Progressive overload is a workout principle that involves regularly challenging the body to improve fitness levels. While it was originally applied to resistance or strength training, a progressive overload workout plan is just as applicable to cardiovascular and endurance training, such as running and cycling, and most exercise modalities. It’s about gradually increasing training difficulty through the number of repetitions, resistance, distance, or time to avoid plateaus in performance and muscle growth.

Progressive overload workout plans are effective because they prevent the body from being stuck in the comfort zone, allowing you to achieve your body transformation goals sooner. The incremental changes in the demands of a training session enable the body to adapt, practise good form, and work up to a fitness milestone, minimising fatigue and the potential risk of injury.

To reap the benefits of progressive overload, it is crucial to follow personalised workout plans. There’s a right time and a correct way to increase training difficulty. At Alchemy Personal Training in Wilmslow, we customise progressive overload workout plans based on every client’s fitness goal and current fitness levels. Our personal trainers guide you on how and when to modify your workout to deliver desired results in a safe, efficient, and healthy way.

5 Components of a Progressive Overload Workout Plan

1. Form

To ensure exercise safety, our expert coaches will teach and guide you to perfect your form, making progressive overload workout plans ideal for beginners. Our primary focus is to build strength and endurance by improving your exercise technique and range of movement. For instance, we can start you off with a pushup on your knees before making you do one on your toes and progressing to a compound movement such as a burpee.

2. Intensity

Raising the exercise intensity is all about conditioning your body’s capacity to do or handle more work with less effort. A progressive overload workout plan for resistance training involves increasing the weight you lift when performing an exercise such as a weighted squat. As for cardiovascular training, it’s being able to accomplish an exercise faster, like running a certain distance for a shorter amount of time or increasing the elevation of your treadmill.

3. Volume

In progressive overload workout plans, volume refers to the increase in the number of reps and or sets of exercises. For instance, if you’re already comfortable doing 3 sets of 10 reps while lifting 10-kilogram weights for bicep curls, you can maintain the same weight and the number of sets but push yourself to do 12 reps instead of 10. In the same way, you’d add more reps to a cardio training session. For example, doing more jumping jacks or going longer distances.

4. Density

Density is the ratio of rest and work periods. Progressive overload workout plans involve increasing the amount of time spent performing exercises and shortening rest periods in between exercises, like going from a 30 - 30 second work-to-rest period to a 40 - 20 second rest period. It could also mean extending the duration of your training sessions, allotting 45 minutes of your day to exercise instead of just 30 minutes.

5. Frequency

Frequency is the number of training sessions you have at any given time. A progressive overload workout plan for frequency could simply mean adding a training session to your weekly routine. For instance, you could complete 3 workouts weekly for the first 2 weeks and then move up to 4 workouts weekly for the next 2 weeks, and so on. At Alchemy, we factor in strategic rest periods in determining the ideal frequency of workouts per week to maximise muscle recovery and growth and give the body enough time to adapt and master exercise techniques.

5 Benefits of Progressive Overload Workout Plans

1. Increases Muscle Mass and Strength

Progressive overload workout plans were first proven effective for resistance training. By increasing the intensity of training sessions and volume of exercises, you gain strength as you empower muscles to exert more effort to lift a heavier weight. You grow more muscles to support the amount of work you’re doing.

2. Raises Aerobic Threshold

Progressive overload workout plans raise your aerobic threshold, which is crucial for cardio or endurance training. Your aerobic threshold is your ability to perform a high-intensity exercise at a certain speed and heart rate before needing to slow down and catch your breath.

3. Reinforces Physical Stability

Besides strengthening muscles, including your heart, progressive overload workout plans support bone structure. Tendons surrounding the bone and ligaments connecting bones also get stronger as they adapt to increased physical loads. We improve our stability, balance, and coordination as we master different exercise techniques that allow us to move fluidly.

4. Prevents Workout Plateau and Injury

Since our bodies are consistently challenged at a sustainable pace, progressive overload workout plans prevent exercises from becoming too easy and losing their effectiveness. We also lessen the risk of injury as we practise proper exercise form before progressing to a more advanced workout.

5. Boosts Motivation

Progressive overload workout plans boost motivation every time we encounter a fitness milestone or beat a personal record. We feel a sense of accomplishment as we surpass challenges and see desirable results on our body.

Final Thoughts on Progressive Overload Workout Plans

Progressive overload workout plans are effective when you know how and when to modify the difficulty of your exercises. It’s about making gradual and incremental changes in your workout routine to keep it challenging and ensure sustainable progress in fitness. Contrary to forcing your body to overexert itself to perform exercises it is not ready for, leading to strain, burnout, or injury.

At Alchemy Personal Training, we provide clients with progressive overload workout plans tailored to their fitness goals. Our personal trainers will work with you to increase your fitness levels, progressively overloading your training sessions based on your exercise metrics.