“Progressive overload” has been one of the core principles on resistance training to build muscle. I remember being taught about it in college 25 years ago and reading about it in the late, great Dr. Fred Hatfield’s must-read training bible, Hardcore Bodybuilding: A Scientific Approach.
The term refers to gradually adding weight (or reps at the same weight) on an exercise as you are getting stronger.
Progressive overload is nothing new. But despite the fact that it’s almost as old as lifting itself (we all know the story of Milo of Croton who would carry a calf every day, until it reached its adult size, growing stronger as the bull grew larger) and that it is the secret for long-term progress, it’s very often misapplied, misunderstood or not used at all.
It is also, oddly, responsible for a lot of injuries and stagnation!
But how can that be, if it’s the secret for muscle growth?
It’s because people continue to focus on the wrong training elements: They make adding weight (or reps) the life or death goal of their training. To quote the DC training guys: “You must beat the logbook.”
By focusing on the “adding weight/reps at all cost” mantra, you’re opening the door to poor form, cheating, momentum, and adding weight faster than your actual rate of strength gains, which can lead to, at best, stagnation or at worse, an injury.
See, adding weight (or reps) is not the goal.
It’s simply a tool you’re using to keep the exercises you are doing effective.
As you get stronger from your training, recovery, and nutrition, if you keep doing the same reps and weight over and over it just becomes less and less effective, until it is too easy to have any effect on constant muscle growth.
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EFFECTIVE REPS, EFFORT LEVEL & PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
The modern theory of hypertrophy is that to stimulate muscle growth you must accumulate enough effective reps.
What is an effective rep? It could also be called a “hard rep” or more precisely a repetition that require a high level of effort to complete.
Let’s say that you do a set of 10 repetitions with the max weight you can lift for 10 (your 10RM). The first 5 reps are very easy, they don’t require you to strain against the load. As fatigue accumulates during the set, the reps get gradually harder, requiring a higher level of effort. If those first 5 reps are easy, the next two get moderately hard while the last 2-3 require a high level of effort.
The harder a rep is, the more stimulating it is.
That’s because as the reps get harder, and you have to strain against a load that make the reps slow, even if you are pushing hard, your muscle are under a higher level of mechanical tension. And that mechanical tension is the main driver of muscle growth.
In simple terms: No hard reps, no growth!
And that’s where progressive overload comes in.
If you train properly, eat for growth and have sufficient recovery, you should get a little bit stronger with every workout.
Over time, as you get stronger, the same weight done for the same reps becomes progressively easier. This means that your sets get a bit less effective and eventually lead to a loss of effective/hard reps. Until a set can stop providing any stimulus for growth.
That’s why you need to gradually add weight or reps: to keep the sets hard.
ADDING REPS OR WEIGHT?
Both have their pros and cons.
Adding weight
Pros:
- May be more motivating for many. lifters
- Gives better neurological improvements and greater strength gains,
- Can add less central fatigue than adding reps (especially as reps get high).
Cons:
- The smallest possible weight increase often exceeds the true possible weekly strength gain.
- Can more easily lead to using bad form/momentum/reduced ROM just to “get more weight.”
- It may possibly lead to more injuries more easily.
Adding reps
Pros:
- It’s easier to add one rep than the smallest possible load increase (5 pounds most of the time) so you can progress more smoothly.
- Less likely to lead to compensations and form breakdown, less psychologically intimidating.
Cons:
- More reps cause more central fatigue. This can negatively impact the quality of the whole workout.
- It can be harder to maintain focus for longer sets. During long sets, we often stop the set because it “hurts” (lactate accumulation) than because the reps get truly harder.
- On big lifts, higher reps can lead to failure because of being out of breath rather than the muscles being truly challenged (sets of 20 reps squats anyone?).
THE FOOL-PROOF METHOD
Considering these pros and cons, I feel that the best way to use progressive overload is the double progression model.
Simply put, you first increase weight, up to a point, then you add weight.
It looks like this:
I personally recommend keeping your reps from 4 to 12 when training for hypertrophy. You can build muscle with lower or higher reps per set, but to me they have too much drawbacks either from a potential danger standpoint or an excessive fatigue one.
- For the purpose of the double progression model I like to create training zones of, typically 3 reps: 4 to 6, 6 to 8, 8 to 10 or 10 to 12.
- Select your zone (e.g. 6 to 8 reps)
- Select the number of work sets you’ll do (e.g. 3 work sets of 6 to 8 reps)
- The goal is to use the same weight for all work sets, after warming-up (e.g. 3 work sets of 6 to 8 reps at 100 pounds)
- When you can use the same weight (100 pounds in our example) for all your work sets (3 in our example) at the top of the selected range (8 in our example) you add weight at your next session. Which will likely bring the reps down, so you build your way back up.
For example:
- Week 1: you get 8, 7, 6 reps at 100 pounds, so you have to keep using the same weight.
- Week 2: you get 8, 8, 7 reps at 100 pounds, you progressed but not enough to add weight.
- Week 3: you get 8, 8, 8 reps at 100 pounds, now you can add five to 10 pounds.
- Week 4: you get 7, 7, 6 reps at 100 pounds, so you keep using the same weight.
- Week 5: you get 8, 7, 7 reps at 110 pounds, you progressed, but not enough to add weight.
You get the idea.
This ensures that load progression is not too fast for your strength gains. Now you can progress for longer and with less risk of stagnation and injuries.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CAN’T PROGRESS ON A LIFT?
Even if you are using the double progression model, you are bound to hit a wall at one point or another. What do you do then?
Well, first make sure that the lack of progress is due to being adapted to the training not because of inadequate rest or nutrition.
If it’s truly the training there are two main options:
The impatient lifter/variety seeker option: if you hit a wall on a exercise (not being able to progress in weight or reps for 3 similar workouts) you can simply rotate to another exercise for that muscle and apply the double progression on that new exercise.
The patient/routine-based option: you can use the triple progression model. In the triple progression model, once you cannot progress in a zone, you switch to a new zone, ideally an heavier one.
For example:
- Start with the 10-12 reps zone and progress as long as possible. When you stagnate you…
- Switch to the 8-10 reps zone and progress in that new zone for as long as possible. Then…
- Switch to the 6-8 reps zone and milk that zone for as long as possible. Then…
- Either switch to the 4-6 reps zone or restart the progression with a new exercise.
REMEMBER
To get maximum muscle growth, the three most important things are:
- Training at a high enough level of effort (your sets must be taken close to failure to maximize the number of effective reps).
- Use progressive overload, not to lift more weight for its own sake, but to keep the training effective.
- Use proper form to impose tension on the target muscle(s)
Everything else is essentially just debate material for social media and doesn’t matter if you don’t get 1, 2 and 3 right.
