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Progressive Overload

This is a concept and a principle of your training that I think is important you all know and understand. Now it doesn’t matter what you are doing, this will apply to you. Even more so if you feel like your training and results have plateaued.

The easiest way to explain Progressive Overload is overtime making your training harder and increasing the overload on your body through the training that you do.

Some examples of this would be increasing the weights that you’re lifting, increasing the distance that you run or even the amount of times you train during the week.

What happens is that a lot of people forget or don’t do this. Then you get stuck doing the same thing, in the same way and at the same rate. This can be due to a lack of understanding but also a lack of motivation, which when you are training by yourself can be an easy mistake. But if you are looking for any adaptations or results you need to progressively make your training harder overtime. Not overnight, just overtime.

So if you have plateaued or you need some sort of push I want you to take this on board and try it out. You need to write down everything you are doing in your training at the moment. That includes sets, reps, weight, distances, time along with as many notes as you can. Then I want you to start to think of ways to make those things harder and write them down.

Your aim then is to get better results in your training and hit those new numbers. No matter how insignificant it may seem, any increase is better than no increase. So don’t set your expectations too high.

Here are some examples to give you a better idea:

  1. Running – If you run 5km in 30min. Try running 5.2km in 30min or running 5km in 29min
  2. Squats – If you can squat with 10kg for 20 reps. Try squatting with 12kg for 10 reps or squating 10kg for 25 reps.
  3. Training – If you train 2 x a week. Try training 3 x times per week.

Like I said the increases don’t have to be huge nor do they have to be every session. We like to make sure our members increase their training at least every 12 sessions. Which is usually over a 4-6 week period.

Most people have a lot of hesitation around making their training harder because of concerns for injury, so if that is the case for you please reach out. We’d love to teach you how to do this safely and effectively in your own training.

Nathan Spring