It’s fun to work hard and see results. 

It’s fun to see the direct impact your fitness training is making with your strength, your muscles, your endurance, and your body composition.

But it’s super frustrating when you’re not seeing results.

It’s super frustrating to feel like you’re putting in the work but you’ve hit a plateau with your progress.

You feel like you're doing everything you possibly can.

You feel like you’re waking up early, getting in your workouts, and pushing yourself hard to no avail.

You’re going to the grocery store, eating the right things, but still not seeing what you want to see.

Not losing the weight, not building the muscle, not getting stronger.

There’s a reason for this.

There’s a reason you’ve stopped making progress.

And I've known why, but I wasn’t able to verbalize it exactly like this until I listened to a podcast with Dr. Andy Galpin – a Professor and Scientist who holds his PhD in Human Bioenergetics and Muscle Physiology. 

He says the top 2 reasons why people don’t achieve their fitness goals are:

1. Adherence – they don’t stick to the plan and/or stick to it consistently

2. Progressive Overload – they don’t gradually increase the challenge they’re placing on their bodies

Sticking to your plan and consistency is what I talk about all the time.

Today, I want to talk about progressive overload and how you can apply it to your training so you can achieve the goals and adaptations you want.

The way I like to think of progressive overload is to appropriately increase the demand you’re placing on your body.

The word is ‘appropriately’ is important in order to apply this principle safely and effectively.

Let’s begin the ‘how to’ conversation by first discussing 4 different goals:

1. Increase Strength

2. Increase Muscle Size aka. Hypertrophy

3. Increase Muscular Endurance

4. Decrease Body Fat

These goals don’t’ have to happen in isolation. They can most certainly overlap.

Any of the first three will help you achieve number four.

And you can simultaneously increase strength, hypertrophy, and muscular endurance during your training, but each one takes on its own ideal strategy when it comes to progressive overload.

Let’s quickly define what each of these goals means.

1. Increase Strength – to increase the force that your muscle fibers are able to produce

Force = Mass x Acceleration

To increase force, you need to move more weight (mass) faster (acceleration).

2. Increases Muscle Size aka. Hypertrophy – to increase the size of your individual muscle cells

3. Increase Muscular Endurance – to increase the duration that you can perform repetitive contractions

Put simply, to have the ability to do an exercise or activity for longer.

4. Decrease Body Fat – to decrease the amount of adipose tissue (fat) in your body

Remember any of the first three goals will help you to achieve the fourth when done consistently (adherence) and when increasing the demand, you place on your body across time (progressive overload).

Before diving into the specifics of how to apply progressive overload, know that this is simply one way to apply it. 

There are numerous different variables you can manipulate in order to apply progressive overload. However, for simplicity to grasp and ease of implementation, I will supply you with one way here.

Increase the amount of weight that you select for that exercise from one week to the next.

Ex. 

Week 1 - Barbell Back Squats 3 x 6 at 150lbs

Week 2 – Barbell Back Squats 3 x 6 at 155lbs

Increase the amount of volume that you do for that exercise from one week to the next.

Ex. 

Week 1 – Barbell Back Squats 3 x 10 at 150lbs (30 reps total)

Decrease the rest time between sets from one week to the next.

Ex. 

Week 1 – Barbell Back Squats 3 x 12 at 150lbs with 1 min rest between sets

Week 2 – Barbell Back Squats 3 x 12 at 150lbs with 55 sec rest between sets

If you’re experiencing a plateau with your fitness results, and you feel like you’re consistently adhering to your plan, it’s likely because you’re not applying progressive overload.

Find a way to provide your body with increased demand as you go from week to week.

Find a way to appropriately – meaning slightly, not dramatically – increase the challenge you’re placing on yourself.

The one difficulty with progressive overload is it takes extra work.

It takes work to track how much weight you’re using, how many sets you’re doing, and how long your rest times are.

If you have a Master Fitness Trainer, he or she can assist in doing all of this for you safely and effectively.

This is exactly what we do in our 10-Week Transformation.

We ensure that you both adhere to your plan consistently and that you’re applying progressive overload.

You will prevent plateaus and reach your fitness goals if you stick to your plan consistently and gradually increase the demand you're placing on your body.

Here’s to not plateauing.

To being the best you’ve ever been and the worst you’ll ever be.