Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Sam Coleman, Co-Founder
FACT CHECKED
We know you're probably thinking, "Great, another article on progressive overload." Truth be told, it is another article on progressive overload, but it's going to actually give you progressive overload examples. You likely know of the concept, as it's quite simple: do more work. The problem is that this is often easier than said in the real world, as there are a ton of variables to consider. Therefore, this article is going to go over several different ways to use progressive overload and how you can apply it to your training.
What Is Progressive Overload
Just so we're all on the same page, we want to briefly discuss progressive overload and why it's important.
Progressive overload is a fundamental training principle that says in order to make continual progress, you need to continually do more work. This is usually done in the form of increasing load or reps.
While it seems simple, lifters mess it up all the time. It's common to believe that if you just go to the gym and train hard, you’ll grow. Intensity is obviously a factor but there must be a quantifiable increase in work.
For example you may go and perform curls to absolute failure every session. You might even use drop sets and forced reps. This will probably be hard and get your heart rate up and make you sweat as well as give you a pump. However, if you’re doing it with the same weight week after week, your muscles won’t grow.
You must understand that your muscles will only grow if they need to. If you use the same weight, it doesn’t need to grow as it’s already adapted to handle that work. In this context, progressive overload is you giving your muscles a reason to grow by creating a greater stimulus to adapt to.
How To Use Progressive Overload
Ok. So, we settled on the fact that you need to increase the load to see more progress. But how exactly do we do that? There are quite a few ways actually.
*The weights used in the examples are 100% made-up and simply used to demonstrate*
Example 1: Increase Load For Progressive Overload
This progressive overload example will demonstrate how to use your load for progressive overload.
Manipulating the load is the most straightforward method. As you could guess, this method has you put slightly more weight on the bar over time.
How much weight should you use? It depends on the type of exercise and how long you've been training. Lower body exercises, such as squats and deadlifts, have room for more growth and can allow more weight. On the contrary, upper body movements will generally have smaller jumps. Still, some upper body exercises, such as overhead press, can only handle small jumps.
When you first start training, you can jump 10-20 pounds for squats and deadlifts every session, while your bench press could be 5-10 pounds. However, this will slow down and you will need to use smaller jumps.
Regardless, your best bet is to not be in a rush. Trying to make big jumps will only ensure you’ll hit a plateau faster. Therefore, don’t be worried about making smaller jumps. The progress will be slow but you will be able to maintain it for a long time.
With that said, here’s how it may look;
- Week 1: 3X5 150lbs
- Week 2: 3X5 160lbs
- Week 3: 3X5 170lbs
- Week 4: 3X5 175lbs
- Week 5: 3X5 180lbs
- Week 6: 3X5 185lbs
- Week 7: 3X5 188lbs
Notice at first the jumps were bigger in the beginning but then gradually became smaller. This is how it will look in real life but the important part is you keep pushing forward.
*The gradual decline in weight jumps is just an example and has no bearing on what it will look like for you.*
Example 2: Increase Reps For Progressive Overload
A sad fact about lifting is that no matter how much you want it, or how much pre-workout you take, you won’t alway be able to put more weight on the bar.
Think about it logically; if you were increasing your bench press by just 2 pounds weekly, you'd see a 100lb jump in just 1 year, a 200lb jump in 2 years and so on! Obviously this growth isn’t going to happen for long.
Eventually, you will hit a point where you won’t be able to hit the prescribed rep. For example, let’s pretend you were making a jump from 180lbs to 185lbs using a 3X5 rep scheme. You may only be able to use 185lbs for 3X4.
What do you do? Instead of increasing your load, you could just increase your reps.
Depending on how difficult this weight is, you could increase reps across all the sets. This works best when using a moderate amount of (6-12 rep scheme) for muscle hypertrophy as the loads are lighter.
For example:
- Week 1: 185lbs 3X6
- Week 2: 185lbs 3X7
- Week 3: 185lbs 3X8
Or, you could also increase the reps of just one set at a time. This tends to work best with strength training. As you’re using heavy weight, adding one rep can be very difficult. An example could be;
- Week 1: 185 lbs 3X3
- Week 2: 185 lbs 2X3, 1X4
- Week 3: 185lbs 1X3, 2X4
- Week 4: 185lbs 3X4
- Week 5: 185lbs 2X4, 1X5
- Week 5: 185lbs 1X4, 2X5
- Week 6: 185lbs 3X5
Either method has you slowly increasing the number of reps overtime. That’s progressive overload.
Now, you can only increase the reps so much. Therefore, increasing reps is best used in tangent with increasing load.
Example 3: Increasing Reps And Load For Progressive Overload
This method can be very useful. You will work up a range of reps until you can perform the maximum number of reps with the given weight. You'll then add a little bit of weight and drop down to the lower range of the rep range.
For example, let’s continue with the above example where you just finished using 185lbs for 3X5.
You could then jump up to 190lbs and drop down to 3X3. From here, increase the reps in the same manner until you perform 190lbs with 3X5 and then jump up to 195lbs. Repeat the process.
Now, keep in mind that you can use this with any rep range. So let’s pretend we were using a 8-10 with 180lbs. It might look like this.
- Week 1: 180lbs 3X10
- Week 2: 185lbs 3X8
- Week 3: 185lbs 3X9
- Week 4: 185lbs 3X10
- Week 5: 190lbs 3X8
Example 4: Increase Sets For Progressive Overload (Muscle Hypertrophy)
Another method that has become a bit more popular over the last few years is you could increase the number of sets you do. You can only do this so many times or you’d end up doing 20 sets for every exercise!
Therefore, if you wanted to use this method, we’d recommend you start with 3 and only go up 5 or 6 sets max. Further, we’d recommend you only use it for one or two of your primary exercises or you’d be in the gym forever!
After you completed 5 or 6 sets, you could increase the load and go back to 3 sets. This would have a similar progression as if you were increasing reps:
- Week 1: 100lbs 3X8
- Week 2: 100lbs 4X8
- Week 3: 100lbs 5X8
- Week 4: 105lbs 3X8
Using Deloads With Progressive Overload
After you’ve been training for a couple years, you simply won't make jumps often. Putting more weight on the bar will get harder and harder to do and will require more time and manipulation of variables.
Further, as you'll be using heavier weights, your body can build up fatigue more easily. One way of dealing with both these issues is to use a deload.
A deload is a week of training with a significant drop in volume. The most common method is to perform the same program as the previous week but drop the load of all exercises by 50%. This will allow your body to fully recover and can play a significant role in applying progressive overload.
When used, it’s common for lifters to use a deload every 4-6 weeks. Now, you could just use a deload as a break in your training. In other words, you train, take a deload, and then pick back up.
You can also step back the weight. This can result in slower yet more consistent progress. An example could look like this if you were to deload once every 4 weeks.
- Week 1: 315lbs 4 X 4
- Week 2: 320 lbs 4X 4
- Week 3: 325lbs 4 X 4
- Week 4 (Deload) 160lbs 4X4
- Week 5: 320lbs 4 X 4
- Week 6: 325lbs 4 X 4
- Week 7: 330lbs 4 X 4
- Week 8 (Deload) 165 lbs 4 X 4
Using Periodization With Progressive Overload
Periodization is a method of resistance training in which the intensity of the training is altered to focus on different training variables.
- Power
- Strength
- Muscle Hypertrophy
- Endurance
These different training variables function differently and result in different physiological adaptations. Therefore, you should look at using progressive overload separately for each.
For example, for 6-8 weeks, you may focus on improving muscle hypertrophy by simply increasing total volume. This would generally be done using an 8-12 rep scheme.
After the 6-8 weeks, you could either take a deload or jump right into your next training block. Let's pretend you want to train strength. To increase strength, your primary focus is getting more weight on the bar using heavy loads (>85% 1RM, 1- 5 reps).
Since you'll be using more weight, you'll perform fewer reps, which will ultimately result in less volume. Now if hypertrophy was your goal, this would seem like a step backward. However, it doesn't matter, as your focus is increasing strength. Therefore, your primary form of progressive overload is increasing the load.
After 6-8 weeks, you could take another deload and perform your next block. This could be power, or you could just switch back to muscle hypertrophy using the 8-12 rep range.
New Research Reveals the Best Progressive Overload Method
The Most Important Part Of Progressive Overload
As you can see, there are many ways of using progressive overload. Regardless of what method works for you, the primary goal is to increase the work performed over time.
This does not mean you will be successful every week. However, over time, there should be a general trend of doing more work.
Keep in mind that this trend will be steeper when you first begin. As you progress, your progressive overload will begin to slow down. This is part of the process.
Progressive Overload Is Not Consistent
Another essential component to keep in mind is that progressive overload will not be consistent. It can't be. It's literally impossible.
Much like weight loss, there will be ups and downs. Maybe you're just having a bad week – stress at work, relationship issues, not getting sleep; these things happen and can affect your performance.
In fact, as we saw with deloads, stepping your weight back can actually be what you need to move forward. The most important lesson you must learn is that these setbacks are normal, and you must concentrate on moving forward.
What you want to see is a general trend of improvement over time.
Final Say On Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is the most important training principle. It is what guides and steers your entire training program, and everything you do in the gym has the ultimate goal of applying progressive overload. At the same time, the concept is incredibly simple – do more work!
Sometimes, it is easier said than done, but going to the gym and training with intensity in every session is essential. And this is the beautiful part about progressive overload. It works. It's biology. You will improve as long as you train hard and maintain the overall goal of doing more work. It’s science.
Garett Reid
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