Progressive overload: getting stronger, step by step

What it is and what it is good for

Your body adapts to what you ask of it. Lift the same weight for the same number of repetitions every time and it gets used to it, and the adaptation stops. Ask a little more and it responds with more strength and more muscle. That is progressive overload: asking a little more, step by step.

• Getting stronger: you lift more, or more often, than before.
• Building muscle: muscles grow when the stimulus becomes bigger than what they are used to.
• Making progress visible: whoever keeps track of what they lifted can see whether it works. Without numbers it is guessing.
• Keeping muscle while you lose weight: then the goal is not to grow but to hold on to your weights.

Five ways to ask for more

Lifting heavier is the best-known way, but not the only one. When a step up in weight is too big, there are others. Pick one at a time so you know what worked.

• More weight: a small step, for example 1.25 to 2.5 kg on an arm exercise and a bit more on a big leg exercise.
• More repetitions with the same weight.
• More sets of the same exercise.
• Better technique: deeper, steadier or with more control, at the same weight.
• Less rest between sets, with the same performance.

A simple method: double progression

Put a range in your plan instead of a single number, for example 8 to 12 repetitions. Start at a weight you can do 8 with. When you reach the top of the range on every set, you go up a step and start at the bottom again. Gym 74 can put such a range in your plan.

• Example: bench press, 3 sets of 8 to 12 at 60 kg. In the first week you get 8, 8 and 7 repetitions.
• Week by week a repetition is added, until you get 12, 12 and 12.
• Then you go to 62.5 kg and start again at around 8 repetitions.

How to keep track in Gym 74

Following progress costs nothing extra: the app keeps everything you log. These are the places where you see it again.

• During a workout every set shows the weight from last time as a suggestion. That is your starting point for doing slightly better this time.
• The info button on an exercise shows a table with what you did the previous times: per workout how many sets and how they went.
• 'Heaviest ever' names the weight and the repetitions, because 120 kg for one repetition is something different from eight.
• After a workout you see your personal records: heaviest weight, volume and estimated 1RM. Volume also goes up when you do more repetitions at the same weight.
• The progress page has charts per exercise, so you see a trend rather than separate workouts.

The estimated 1RM lets you compare progress between sets with different weights and repetitions. How it is calculated is in the article about the 1RM.

When it is better not to go heavier

Nobody manages to go heavier every week for long. That is not failure, it is part of it.

• Your technique gets worse: the weight is too heavy for now. Stay on the old weight until the technique is good again.
• You are recovering badly: from little sleep, a lot of stress or too little food, especially in a deficit. Standing still is then a perfectly good result.
• You feel pain that is more than muscle fatigue: stop, and have it assessed by a doctor or physiotherapist if needed.
• You have been on the same weights for months: for experienced lifters progress is slower. A light week or a smaller step often helps.

This is general information and not medical advice.

Further

How to compare progress with the estimated 1RM, and what to do when you lose weight and want to keep your weights.

How the 1RM is estimated Losing weight without losing muscle To your plans

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