Gain strength and get lean faster with these 5 progressive overload techniques – my favorite way to fast track results!
Working out regularly but just not seeing the results you’re craving? If you’re seeing your strength or endurance gains stalling…don’t stress! These progressive overload techniques are just the thing you need to break through any plateau.
You must continue to ‘dish out’ new experiences to your musculoskeletal system if you want to progress on your fitness journey. Our muscles are rapidly adaptive. If we expect them to continue to evolve then we must continue to increase and change the demands we place on them. Those techniques are called progressive overload.
Implement these 5 strategies and watch your body rapidly change!
Progressive Overload: 5 Ways To Gain Strength And Get Lean Faster
#1 – ADD MORE WEIGHT
Totally obvious, right? And you’ve probably utilized this method already. Increasing weight places a greater demand on your muscles. No matter what you’re doing there are always ways to increase resistance. Keep in mind that when you increase resistance you will experience an inverse response with rep range. If you increase weight you will notice that your ability to achieve the same amount of reps will decrease. As your strength improves, so will your rep range with the greater load.
#2 – ADD MORE REPS
If the load is king, then rep range is queen. You don’t have to add more weight to gain muscle mass. Nope, you can just change the rep range. Although every written workout under the sun gives you a rep range to aim for. The first priority is always proper form. Second to that, is going to the rep count where you can’t complete another rep with good form!
Then, at that point, if someone threatened your life if you were to stop, how many more reps could you complete? THAT is progressive overload with more reps.
#3 – ADD MORE VOLUME
Adding more volume is simply achieved by adding more reps and sets. The muscles are loaded by accomplishing more.
More sets + more reps = added resistance on the trained muscle
#4 – DECREASE REST TIME
Changing the amount of time you give your muscles + nervous system to recover between sets is another way to increase progressive overload. It is referred to as increasing training density when you ask the same reps, sets, and load of your body in a decreased amount of time.
Typically what this means is that you’re not timing your rest interval, yet still prioritizing proper form while in the working set. This is a common mistake among people in the gym today…and why results are typically seen faster from gym facilities that function by a timer like Bootcamps, Crossfit, Orange Theory, and F-45.
#5 – IMPLEMENT VARIABILITY TRAINING (My personal fav!)
True strength gains and body change requires proper depth and range of motion, tempo, and execution. Variability training is applied by using the same weight and reps but extending the set past failure by using forced reps, negatives, drop sets, static holds, rest/pause, and partial reps.
THE BREAKDOWN OF VARIABILITY TRAINING TYPES
- Forced reps are done with the help of a spotter. During the working set, once you reach muscle failure, the spotter helps you complete the reps past the normal point of failure.
- Negatives are a slow release of the last few reps, slowing it down the extension or eccentric part of the muscle contraction of the exercise.
- Drop sets also known as strip sets. This is an extended set of an exercise, normally the last set. A weight is chosen that you would fatigue at around 10-12 reps, at that point, you would put the weight down and grab a lesser weight that would challenge you for the same amount of reps, and then again. Normally a drop set is at least a triple drop in weight.
- Static holds are a method where you proceed with your set as usual, but when you perform the last rep, you hold the weight at the top of the movement or contraction and squeeze the working muscle as hard as possible for a predetermined time or until failure. This increases the time under tension of the muscle at work.
- Rest pause sets are a great intensity increase for fast change. If you’re doing a rest/pause set you take a 5-10 second break once you reach failure then continue forward to your designated rep goal, if you reach failure again you pause for 5-10 seconds and continue forward as described until the goal is complete.
- Partial rep sets can be half or 3/4 of the rep range. These allow you to load the muscle with more weight and build strength faster.
Still not sure how to use all these progressive overload techniques to boost your hard work in the gym? No worries – we have you covered in Wholly Fit – the ‘in the gym’ workout guide with ALL my insider secrets!
You will see all of these techniques seamlessly sprinkled throughout the Wholly Fit workouts – plus video tutorials and downloadable PDFs so that you always know exactly what to do in the gym. Walking into the gym with the perfect plan is a no-brainer!
Enjoy this Total Body Workout from Wholly Fit that implements progressive overload through increased volume and decreased recovery time!
TOTAL BODY WORKOUT – 1 Set – 50 reps per body part
- Lat pulldown
- Dumbbell incline press
- Lateral raise
- Ab crunches
- Bicep curls
- Tricep press down
- Hamstring curls
- Thigh extension
- Calf raises
With Wholly Fit you get lifetime access to 6 months of expert-designed programming with results in just 3 weeks! Check out Wholly Fit HERE!
Show Notes
With Wholly Fit you get lifetime access plus video tutorials and downloadable PDFs so that you always know exactly what to do in the gym. Walking into the gym with the perfect plan is a no-brainer! Check out Wholly Fit HERE!