What Is Progressive Overload and Why Is It Important? — What Women Need To Know About Building Muscle

You’re feeling solid in your workouts, but it seems like you stopped getting results. What gives?

There’s nothing better than starting to see your body take shape after a couple months of putting in the work with your diet and exercise. It takes a lot of effort and dedication so when your pants start becoming a little easier to button, or you notice those biceps while you’re blow drying your hair, it’s gratifying to see the results!

Especially if you were sedentary before you started your workout regimen, you can see big changes when you start implementing diet and exercise. But why does it seem like after a couple months of seeing muscles take shape, the progress stops?

Our bodies were designed to become adaptable and it’s no different for our muscles. Once your muscles adapt to a certain weight, they become “immune” to the load. So how do you continue to see those initial gains that you saw when you first started?……

Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is a strength training method used to build muscle and gain strength. If you’re lifting the same weight in your exercises for long periods of time, it’s great for mobility and getting the body moving, but it’s not doing much for increasing your strength. Darnit.

Our bodies are resilient! Think about it at a very basic level — of course the body will stop being challenged if we’re doing the same thing over and over.

In order to continue building muscle, the muscle must be challenged.

How will you know if you’re still challenging the muscle?

1. Muscle Soreness

Think back to when you first started your workout regimen. How did you feel the next few days? Probably pretty sore.

As a trainer, I want my clients to be a little sore. And there’s a valid reason for that.

When our muscles are sore, your body is telling you that you loaded the muscle to a degree it’s not used to. Now don’t freak out but when a muscle is challenged to the point of being sore, there are literally micro tears that have occurred in the muscle. When the muscle repairs itself, it grows back bigger and stronger.

Fear not! Those micro tears may sound scary, but it’s actually positive growth occurring in those muscles.

If you’re interested in learning more about this, check this out from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).

2. Muscle Fatigue

Another way to know if you’re challenging the muscle — without waiting until the days following your workout — is muscle fatigue.

You can achieve muscle fatigue through the number of reps you complete, the number of sets you complete, the weight you’re lifting and/or the “time under tension.”

You could use one or a combination of those four methods to get to that desired goal (yes, this should be a goal) of muscle fatigue.

An easy way to know if you’ve reached fatigue is by assessing how you feel on the last 2-3 reps. If you feel like you could bang out another 5-6 reps like it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy, you need to increase your reps, sets, weight or time under tension.

You’re not sore and you’re not reaching fatigue…now what?

This my friend is where progressive overload comes in to play.

As mentioned above, there are a few different methods you can use to start your progressive overload training.

1. Increase the number of reps
2. Increase the number of sets
3. Increase your weight
4. Increase your time under tension

INCREASE THE NUMBER REPS

If you’re new to strength training, this is a great place to start your progressive overload. Adding more repetitions to a weight that is manageable is always my first option when working with a new client. Different trainers may have different opinions but for me, this makes the most sense.

INCREASE THE NUMBER OF SETS

By adding more sets to your workout, you’re essentially adding more volume. This method is similar to adding more reps (but I find adding more reps makes each set challenging, not just the last one.)

INCREASE YOUR WEIGHT

DUN, DUN, DUUUUNNN….

Don’t be scared! I find that most people are pretty intimidated to add weight to their lifts but that’s why we do it PROGRESSIVELY.

When you’re ready to add more weight, you must — I repeat MUST — do it the right way which is only adding a small percentage of the weight you’re currently lifting.

Depending on your fitness level and what muscle group you’re working, the percentage can vary and there is no exact approach because of different abilities, muscle groups and goals. I typically stick to a 5-10% increase. (5% in the upper body, 10% in the lower)

There are different methods to determine how much you should increase and some serious lifters use their one rep max (1 RM) and add their percentage to that.

Most people who are doing a general strength training program do NOT know what their 1 RM is but if you’re interested in knowing, this calculator can help you determine it.

For the typical gym-goer, adding 5-10% to your lifted weight is a good standard. And for those of you using dumbbells, just shimmy up to the next weight option.

INCREASE YOUR TIME UNDER TENSION (TUT)

Increasing your time under tension could be a whole blog post on its own. It’s a less traditional way to achieve progressive overload but (arguably) effective nonetheless.

To utilize this method, you have to understand what time under tension is. (I linked an article up above)

In short, it’s manipulating the amount of time that the muscle is under load in a contraction. Once you have an understanding of what it is, go ahead and add it to your options of progressive overload methods.

Which method is the best? — All of them…

Going back to what I said earlier, our bodies are adaptable. By switching things up, we’re keeping our body guessing and presenting new challenges to our body.

We can manipulate our training in so many ways. If you’re looking to implement progressive overload in your workouts, pick a method and stick with it for 3-4 weeks. Once the 3-4 weeks is over, switch it up.

Let’s look at an example:

The days of “winging it” are over

One of the most solid pieces of advice I can give you is to HAVE A PLAN when it comes to your workouts. I see lost puppy syndrome all over the place at the gym as people have good intentions of hitting the gym, but no real plan of action.

Make the most out of your precious time and go into your workouts knowing what exercises you’re going to do, which weight you’ll do them at, and have an idea of your reps and sets (this is often a range).

Having a plan requires you to be a little bit organized but if you’re looking for results, you’ve got to put in the work.

In order to use progressive overload in your strength training, you have to know how much weight and how many reps you’re completing. You can download my Progressive Strength Tracker for free to help you get started.

Are you thinking about trying progressive overload in your strength training? Let me know!