Using Progressive Overload to Achieve Long-term Success
Submitted by Got Strength? Blog
Fitness Measuring Tape
Yesterday I had a client ask me why we’re making such small increases in weight on his lifts. You see, I’ve been having him add just a 2.5 lb plate to each side of the bar every week. That means that he is only increasing his weight lifted on an exercise (for most of his lifts) by a mere five pounds. He thought that sounded like an awfully slow increase in weight.
I was immediately reminded of one of my old clients from Maine, Jason. You’ll probably hear a lot about Jason. He was a great client, but he had and did make most of the training mistakes that you can make. He was also very prone to following the “latest thing”, so this made him at times challenging and at other times extremely receptive.
I remember when I first started training Jason I developed a program that for some exercises had him adding weight in those same five pound increments for as long as possible. The program was for 12 weeks, when I gave it to him he replied that he wanted to make some progress in 12 weeks, not just inch along.
“Jason” I replied, “What’s 12 x 5?”
“60″
“Ok, so if we put 60 pounds on your bench press, for WORKING SETS, not just a one-rep max, how much is your strength and body going to change?”
“Oh. A lot.”
I could see that Jason had started to see the light. Those small increments add WAY up to big improvements. Everybody wants to see rapid and grand improvement, and if that happens I definitely don’t turn it down. However, the key to long-term, successful development of the body is to make tiny, easy changes and always improve inch by inch. Regardless of whether you’re trying to lose fat, gain muscle, or run a 4.5 40, doing the little things and improving every day will be the backbone of your success.
Oh, and Jason? In those 12 weeks he went from 135 pounds to 152 and took his best bench press from 140 to 185. He also learned a few valuable lessons about how his body responds that took him even higher later on.
