This is the only way to see results
Do you want to see progress and get out of stagnation? Do you want your muscles to grow and shape your body? Progressive overload is the answer.
This is a VERY important principle of strength training, especially to see and ensure progress.
Without progressive overload you will not gain strength or muscle mass. Progressive overload can occur in 4 ways:
- Increasing intensity: Lift more weight each training session.
- Increased volume: Do more repetitions, sets or exercises for a muscle group.
- Increasing frequency: Train more times than the previous week.
- Increasing tension: Prolong the duration of each repetition of an exercise. A common technique in bodybuilding is to increase a muscle's time under tension by focusing on the descent.
Progressive overload can involve doing more reps with the same weight, more weight for the same reps, the same weight for the same reps with greater range of motion or better technique, or more sets with the same weight and reps.
If you do hip thrusts with 155 pounds for 3 sets of 10 and in two months you do 3 sets of 10 with 175 pounds, you have used progressive overload. If you increase your 1RM deadlift by 30 lbs in one year, you have used progressive overload. If you can do 1 set of 50 bodyweight lunges and in a month you can do 100, you have used progressive overload.
Progressive overload is only achieved when the technique and range of motion is identical to previous weeks. Shortening the distance or worsening the technique to get an extra repetition is NOT progressive overload.
It takes 24 hours a day to optimize it, since sleep, nutrition and stress greatly influence recovery and performance.