You’ve probably seen or heard about the term progressive overload multiple times but what does it mean and how does it work? To simply put it, progressive overloading is making your muscles work harder than they are used in order to get them bigger and stronger. By doing this, it increases the demand on your muscles recruiting more muscle fibres and making them work harder.

However many people think that progressive overload can only be achieved by increasing the weight when in fact there are a variety of ways such as:

INCREASE THE LOAD – increase the weight that you are using (however remember that there is an inverse relationship between load and reps so when you increase your weight, your reps will probably drop)

INCREASE THE REPS – instead of adding more weight you can also simply do more reps at the same weight. But remember that 8-12 rep range is recommended for hypertrophy so instead of doing more than 12 reps you should increase your weight.

INCREASE TRAINING FREQUENCY – increase the number of times you work out that muscle group a week keeping in mind that you also need to give your muscle adequate rest as well.

These are just to name a few and there are so many more ways so make sure to do your research and find what works best for you and your body.

That being said, if you are lifting a weight or increasing the reps to the point where your form completely breaks than you are probably doing more harm than good. Make sure to find the balance between progressive overloading your muscles but using GOOD FORM.

That is all I have to say! happy lifting