How to Use the Progressive Overload Method to Increase Strength

As you get stronger, you can lift increasingly heavier weights. This is the idea behind an often misunderstood fitness concept: progressive overload. Unfortunately, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding this principle, so here’s how to use it to plan your own workouts or evaluate whether your current program is helping you stay on track.

What is progressive overload?

Progressive overload is a gradual increase in the amount of work or stress you demand from your body. This term is used in two ways: as a way the human body works and as a description of how a training program evolves over time. If you want to learn how to “practice progressive overload,” you’re probably referring to the latter meaning—how to design a training program.

The easiest way to do this is to simply increase the challenge slightly each time you hit the gym. Increase the weight, the number of reps, or otherwise make the workout more challenging. You can have easier “deload” workouts (or weeks) every now and then, but over the long term, you should see a trend toward increasing difficulty. They won’t necessarily feel more challenging because you’re getting stronger. Rather, the workouts will simply “match” your capabilities.

In other words, progressive overload is a kind of vicious cycle. As you get stronger, your workouts must become more challenging to keep up. But in a sense, you also get stronger because you challenge yourself with more challenging workouts.

What does progressive overload look like in real life?

If the thought of constantly having to work harder overwhelms you, don’t panic. You’ll work harder in absolute terms—for example, by lifting heavier weights—but the relative difficulty of the task will remain roughly the same. Your training will remain at a level that could be described as “hard but doable,” and you’ll notice progress because your performance will improve. (A similar approach applies to endurance sports. As cyclist Greg LeMond reportedly said, “It doesn’t get easier, you just go faster.”)

When I started strength training many years ago, bench pressing 65 pounds was quite a challenge for me. I remember feeling proud of myself when I could do one or two reps with 85 pounds. Now, if I’m going to bench press, I don’t even bother with that kind of weight on the bar. My warm-up sets start at 95 pounds, and a hard one-rep set might be around 135 pounds. Those 135 pounds feel just as heavy as 85 pounds did before, but they’re definitely heavier.

How did I make such progress? I kept lifting weights that felt heavy to me. Over time, the same weights that used to be difficult began to feel easy, and I had to add more and more weight to the bar to achieve something truly heavy. ( I have a guide on how to tell if you’re lifting “heavy” weights.)

In most cases, I either followed a program that told me how many kilograms to lift, gradually increasing that amount over time, or a program that told me what effort level to apply (a concept called RPE) , allowing me to choose the appropriate weight each day. Following a program usually yields better results than simply improvising, but as long as you use the principles of overload and progression, you will get stronger.

Progressive Overload Training Programs

Here are some examples of training programs that use progressive overload:

Double progression . Let’s say you’re aiming to perform three sets of 8-12 dumbbell overhead presses. You choose a weight you can handle for three sets of 8 reps. The next time you do dumbbell overhead presses, try to add at least one rep. If you can’t, no problem—just do three sets of 8 reps. One day, you might do 10 reps on the first set, and then only 8 on the next two. Another day, 12, 10, and 8. After a few weeks, you’ll be able to perform three full sets of 12 reps. That means it’s time to increase the weight! The next time you perform this exercise, you’ll use heavier dumbbells and start again with three sets of 8 reps. This is called “double” progression because you first increase the number of reps and then the weight.

Linear progression . This is a common approach to barbell exercises for beginners. You perform the same number of reps each time (for example, five sets of five reps), but add a small amount of weight each workout. Often, the program includes instructions on what to do if you can’t complete five sets of five reps with the new weight. These workouts are usually unrealistic for experienced lifters, as you can’t increase the weight indefinitely, but they are great for those learning the exercise for the first time or returning to the gym after a break.

Set progression . This method can be used in conjunction with double progression, or as a standalone method. You start with just a few sets of one exercise per workout, say two or three, and then add one set each week. When you reach, say, five sets, you start over with a heavier weight. If you use it with double progression, you increase the number of sets, then the number of reps, and then the weight.

Progressive Intensity . This method is often used in timed sets, such as CrossFit workouts (“workout of the day”), or for assistance exercises. Set a timer for a few minutes and complete as many reps as possible in the allotted time, resting as needed. The next time you do this workout, try to do more reps in the same amount of time. Once you can perform the exercises with little or no rest, you can either increase the weight or find a different way to make the exercises more challenging (for example, doing dips instead of push-ups).

As you can see, it’s not just the weight that progresses. You can increase the number of reps or sets, or increase the volume of work in a given time by decreasing rest periods. You can increase the difficulty by choosing a more challenging exercise (for example, moving from dips to push-ups). When exercises become more challenging over time, you’re using progressive overload.

How to use progressive overload even if you can’t add more weight.

Increasing weight is part of most progressive overload schemes, but you don’t have to add weight to the bar literally every time you lift. There’s a wide range of weights and reps that can be effective for building strength and muscle mass. For example, if I’m bench pressing today, I might do sets of 10 reps with 100 pounds, or sets of 5 reps with 120 pounds, or a few heavy sets with 140 pounds, or any combination of those. If I’m really tired or stressed, I might decide to do sets of 10 reps with just 90 pounds. If I’m feeling great, I might do them with 105 pounds. That’s what I mean by a wide range: all of these exercises are intense enough to stimulate my muscles to adapt and strengthen. (There are reasons why you might choose one of these workouts over the others, but we don’t need to get into those details right now.)

What is n’t progressive overload? Well, if I did sets of 10 reps with just a barbell, it wouldn’t help me get stronger. If I had a set of minibarbells and their max weight was 85 pounds, my strength would plateau once I reached the point where 85 pounds was no longer a challenging weight.

Even as your fitness improves, you don’t need to increase the load in every workout as long as you’re getting stronger over the long term and your workouts are still in a range that’s challenging enough for you.

Let’s say you’re doing bicep curls with a 10-pound dumbbell. You might do 8 or 10 reps. Great. But the only way to increase the weight in your gym is to use a 15-pound dumbbell. If that’s too much, that’s okay. Keep training with the 10-pound dumbbell, and eventually you’ll be ready for the 15-pound dumbbell.

You can make progress on several metrics at once.

While you’re probably itching to lift heavier weights, barbell work isn’t the only way to progress. Sometimes you can’t add weight due to equipment issues or simply because your strength is slow to develop. (Even if your initial progress was meteoric, everyone’s progress slows down at some point.)

But if you’re smart, you probably should n’t limit yourself to improving just one specific exercise. Many beginners start with squats, bench presses, and deadlifts for sets of five, aiming to increase the weight each workout. But you’ll become a more well-rounded athlete if you also learn to lift heavy weights for one rep and for sets of 10 or 15 reps. Depending on your goals, you might consider incorporating front squats in addition to back squats, and reverse hypers or kettlebell swings in addition to deadlifts. There are ways to improve all of these exercises, and it’s normal for an athlete to simultaneously increase the number of reps on assistance exercises, increase the weight on the bar for heavy sets of one rep, and increase the time spent on endurance training.

How to recognize workouts that don’t use progressive overload

Not every workout or exercise routine includes progressive overload. For example, if you have a favorite workout that you do every day but never make it more challenging (say, always three sets of ten pushups), you won’t make progress over time. This is fine if you enjoy the workout for other reasons, such as simply wanting the mental health benefits of a little exercise in the morning. But if you want to improve your pushup skills, you need to find a way to do more of them over time or make them more challenging in some way (for example, by elevating your legs or doing them with a backpack).

Progressive overload workouts are typically personalized . If a workout program specifies exactly what to do, down to the weight of the dumbbell to lift, it doesn’t allow you to choose a weight that matches your current strength level. For example, a treadmill workout using the 12-3-30 pattern is the same for everyone, every time. If it’s one-size-fits-all, progression is impossible.

However, some workouts have a subtle progression system built into them. If you jog for 30 minutes every day, you’ll likely get a little faster over time, even without realizing it, and then you’ll be able to complete more work in the same amount of time. Or, if you’re doing “three sets of 10 reps” of an exercise, but each day you use dumbbells that seem appropriate for that level, over time you’ll likely use heavier ones. Just make sure you don’t get stuck doing the same thing month after month.

Progressive overload limits

Finally, now that we’ve discussed progressive overload, it’s important to remember that progress occurs over the long term . Some competitive weightlifters may not test their max deadlift outside of competition, meaning they only learn how much their deadlift has improved once or twice a year. This doesn’t mean they haven’t progressed over that time. If they’re following an effective program that continually challenges themselves, they’re still making progress.

Plateaus are an inevitable part of a weightlifter’s life. Sometimes it takes time to get stronger. Sometimes you need to work on your technique to showcase your newfound strength. Sometimes factors like stress, weight loss, or changes in training can temporarily weaken you, but if you continue to train in a way that challenges you, you’ll soon set new personal records .

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