are equally as important. 

Progressively overloading your training allows you to build mental toughness. Applying this correctly requires focus, determination, and consistency. 

Using these in the gym can also improve them out of the gym. This allows you to enhance other aspects of your life including your mental health. 

Furthermore, lifting heavier weights over time brings a sense of achievement. It provides purpose and gives meaning which helps to improve your mental state. This can be used to improve your mindset. 

Health Benefits

Our bodies work as one big interconnected unit. Even if your main goal is muscle growth, you’ll still be working on your muscular strength, coordination, and body composition.

Because of this, progressively overloading your training using the methods above offers much more than just muscle and strength increases.

When applied correctly, it can improve other health aspects such as cardiovascular fitness and body composition. Cardiovascular fitness is a huge public health problem, accounting for 20.5 million deaths worldwide in 2021.

Using this for structured training can reduce common risk factors such as high blood pressure, excess weight, and high cholesterol. This is just one example of many health benefits when applying the progressive overload principle to your resistance training. 

Tips From The Experts

• Use Gradual Progression — Progressively overloading your training isn’t a race to see who can improve the quickest. It should be done with a systematic approach using small increments. This allows suitable adaptations to be made without huge increases in injury risk. 
• Hire A Qualified Professional — Relevant healthcare professionals are there to help you when needed. If you’re unsure how to correctly use progressive overload or prefer guidance, hire the help of a personal trainer. They’ll be able to give you and help monitor your progress. 
• Regularly Check Your Form — Using the correct form is vital to ensure you’re targeting the right muscles. Before progressively overloading your training, you should be familiar with the correct technique cues for the exercises you’re using. This ensures you can use the right technique as you increase the intensity or volume. 
• Track Your Progress — Unless you’ve got a really good memory, you’ll need to track your changes. Knowing what you’ve done the previous week allows you to make suitable changes based on your goals and progress. Use a workout diary or fitness tracker. 

Conclusion

As you’ve hopefully learned by now, progressive overload is a vital training principle whatever your goals are. While it can be applied in different ways, you can use specific methods to better suit certain goals. 

In most cases, you’ll have been doing it without even realizing it. The main difference is that you may not have been properly tracking and using it to its full potential. 

Take this useful information and apply it to your training. Use help where needed and start to see some amazing progress in your exercise goals! 

Frequently Asked Questions