Rules of Iron: Progressive Overload

The concept of progressive overload is quite simple:

In your weight training – and especially with your top-tier exercises – you should always seek to add weight.

This is especially true as you begin your weight training experience, or if you’re returning after a long layoff.

Each week, add a few pounds or more to your lifts. Continue doing this week after week until you can’t do it anymore. When this happens, you’ve reached the end of your beginner training phase. You’ve picked the low-hanging fruit, and you will now need to start looking into more serious training methods and variations to maximize your strength gains.

You may also at this point have reached the strength goals you wished to achieve and can continue lifting at this same level, maintaining a fairly high level of strength as the years roll on.

This is why the top-tier exercises are called such. They are the only exercises that can really accommodate long-term progressive overload. None of the other exercises, perhaps with the exception of leg press and some other leg machine exercises, can be loaded and progressed at a steady rate like the top-tier exercises.

Keep a training journal. Log your progress. You can record either your maximum lift (1RM) or the weight that you are using for your standard 3 to 5 sets of between 5 and twelve reps.

An Excel spreadsheet with a simple chart in it that shows you going from a 150 lb. squat to a 300 lb. squat over the course of 6 or 9 months is impressive and confidence boosting.