Types of Progressive Overload
Bear with me here, we’re laying the foundations for some future topics and it’ll be worthwhile to have this groundwork covered when we talk about those more tangible strength training subjects. As discussed in the previous post, you need progressive overload to increase demand and progress in strength, hypertrophy, or muscular endurance. Let’s discuss some different types of progressive overload.
Weight:
The most obvious way to increase demand is by adding weight. It’s smart to do this in small increments - remember PROGRESSIVE overload - to let the body adapt gradually. I suggest adding 2 to 5 lbs every time you feel like you could use more of a challenge. A good rule of thumb is if you can comfortably complete 2 extra reps on the last set, then you should consider increasing the weight. Remember to do this while also maintaining good form and feeling the target muscles work. Sometimes adding too much weight shifts the work into non-target muscle groups and this isn’t ideal. A good example of this is with Bulgarian Split Squats (BSS). In my experience loading these up too heavy will shift the work from the quads to the glutes and I just end up with really sore glutes - not ideal if I’m trying to target the quads. It’s all a balancing act and making sure your form isn’t sacrificed is priority number one. Quality over quantity!!!
Reps:
Increasing reps is another way to increase demand and this is a great strategy if you aren’t able to make small changes to weight. For example, if you are doing BSS and only have a pair of 20 lbs dumbbells and a pair of 30 lbs dumbbells and the 20’s are too light for sets of 10 and the 30’s are too heavy for 10, then you can increase the reps using the 20’s until you can get 12 or 14 per set and then go to the 30’s and get 8 per set and start increasing reps from there. This is a great approach and as seen here increasing reps has a similar effect on hypertrophy to increasing weight.
I like to use a wave strategy with reps. This is where you increase reps week by week using the same weight throughout a cycle and then when you start a new cycle you drop the reps and increase the weight and then increase reps again week by week. Let’s take BSS as an example again: let’s say I can complete 10 reps with 30 lbs dumbbells at the beginning of a training cycle, then I’ll bump up the reps by 1 for each week of that four week cycle. Week 1 will be 3 sets of 10 reps, week 2 will be 3 sets of 11 reps, week 3 will be 3 sets of 12 reps, and week 4 will be 3 sets of 13 reps. Then for the next cycle I’ll bump the weight up to 35 lbs dumbbells and start back at 3 sets of 10 reps and go through that pattern again with the heavier weight. This again is a very incremental strategy and is great for people that don’t have a variety of weights at their disposal.
ROM:
Range of motion is another way to increase demand and doesn’t require extra weight or reps. Increasing the ROM used in an exercise will increase the tensile force on the working muscle fibers and this increase in tension makes the muscle fibers adapt and grow. Putting this into practice means going deeper in a squat, eg - elevating the front foot in a BSS, or going deeper in a push up, eg - elevating the hands on yoga blocks. These small changes can push the end ROM and really increase the intensity of an exercise, thus increasing muscle growth.
Rest Period:
Reducing rest periods between sets or circuits is another way to increase demand on the body and this is effective by increasing metabolic stress in the muscle cells. As mentioned in Substack #002, this is one of the mechanisms of hypertrophy. Pushing the cells in this way forces them to adapt metabolically and makes them grow. This is as simple as reducing rest times between rounds. It’s recommended to do this for circuit workouts or supersets - meaning you’re doing a combo of exercises that work different body parts. For example, you could superset BSS and push ups because they are working different muscle groups and that way each muscle group gets a rest while the other is being used, but the overall intensity of the workout is increased by reducing the resting time. Not only will you get more metabolic demand, but you’ll also get some cardiovascular work, too. It’s best not to use maximal weights here because mechanical tension is not the goal and also it’ll just be too hard to complete and probably too dangerous as well.
Tempo:
One last way to increase demand is by playing with the tempo of an exercise. You can slow down or add pauses to a movement and this increases mechanical tension. If you’re pausing for an extended period of time, i.e. - isometric holds, then you’re probably getting some metabolic stress, too. As shown here, it seems that the lack of oxygen in contracted muscles puts a particular demand on the cells and produces a hypertrophic effect. If we take our BSS as an example, we could do a 4 second lowering (eccentric) phase, followed by a normal up (concentric) phase. This slow lowering will increase mechanical tension on the muscle fibers. Or we could do a 30 second pause at the bottom, an isometric BSS, and this would increase metabolic stress also. Using this strategically means you’re using both those factors that increase hypertrophy.
Takeaway:
There are many approaches to progressive overload and I think most people could benefit from a combination of them. It doesn’t always have to be about increasing weight and in fact in my own training I focus more on getting quality reps that work the target muscle group and pushing those muscles close to failure. Of course the weight matters to an extent and more weight means more mechanical tension, but adding more weight to the exercise is secondary to the quality of work. Given your situation and the amount of equipment at your disposal, you might try progressive overload strategies that don’t rely so much on adding weight, especially if you workout at home or travel regularly and don’t have the huge variety of equipment available like you would at a gym.
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