If you want to get stronger and build muscle, progressive overload is a must!
If you don’t know, progressive overload means you keep gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts over time so your body keeps adapting and getting stronger, building muscle, and more.
But this might shock you…
Progressive overload doesn’t ONLY mean adding more weight to the bar, using heavier dumbbells, or thicker bands.
Having this mindset can be intimidating to a lot of people, AND it isn’t always practical.
You can’t keep loading weight to an exercise FOREVER or else you’d be able to deadlift 2000 lbs! Or do 500 lb weighted pull-ups.
You get my drift! 😂😂
Guess what… there are MANY other effective ways to progressively challenge your muscles and continue making progress with your strength training.
Here are some of my top ways for achieving progressive overload and some examples. You can apply these principles to ALL exercises.
#1) Adding more reps. If you can do 3 pull-ups, work towards performing 4-5 reps with the same level of control and technique.
#2) Adding more sets. If you’re currently doing 3 sets of pull-ups, you could progress to 4 sets to increase your total training volume.
#3) Changing your tempo. You can make the same exercises more challenging by using different speeds You can slow down the lowering phase of an exercise to increase the time your muscles spend under tension. For example, take 3-5 seconds to lower yourself from the top of a pull-up instead of lowering to the bottom position in the standard 1-2 seconds. You can pause in the top position of a pull-up. You can perform the “pulling” component more slowly. Or you can perform the exercise more explosively (assuming you can maintain form).
#4) Progressing to more challenging exercises. As you get stronger, you can move to more difficult variations. For example, progress from doing regular split squats where both feet are on the floor to doing rear foot elevated split squats where your back foot is elevated on a stable surface like a bench.
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#5) Changing your exercise order. Exercise order can influence how much effort you can put into a movement. For example, if you want to improve your push-ups, do them earlier in your workout when you’re less fatigued, allowing you to get more quality reps. Conversely, if you are more advanced with your push-ups you can do them at the end of the workout when you are already fatigued (again, assuming you can maintain good form).
#6) Decrease your rest periods. Gradually reducing rest between sets can increase the demands of your workout. For example, you could progress from resting 90 seconds between sets of single leg hip thrusts to 60 seconds, provided your technique and performance don’t suffer.
#7) Increasing your range of motion. Performing an exercise through a greater range of motion can increase the difficulty. For example, gradually increasing how deeply you squat, while maintaining good technique and appropriate control, can be a way to progress. Or you can elevate your feet on a box and hands on low parallel bars or dumbbells and can do push-ups where you use a greater range of motion than you would during regular push-ups
#8) Improving your technique. This one is hugely underrated and is my favorite! Better technique allows you to perform exercises with greater control, consistency, efficiency, and mindfulness. For example, reducing swinging and using a more controlled and intentional movement during pull-ups or muscle-ups is a meaningful improvement, even if you don’t add weight or reps.
#9) Adding more weight. Of course, increasing resistance is another excellent way to progressively overload your muscles. For example, if you can do 8 reps of a dumbbell row with 35 lb dumbbells using good technique, you could gradually work towards using 40 lb dumbbells for the same number of reps.
The key is choosing the right type of progression for YOUR goals, experience, and current ability. You don’t need to increase every variable at once, and more isn’t always better.
Focus on making gradual, measurable improvements while maintaining good technique. That’s how you build strength and better movement over time!
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