The Gym Drill

What is progressive overload?

Progressive overload is a basic principle of strength training and muscle building. It’s about systematically increasing the demand on your muscles over time to stimulate growth and adaptation. The idea is that to keep your muscles getting stronger, you need to constantly challenge them by gradually increasing the intensity of your workout. This principle applies to both resistance training (weightlifting) and cardiovascular exercise.

Here’s how progressive overload is performed and its effect on the body:

1. Increases resistance:
   One of the most common ways to apply progressive overload is to gradually increase the weight you are lifting during resistance exercises. For example, if you did a 100-pound squat this week, you might aim to do a 105-pound squat next week.
2. Increase the number of repetitions:
   You can also gradually overload yourself by increasing the number of reps with a certain weight. For example, if you’ve done 8 reps with a certain weight, try aiming for 10 reps with the same weight in the next session.
3. Crop set:
   Adding additional sets to your workout routine can also provide a progressive overload stimulus. If you have done 3 sets of an exercise, you can increase to 4 sets.
4. Adjustment of break time:
   Shortening rest periods between sets can increase the intensity of your workouts, promoting progressive overload.
5. The complexity of the transformation exercise:
   As you become more advanced, you can introduce more complex exercise variations to challenge your muscles in new ways.
6. Drive frequency control:
   Gradually increasing the frequency with which you work a particular muscle group can contribute to constant overload.

The right way to implement progressive overload:

1. Ascending:
Small gradual changes are needed to avoid injury and allow your body to adapt gradually.

2. Archive records:
   Keep a workout diary to track your progress and make sure you’re adding weights, reps, or sets consistently.
3. Listen to your body:
   Pay attention to your body’s signals. If you’re having trouble completing your sets with proper form, you’re probably adding weights too quickly.

Muscle and body effects:

1. Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy):
   Continuous overload causes micro-tears in muscle fibers. In response, the body repairs and rebuilds these fibers, leading to muscle growth and increased strength.
2. Neuromuscular adaptation:
   The nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers, resulting in more strength gains.
3. Bone Density:
   Progressive overload stimulates bone growth and density, helping to prevent osteoporosis.
4. Metabolism:
   Increased muscle mass leads to a higher basal metabolic rate, which contributes to more calories burned even at rest.
5. Hormonal response:
   Muscle overload can trigger the release of hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, which contribute to muscle growth.
6. Connective Tissue:
   Tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues also adapt to the increased load, becoming stronger and more supple.
   
   

Short-term progression vs long term:

Short term progression:

Short term progression is where in a set where you progresse your weights incrementally each set.
Progression can be increase by 1kg-2kg.

Clarity – If you do the first set of bicep curls 3 kg then next set should be 4kg and further . You can incremently go from intial weight to difrrence of 7-8 kg in a day.

What it does: It does reduce the risk of injury and progressive load like this help building muscle and strength.

Long term progression:

Long term progression is where you progress for the new max weight.

Clarity – In a a given period of time where you are lifting 10 kg and you want to go to 20 kg. As the diffrence between the goal and where you are is quit a number to reach that number you must to incremently by weeks

What it does: It increases your strength and body mass and lets you go higher in numbers in context with weights.

Which sports follow the progression:

Weightlifting is the pioneer for this method, It has been originated from the Soviet Union weightlifting team.

Present-day weightlifters, rugby, wrestling, and other combat sports follow this method.

There are plenty of videos from the Chinese national weightlifting team doing progression overload

Remember, the key to success in progressive overload is consistency and patience. Gradually increasing the demands on your muscles over time will lead to a steady increase in strength and muscle mass while minimizing the risk of injury. If you’re new to working out, you should consult with a fitness professional to develop a safe and effective progressive overload plan that’s right for your goals and fitness level.