What is Progressive Overload?

The body is constantly adapting and in order to gain lean mass, strength, or improve performance, you must gradually increase the stress placed on the musculoskeletal system over time. This is known as the principle of progressive overload and can be achieved in many different ways.

1. Increased Resistance (Weight)

2. Increased Reps

3. Increased Total Volume (reps x sets)

4. Increased Training Frequency

5. Increased Range of Motion

6. Decreased Rest Time (between sets)

Using these strategies, either in combination or independent from one another, will help you continuously improve your performance over time and avoid plateau.

It takes TIME to properly implement progressive overload. Progress is not achieved by doing the same exact workout week after week, month after month, with no variation in volume, rest time, frequency, or form improvement. It is also not achieved by doing a different workout every single day. Progress is achieved, rather, by slowly improving one or more of the factors listed above and mastering each exercise.

Here are some examples of what progressive overload might look like:

Example 1: Increasing Reps