PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD FOR AN AWESOME WORKOUT: What is progressive overload? It’s a gradual, but steady, increase of stress (by way of volume, intensity, frequency or time) – or a combination of those factors combined that has altered the normal course of a workout and the stress that is placed on the body during exercise. Progressive Overload not only prompts muscle hypertrophy, it is capable of bypassing the adaptive process that occurs naturally in response to organized and predictable stress. That essentially means that either the number of repetitions increase or decrease (in response to weight used), intensity is boosted. But no matter what you choose, one thing is certain: You must work progressively harder each workout and that means either changing up those variable listed, or using progressively heavier weight each time. Think of it as “forced adaptation.” The body adapts to you doing the same things over and over again, and it will adapt by way of some continued trajectory of effort and exertion. So, that could mean using the same weight each time, but gradually increasing the number of repetitions you do, or keeping reps within the same range and increasing the weight. Work Capacity and Peaking When most bodybuilders think of progressive overload, they imagine that they will only be building work capacity. However, there is another scenario – called peaking – which allows training at much higher levels of intensity without the extreme fatigue of increases in weight and set numbers. Increasing time alloted in recovery periods between sets to enable a full recovery, versus going to failure repeatedly or taking short 30 second rest between sets, means a bodybuilder can actually work at a much higher percentage of one rep maximum lifts (1RM) and capitalize on supercompensation. Progressive Overload can be achieved in a couple of different ways – building work capacity and peaking – explained below: BWC- Building Work Capacity Strengths: Effective for building strength, increasing muscle size, improving condition and mental fortitude. Drawbacks: Leads to increased fatigue and soreness (DOMS); stagnation of explosivity and power. Increasing intensity Increasing sets of an exercise Increasing the repetitions of an exercise Decreasing rest intervals Increasing amount of exercise per session/ workout Increasing the number of exercises/ movements per session/ workout Peaking Strengths: Fatigue reduction, enables training at higher percentage of 1RM, focus on skill movements and obtain personal bests. Drawbacks: Decreasing intensity. Decreasing total volume of an exercise. Decreasing repetitions. Increasing rest intervals between sets. Increasing or decreasing frequency of training sessions (from twice weekly to once). Decreasing number of exercises/ movements per session/ workout TIP:The Great Thing About Progressive Overload Is, You Don’t Necessarily Have To Add Weight Every Workout. That Would Be Humanly Impossible! But You Can Change Other Things, Such As Intensity Via Set And Rep Ranges, Apparatus And Weight. LET’S SAY YOU: Squat 225 pounds for 3 sets of 6 reps. If you continued to lift exactly that weight, in that rep and set range, there would be no progressive overload – and certainly no gains in muscle or strength. However, if you were to: Squat 225 pounds for set sets, but increased the rep range to 7 or 8, OR you increased the weight to 230 pounds for 6 reps…your body would have a reason to build muscle.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:00:37 +0000
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