PROGRESS YOUR EXERCISE PROGRAM -PRINCIPLE OF PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Written by: Nem
​As you start working out and build consistency, your body adapts by getting stronger and more fit. Soon, the exercises you did or the weights you used before, become too easy.

​If you just continue with the same exercises and weights you used before, your results will stagnate. This is because your body doesn't have any reason to get more fit and strong if you are doing the same exercise in the same manner over and over again.

In order to continue progressing, we need to understand and incorporate something called the principle of progressive overload.

​WHAT IS PRINCIPLE OF PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD?

According to the Oxford dictionary:

“...training must include overload and progression to be successful. The body must be overloaded so that it has to work harder than normal. As the body adapts to a particular workload, the person should progress to a higher work level. For example, to gain strength, the muscles need to be loaded beyond the point at which they are normally loaded. As the muscles become stronger, the load has to be increased to stimulate further strength increases. The load should be increased gradually over a long period of training.”

In simple terms, progressive overload simply means doing more over a period of time. This holds true for all health and fitness goals (building muscle, getting stronger, building cardiovascular fitness, losing fat, improving mobility, improving health biomarkers, etc).

​Here are some ways to introduce progressive overload into our strength training:

• more weight/resistance
• more repetitions
• more sets
•  more range of motion
• less rest between sets
• doing more difficult exercise variations

As you get stronger, so do your muscles, bones, ligaments and tendonds.

We love to tell our clients the story about Milo of Croton to better illustrate the idea of progressive overload. Legend has it that Milo used to pick up a baby calf every day and carry it around on his shoulders. As years passed, the calf grew, but so did Milo's strength until it grew into a full size bull. See the video below for more details. 

​If your goal is to build cardiovascular health and fitness, you can choose any of the
common cardio modalities like walking, running, swimming, rowing and do one or more of the following:

• add more intensity (e.g. run faster, swim faster, add backpack when walking to add total weight your legs have to carry, etc.)
• increase duration (e.g. 30 mins vs 60 mins of rowing)
• do it more frequently (e.g. 1x/week vs 4x/week)

As your build cardio, your heart become stronger, more fit and more efficient. Your blood vessels and lungs become more "fit". Blood becomes better equiped to transport oxygen and remove waste products.

For mobility training:

• increase joint range of motion over time
• hold stretched position for longer
• do mobility/stretching more frequently.

For power development and jump ability training:

• jump higher or with more intensity
• add weight to your body (hold a weight or add backpack)
• increase the number of jumps you do

One important thing to note here - proper form and technique should come first before introducing any kind of progressions we previously mentioned. Otherwise, you are increasing your chances of getting injured.

​IS PROGRESSION LINEAR?

​When you first start working out or you try a new exercise, your progress will mainly be linear. This means your performance will increase session to session and week to week. This is why, when you first start working out you’ll achieve the most progress in your first 3-months of training.

However, as you get more advanced, your progress will slow down. At that stage, you’ll need to use more advanced progression protocols (program periodization) in order to keep progressing. Even then and depending on how long you’ve been working out, you might see progress every other week now, or every month, every year or even every 4-years like it does occur with Olympic-level athletes.

​CONCLUSION

In order to progress our training and reach our health and fitness goals, we need to do more exercise. There are many different ways to achieve that and the best method/approach will depend on the individual, their specific goal and current circumstances.

OUR APPROACH AND HOW WE CAN HELP YOU

Our methods are based on science and our extensive experience working with people just like you. Whether or not you have any chronic diseases or joint/muscle complaints, we'll get to the right of the problem to help you move better, lose weight, tone, build muscle or enhance performance. 

We understand that we are all different with unique physiologies and body mechanics and therefore everyone needs a different approach.

Here are some of the ways we can help you:
- Our full service offering 
- Get in touch with us and let us know how we can help
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