As you get stronger, you become able to lift heavier and heavier weights.
That much is probably obvious.
This is the concept of progressive overload.
How does progressive overload work?
In other words, you have to work harder than what your body is used to.
What does this look like in real life?
If youre bummed out by the idea of working harder and harder forever, dont panic.
Youll work harder inabsolutetermsby lifting heavier weights, lets saybut the challenge stays about the same inrelativeterms.
(The same approach applies to endurance sports.
As cyclist Greg Lemond reportedly said: It never gets any easier, you just go faster.)
When I started lifting weights many years ago, 65 pounds was a decently challenging bench press for me.
I remember being proud of myself for being able to squeeze out a rep or two at 85 pounds.
My warmup sets start at 95 pounds, and a heavy single would be around 150.
That 150 feels just as hard as 85 used to, but its undeniably more weight.
How did I make that progress?
Well, I kept lifting the weights that felt heavy for me.
(We have a guide hereto figuring out whether youre lifting heavy.)
What if I cant lift more every time?
You dont have to add weight to the bar literally every time you lift.
Theres a wide range of weights andrep rangesthat can be effective for building strength and muscle.
If Im feeling great, I might be able to do them at 115.
Well, if I did sets of 10 with just the bar, that wouldnt help me get stronger.
So lets say youre doing bicep curls with a 10-pound dumbbell.
you might do eight or 10 reps with it.
If that weight is too heavy for you, thats okay.
Keep working with the 10-pounder, and in time youll be ready for the 15.
Sometimes you cant add weight because of equipment issues, or just because your strength is improving slowly.
(Even if your beginner gains were meteoric, everybodys progress slows down at some point.)
But if youre smart, you probably dontwantto only get better at one specific thing.
What is double progression?
One simple way to combine goals is called double progression.
That means youre progressing on two metrics at a time: reps and weight.
Then another day you do 9, 9, and 9.
Soon youre up to 10’s.)
you might do both, but you should prioritize the one that means more to you.
If your goal in life is to do 100 pushups, go with more reps!
But if you want to get stronger, youre better off adding weight.
Plateaus are normal
One last thing, now that weve discussed what progressive overload looks like.
Its important to remember that progression happens in thelong term.
That doesnt mean they havent progressed in the meantime.
If theyre doing an effective program, consistently challenging themselves, theyre still working.
Plateaus are a fact of life when youre a lifter.
Sometimes it takes a while to get stronger.
Sometimes you better work on your technique to be able to express your newfound strength.
