Lets Talk About Progressive Overload

LETS TALK BOUT PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD.

The key to continuous muscle growth

By Fat Loss coach Dan Chapman

If you haven’t seen much or any gains throughout your previous training then your possibly not implementing the correct frequencies / volume / and intensities which lead to the muscle growth and the change you desire . Without these must-do basics you’ll be up Sh#^ creek without a paddle

I get asked frequently by both men and women what weight they should be lifting and how to determine what weight to choose . How many times a week is best to train and what’s ‘the best’ repetition range to go for.  Although I can answer all these questions with a simple answer of a short term solution, That won’t necessarily help them for the long term. It’s easy to say if your looking to build muscle then work within the 8-12 rep range and choose a weight that challenges you on the last few reps . But what about once your body gets used to that resistance or workout intensity . This is the biggest fail that so many gym goers do and wonder why their not growing or changing shape .

If your goal is to continuously grow and improve then you must challenge your body frequently and implement a gradual increase in resistance over time and introduce different methods to stress the muscles . The term for this is known as (The Progressive overload method)

WHAT IS PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD?

Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress (resistance) placed (over time) on your body during exercise generally beginning at a comfortable level of muscular intensity (resistance) and advancing towards an overload of the muscles over a period of time through changes in (volume intensity and frequency) Thus continuously pushing  the body to become stronger  fitter and bigger

VOLUME / INTENSITY / FREQUENCY

EXPLAINED

>>VOLUME

Volume is the total work (sets x reps) done when training a muscle group

>>INTENSITY

Intensity is the heaviness of the weight used to train a muscle group (Intensity can also refer to your perceived effort, or how close to failure you go)

>>FREQUENCY

Frequency is the number of times a muscle group is trained per week

HOW DO WE APPLY THESE PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD PRINCIPLES ?

Here are some tips to help crank up your muscle gains and strength which will set you on track for continual muscle growth

1. REDUCE RECOVERY TIME IN BETWEEN SETS

If you want to force the muscles to do more work then shortening the rest time between Sets is a great way to increase muscular stress. I suggest you experiment with different recovery times and make notes of what worked for you . I normally shoot for 30 seconds rest but see what works for you

2. ADDING MORE RESISTANCE

If you want to get bigger and stronger then unless you up your resistance every few weeks you will not be seeing any progression in strength or muscle gains . The most sensible way of doing this is once you can do an extra rep or two of your current chosen weight you then increase the resistance so that you are now challenged again and stressing the muscle at the correct chosen rep range . The rule is to choose a weight that allows you to do no more than the given rep range .

3. INCREASE FREQUENCY

increasing the amount of workouts you do over the week can significantly help improve muscular development and gains. And of course performance . But That said, it’s important to listen to your body and if a certain muscle group Is still aching then you’d be better resting . Get to learn and understand your body and how it adapts and recovers and then you’ll know when you can add another session into your week

4. INCREASE INTENSITY / OUTPUT

 Increasing your effort (output) in your workouts exerting more energy over each set is another way of creating a progressive overload . Pushing your muscle beyond what they are used to

5. ECCENTRIC NEGATIVES

Emphasising the negative (eccentric) portion of a Movement increases the time under tension (TUT). An eccentric overload is great for increases in strength, size, muscle density and also great for pushing through plateaus. You can typically Shoot for anywhere between 5-10 seconds to even a 30 second end of set super slow eccentric . I do this on dips and have noticed a big difference in muscle fullness

6. GRIP VARIATION

This is an awesome way to implement progressive overload and challenge your muscles without even having to increase the weight . In-fact you could even decrease the weight so your really focusing on the movement and form while stressing the muscles . Let’s take a bicep curl for instance. Some examples of grip placement would be a close grip barbell or an extra wide grip. Both of which place extra tension on the muscle group thus pushing the muscles to work harder. Another grip variation is an Off-set grip using a dumbbell. By gripping the bar on the front end rather than the centre produces an awesome pull in resistance while you supinate on the concentric part of the movement

CONCLUSION

Its imperative to implement the progressive overload method. If you stick with the same every workout then you will remain the same and never change.

@danchapmanPT

@wheyheyofficial

@danchapman_leanbodymission

Fat loss Coach | Body changer | Creator of the 10 week #leanbodymission plan .

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