Oh boy, if I had a £ for every time somebody asked me how to hit their fitness goals. One thing that is a MUST is PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD… So what is it?
No matter what your goal is, doing the same routine with no change… over and over again… is not optimal! Progressive Overload is simple… try to improve something in your programme – every single session! How do you improve?:
– MORE REPS: okay, so you hit 8 reps of an exercise last time. Now’s the time to hit 10! Remember to keep your rep count within your training goals. If you’re working within “hypertrophy”, then you should work your way up to 12 reps! Before you add the following….
– MORE WEIGHT: you hit 10kg bicep curls last week for 8 reps… let’s stretch this time to 12.5kg! If you managed a 50kg bench press, then even putting 1.25kg plates on each side will achieve Progressive Overload! No matter how hard you find this incremental increases of weight, improvement each session is the way to maximise your programme!
– MORE INTENSITY: Perhaps one of the broader ways of adding progressive overload to your workout! During resistance training, try to slow down your reps this time! It puts the muscles under more tension for longer! During cardio – try and increase incline! Or simply, give yourself less rest time between sets! The more intense your workout can be become, the more improvement you will make!
– MORE SETS: last week you did 3 sets of bench pressing… why not see how you get on adding a 4th set? Adding that extra set is going to make a significant impact on that specific exercise. Just make sure you don’t burn yourself out too much!
It’s hard to achieve if you don’t look to add that little something to your workout each week! That’s what we look to push during every session at Body Balance Personal Training! Your experienced Personal Trainer will make sure that your workouts are tracked in detail and that we are adding progressive overload on a session to session basis It’s one of the ingredients which makes us great at what we do!
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