Episode 102: Understanding Progressive Overload for Effective Strength Training

Understanding Progressive Overload for Effective Strength Training

In this episode of the Booster Metabolism Podcast, host Janine dives into the fitness principle of progressive overload and its importance for building strength and muscle. She explains how strength training, done at least three times per week, preserves muscle mass, boosts metabolism, and offers numerous health benefits. Janine outlines various methods to achieve progressive overload, including increasing reps, weight, sets, and implementing tempos or static holds. She also shares practical tips for tracking workouts to ensure consistent progress. The episode concludes with a preview of next week's topic: the impact of mindset on fitness progress.

00:00 Welcome to the Booster Metabolism Podcast

00:32 The Importance of Strength Training

01:46 Understanding Progressive Overload

02:44 Implementing Progressive Overload in Your Routine

03:55 Advanced Techniques for Progressive Overload

04:57 Tracking Your Progress

06:04 Recap and Additional Strategies

08:07 Conclusion and Next Week's Preview

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Transcript

0:23

Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Booster Metabolism Podcast. I'm your host, Janine, and I'm so glad that you're here today. If you've been tuning in the past few weeks, you know that we are breathing new life back into this podcast, and I hope that you've been enjoying it so far. Last week we talked about nutrition and got back to the basics by covering macros. But this week is our fitness focused episode, and we're diving into a key principle for building strength and muscle, which is progressive overload. So let's jump right in. At Couture Fitness, we encourage all of our clients to strength train at least three times per week. Why? Because as we age, our muscle mass naturally declines. It's just part of life. And muscle tissue burns more energy at rest than fat, which means more muscle can result in a healthier metabolism. Strength training helps us preserve and even build muscle, which is a big contributor for keeping our metabolism strong. But also strength training improves bone density, supports joint health, reduces your risk of injury, helps you be able to run around with those kiddos or grandkids or friends. But let's be honest, it helps you achieve that tone fit. Look, most people are going for, I have heard that. From so many clients that they just wanna look fit and toned. And ladies, let me just reassure you that lifting weights will not make you bulky. To be honest, building large amounts of muscle mass takes years of focused effort and often other factors that most women aren't pursuing. What you'll get instead by strength training are all the health benefits plus a leaner, stronger, more confident body. So let's talk about progressive overload. If you head into the gym and you use the same 20 pound dumbbell for four sets of 12 bicep girls week after week, eventually your body is going to stop changing, and that's because our bodies are so smart and they adapt quickly to keep seeing results. We have to challenge our muscles and continue to switch things up. Now when you strength train your muscles, experience small amounts of stress and breakdown afterward, your body repairs and rebuilds them, making them slightly stronger and more resilient than before. But if you never increase the challenge, your body just stops adapting and progressive overload is simply the process of continually giving your muscles a reason to grow stronger. Our bodies really are amazing. So how do you do? Progressive overload. What does that look like? First of all, you have to have a structured training plan that you stick with for at least eight to 12 weeks. Consistency in nutrition and your workout plan really is key to seeing changes. I typically recommend working in the eight to 12 rep range for most movements, maybe eight to 14 rep range. It just depends on maybe what you're looking for. But I would start with a consistent structured training plan again, that you're going to execute week after week for about eight to 12 weeks. So what I mean by that is you do an upper body workout on Monday this week. Well, next week you're gonna do that same upper body workout on Monday. So you're not constantly switching out the workout movements that you're doing. You're focusing on consistency. Because if you don't do that, it's really hard to see progress. And to be able to achieve progressive overload.'cause you're constantly changing up what your workout is and what your plan is, and so you just don't know, well, what weight did I do last week with this to be able to ensure that you are achieving progressive overload. So let's talk about a few main ways of achieving progressive overload. So first, you can increase your reps. So start with a weight where you can complete eight reps with good form. But it still feels challenging. Each week, try to add another rep until you can hit about 12 reps. The other option is you can increase your weight. So once you can perform 12 reps consistently, it's time to bump up your weight. When you do, your reps might drop back into the eight to 10 rep range, but from there, you build back up to 12 reps again. And then the other way is you can increase your sets. So maybe you're not ready to lift heavier and to pick up the next set of dumbbells or to increase that weight on that machine. What you can do is you can add another set. So for example, if you've been doing three sets of. 12 reps of bicep curls try adding a fourth set of 12 reps of bicep curls. And one thing that is important when it comes to progressive overload is, I don't know about you, but I have so much going on. There is not a chance in the world that I'm going to remember what. Weight and how many reps I completed for my bicep curls last Monday to ensure that this Monday I am increasing or pushing myself a little bit harder. And so I recommend that you either use an app or you have a notebook that you write down your training plan in, and you keep a record of how you completed your workouts, what reps, how many sets, what weight you used, so that way you can ensure that you are. Pushing yourself and continuing to challenge your body and your muscles. An app that you can use, there's lots of apps out there, to log your, workouts, but if you are using MyFitnessPal for your nutrition tracking, you also can load your workouts in there and log it in there. And then at Couture Fitness we use an app that our clients can log all of their workouts in as well. So. Let's just recap real quick, some of the main ways of progressively overloading, your workouts is increasing, reps increasing weight and increasing sets. But there are some other strategies too that I wanna make sure we discuss. I do most of my workouts in my garage. I don't really have the ability to go to the gym just with what I have going on in my life and how my life is set up right now. And I have dumbbells up to 35 pounds, a kettlebell and some basic equipment. But to be honest, I max out my weights with certain movements and I can't just go and grab something heavier because I don't have anything. In that case, that's when I implement tempos or holds to keep progressing. So let me give you an example of this. So in a bicep curl, I might lift the weight up at a normal pace, but as I'm lowering it back down to the starting position, I will slowly lower it in a tempo. And so I will count maybe three to five seconds and make sure that I am very slowly challenging my muscles by. Bringing that weight back down. Or another option is I might pause halfway down when my elbow is at 90 degrees and hold it for three to five seconds before finishing that movement. A hold like that or a pause and a lift is called a static hold. And man, let me just tell you, those are killer. They can be a game changer, especially if you're maybe not ready to increase your weight or your reps or add another set, or you're like me and you're maxed out on weight. So these small changes can make the exercise so much harder and keep your muscles adapting even without adding more weight. So remember, progressive overload isn't only about lifting heavier, it's about finding ways to keep challenging your body while maintaining a safe and solid form. So I hope that this gave you a clearer understanding of progressive overload and how to apply it to your workouts. If you'd like a coach to design a customized strength and nutrition plan that fits your lifestyle and your schedule. Book us a free strategy call we'd love to chat with you about it. We'll even review your form through video feedback to make sure that you're lifting safely and effectively if you become one of our clients. If you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend who's also working on their health and fitness goals, and be sure to join us next week. We will be shifting gears to talk about mindset and how it impacts your progress. Thanks for listening. Have a great week everyone.