What is Progressive Overload?
Progressive overload is a key element of strength and weight training. Think of it like climbing stairs – one step at a time. You take a step and then when you’re ready to increase the challenge you take another. Over time these small steps add up and before you know it you’re climbing more steps than before. This steps and stairs analogy applies to increasing weights sets reps and rest between sets in your workouts, and other forms of applying progressive overload. While typically used for strength and weight training it can be applied to almost any exercise where the body is intentionally put under more strain and challenge. The whole point is to break down the muscle fibres so they can rebuild stronger.
What makes (and doesn’t make) progressive overload significant?
Progressive overload is crucial as it continually pushes your training comfort zone. While we should always celebrate the wins and progress like lifting a heavier weight, setting a new personal best or achieving correct form it’s equally important to acknowledge that after celebrating your achievements it’s time to challenge yourself further. This could involve the more common ways, such as increasing the weight, the number of sets or reps, decreasing the rest between sets, or increasing the number of workouts per week.
It’s also worth noting that progressive overload isn’t mandatory; it depends entirely on your goals. For strength and muscle building, it’s essential. However, if your goal isn’t strength or size-focused, like improving cardiovascular fitness or toning your body, progressive overload might not be beneficial. Similarly, if you’re happy with your current fitness level or recovering from an injury, it may not be necessary. Applying progressive overload is important if your goals are building strength or muscle to avoid a plateau in your progress.
In a randomised controlled study conducted by the National Library of Medicine, 39 previously untrained young persons (20 men and 19 women) were compared to see the effects of progressive overload in resistance training on muscle strength and cross-sectional area.
It was found that increasing both load and increasing repetitions resulted in significant gains in strength and muscle hypertrophy in young men and women after 10 weeks of training, compared to the control group who did not, especially in early stages of training.
Examples of Progressive Overload
As previously mentioned with the stairs metaphor, progressive overload in simple terms is increasing the difficulty after a successful one prior. There are many ways to implement progressive overload into your plan, and it’s determined by your goals and what you want to achieve.
The most common form of progressive overload is by increasing the weight:
- Week 1: perform 8 reps of bench press at 50kg
- Week 3: perform 8 reps of bench press at 55kg
- Week 6: perform 8 reps of bench press at 60kg
With Overload Workout’s Smart Overload, progressive overload by weight increase is done for you, automatically with our custom ML models. Smart Overload looks at your actual performance, understands context (bad days, missed sessions, injuries, life in general), and tweaks your training so you’re always moving forward with purpose.
How to do progressive overload
In practice, progressive overload is simple: just keep making it difficult (while maintaining strong and consistent form). Every other workout needs to feel harder than the last, and there are 4 main ways to achieve this.
Methods of progressive overload that Overload Workout supports will have ‘OW‘ next to it.
1. Increase resistance (load) – OW
The most obvious form of overload is lifting heavier weights. When your muscles are exposed to higher resistance, they’re forced to adapt by rebuilding stronger.
However, this should never turn into ego lifting. Before increasing weight:
- You should be able to perform the exercise with solid technique.
- You should comfortably complete 1-12 reps with the current load.
- The final few reps of a heavier weight should feel challenging, but controlled.
Rest adequately between sets and allow 1-2 recovery days between intense lifting sessions to avoid overtraining.
2. Increasing training volume – OW
Volume refers to the total amount of work you perform. You can increase it in several ways:
- More reps per set
- More sets per exercise
- More training sessions per week
A common mistake is increasing all three at once, which can overwhelm recovery. Instead, adjust one variable at a time and monitor how your body responds.
Volume progression is especially effective when increasing weight isn’t practical or safe.
3. Increasing exercise difficulty (without weights)
You can make movements harder while keeping the same load by manipulating how the exercise is performed.
Examples include:
- Increasing range of motion:
A deficit deadlift, for instance, increases how far the bar travels, increasing total work performed. - Combining resistance types:
Pairing dumbbells with resistance bands changes where the exercise is hardest, increasing overall tension. - Reducing momentum:
Pausing at difficult points in a lift (such as below the knee in a deadlift) removes assistance from bounce or speed, forcing muscles to work harder.
These techniques increase stimulus while protecting joints and connective tissue.
4. Increase Tempo, Endurance, or Repetitions
Progression doesn’t always come from heavier or harder lifts – it can also come from how long or how fast you work.
- Increase reps: Gradually move from, for example, 2×10 reps to 2×12, or from 2 sets to 3.
- Increase workout duration: Add time to strength circuits or cardio sessions in small increments.
- Increase tempo or density: Lift at a faster pace or reduce rest time between sets, keeping intensity high while using lighter weights if necessary.
This method is especially useful for building muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Final words
Progressive overload is the gradual increase of training demands to help the body adapt and get stronger over time. Like climbing stairs one step at a time, small increases in difficult – such as weight, reps, sets, or reduced rest – add up to long-term progress. Its purpose is to stress muscles so they break down and rebuild stronger.
It’s most important for goals like building strength and muscle, as it helps prevent plateaus. However, it isn’t always necessary – those focused on general fitness, recovery, or maintaining current ability may not need it. Research shows that progressively increasing load or reps leads to significant strength and muscle gains, especially in beginners.
