Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com and in this
video I want to talk a little bit about progressive overload and how often you should be increasing
the weights on your exercises overtime.
So simply put, the law of progressive overload states that in order for you to experience
continual, ongoing gains in muscle size, you must progressively increase the total amount
of tension that is being placed on your muscles during your workouts over time.
Your muscles grow by adapting to stress, and if you aren’t consistently pushing the envelope
each week by either lifting more total weight on your exercises or by performing more reps
using the same weight then you quite simply are not going to make any appreciable progress
in the long run.
At the very root of it all, building muscle is ultimately all about building strength.
Train for performance first, and muscle growth will come as an inevitable by-product.
But just how often should you increase the weight on each exercise, and by how much?
Well the simple answer here is that you should aim to add more weight to the bar basically
as often as you can while still staying within your targeted rep range and maintaining proper
form.
There really isn’t a whole lot more to it than that.
The rate at which you can increase the total weight lifted is going to depend on a couple
of different factors.
First off, the less experienced you are, the faster you’ll typically gain strength.
As a beginner, not only will you be gaining new muscle tissue at an accelerated pace,
but your central nervous system will also be quickly adapting as it learns to perform
each movement with increased efficiency.
And this occurs because intense weight training is still a brand new stimulus for your body.
A complete beginner will be able to increase the amount of weight that he or she is lifting
at a reasonably quicker pace than a more advanced trainee will.
And secondly, it largely depends on the specific exercise that you’re performing.
Naturally, the more muscles that an individual exercise uses, the faster you’re going to
be able to add weight to that exercise.
A big compound lift such as a deadlift (which involves your quads, your glutes, your hamstrings,
spinal erectors, lats, traps, etcetera, that lift presents a far greater opportunity for
total strength increases in comparison to, say, a tricep pressdown.
Now there really is no exact protocol here, but the overall guideline that I would give
is this.
Number 1, focus on increasing the total number of reps that you can perform with a given
weight until you’re able to hit the upper end of your targeted rep range with that specific
weight.
So, if your targeted rep range is 5-7, wait until you can perform 7 clean reps with a
given weight before adding more.
And secondly, once you reach the upper end of your targeted rep range with a specific
weight, go ahead and increase the weight on the following workout.
So for smaller isolation lifts, a typical increase would be somewhere between 2.5 – 5
pounds and on larger compound lifts, it could be anywhere from 5 – 15 pounds.
Again though, this highly depends on the specific exercise.
Even amongst individual compound lifts it can still vary quite a bit.
Adding 15 pounds to a leg press is not a huge amount, whereas adding 15 pounds to an overhead
press is quite a large jump, and 5 pounds would likely be more appropriate for that
lift.
Much of this will ultimately just come down to gaining more experience as you get a feel
for each movement and learn how your body responds.
Also note that you don't necessarily have to use the same weight across all of your
sets for a given exercise.
If you were performing 4 sets of bench presses, and you could only squeeze out 5 reps on your
first 2 sets with a given weight, then you could go ahead and decrease the weight on
the following 2 sets to ensure that you still stay within your targeted rep range.
So once again, my basic recommendation here is to simply add more weight to the bar as
often as you can while staying within your set rep range and maintaining perfect form.
And this will usually entail a total weight increase roughly every 1-3 weeks in most cases.
And that previous point is very, very important.
True progression means that your form remains exactly the same every time you increase the
weight.
If your range of motion begins shortening, you start using excessive momentum, your rep
speed increases and/or your technique just gets downright sloppy then you’re simply
adding weight at too fast a pace.
Building muscle is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, so keep your ego in check, take
your time, and focus on gradually increasing the weight while maintaining perfect technique
at all times.
Not only is lifting heavier weights with inferior form NOT going to help you gain muscle at
a faster rate, but it’s also going to increase your chances for injury as well.
Progressive overload absolutely is the most important, foundational principle of your
entire training routine, but it must be implemented with caution and common sense if you want
to produce permanent gains over the long term.
So thanks for watching this video lesson.
I hope you found the information useful here today.
If you did enjoy the video, as always, please make sure to hit the LIKE button, leave a
comment and subscribe to stay up-to-date on future videos.
Also make sure to check out my complete step-by-step muscle building and fat loss programs over
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Talk to you again soon.