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Hi! Welcome back to INTEGRE8T Wellness. Today we’re going to talk about Progressive Overload.

Progressive Overload

To get better at anything, you have to do it repeatedly over time. With each attempt you either polish a nuance, or you make growth toward new skills. For example: Hypertrophy (muscle size). You have to constantly train for that, and with each workout you go just a little bit further. At the beginning of your training you’re going to have magnified results from lower amounts of volume and resistance, because your body will respond to anything. As you get more advanced, you have to work harder to make smaller improvements, because your body is stronger and you have to push it harder for it to grow.

So at some point you’re going to hit plateaus, and that’s completely natural. When you it them it requires a change in your training. You don’t necessarily need to add more resistance, more reps, or more sets. It can sometimes be enough to alter tempo, look at the angle you’re working from, or even the order of the exercises themselves. Something to ask yourself is, “Am I eating enough? Am I sleeping enough?”

For hypertrophy you want each repetition to last four – six seconds. With that in mind you should aim for about 10 – 15 repetitions in that 45 – 60 seconds. Also, at the end of those 10 – 15 repetitions, you should genuinely be at the point of temporary failure. If yo you could do more reps, you didn’t use enough resistance.

Summary

  1. Progressive Overload happens over time.
  2. With each workout you want to gradually perfect your technique, and if you can get a little bit stronger.
  3. Time under tension: Make sure your set lasts somewhere between 45-60 seconds.
  4. Make sure you use enough resistance, so that within 45-60 seconds, you reach genuine temporary failure.
  5. Quality over quantity! Yes, you want to achieve genuine temporary failure, but you want to get there with good form.

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Jack Kirven is a mobile personal trainer in Charlotte, NC. He is the owner of INTEGRE8T Wellness.

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