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Progressive overload is a method of

strength training Strength training or resistance training involves the performance of physical exercises that are designed to improve strength and endurance. It is often associated with the lifting of weights. It can also incorporate a variety of training te ...

that advocates for the gradual increase of the stress placed upon the

musculoskeletal The human musculoskeletal system (also known as the human locomotor system, and previously the activity system) is an organ system that gives humans the ability to move using their muscular and skeletal systems. The musculoskeletal system prov ...

and

nervous system In Biology, biology, the nervous system is the Complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its Behavior, actions and Sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its ...

. The principle of progressive overload suggests that the continual increase in the total workload during training sessions will stimulate muscle growth and strength gain. This improvement in overall performance will, in turn, allow the athlete to keep increasing the intensity of their training sessions.

History

The method was developed by Thomas Delorme, M.D. while he rehabilitated soldiers after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. At the time, most medical doctors believed that weightlifting should be shunned because any type of extreme effort was not desirable for the heart. However, Dr. Thomas Delorme had been active in weight lifting for years and believed that it could have beneficial effects to rehabilitation. In 1944, Delorme was working at the

Gardiner General Hospital The Chicago Beach Hotel was a luxury resort hotel located at 1660 East Hyde Park Boulevard in the Indian Village neighborhood of the Kenwood community area of Chicago, Illinois. History The hotel was built in 1892 by Warren Leland and was ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, when he met Sergeant Thaddeus Kawalek, an old army veteran that was struggling with a knee injury. Coincidentally, Kawalek was also a weightlifter and he believed in Delorme's theory about the benefits of the sport. From there, Kawalek became Delorme's first patient in his alternative treatment. The results exceeded expectation. Kawalek recovered much faster than patients in similar conditions and regained full use of his knee. Today, the technique is recognized as a fundamental principle for success in various forms of

programs including

fitness training Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic s ...

, weight lifting, high intensity training and

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patie ...

programs.

Scientific principles

The goal of strength-training programs is to increase one’s

physical strength Physical strength is the measure of a human's exertion of force on physical objects. Increasing physical strength is the goal of strength training. Overview An individual's physical strength is determined by two factors: the cross-sectional are ...

and performance. This is achieved through resistance training. By placing the exercise musculature under greater-than-normal demand, the body will start a natural adaptation process, improving its capabilities to endure that higher amount of stress.

Neuromuscular A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction. Muscles require innervation to ...

adaptation will occur first, which will already increase the individual’s strength when lifting. With consistency in the training sessions, what will follow will be an increase in overall muscle mass and the strengthening of

connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops from the mesenchyme derived from the mesoderm the middle embryonic germ layer. Connective tissue ...

. Progressive overload not only stimulates

muscle hypertrophy Muscle hypertrophy or muscle building involves a hypertrophy or increase in size of skeletal muscle through a growth in size of its component cells. Two factors contribute to hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased ...

, but it also stimulates the development of stronger and denser bones, ligaments, tendons and cartilage. Progressive overload also incrementally increases blood flow to regions of the body exercised and stimulates more responsive nerve connections between the brain and the muscles involved. In fact, studies suggest that the increase in muscle contraction force, caused by resistance training, happens partially due to an increase in the responsiveness and efficacy of the neural system. According to recent studies, progressive overload may also be beneficial for the overall health of the individual since it is a good method to increase muscle strength, which was found to decrease the risk of all-cause mortality regardless of

muscle mass Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle ...

. Conversely, decreased use of the muscle results in incremental loss of mass and strength, known as

muscular atrophy Muscle atrophy is the loss of skeletal muscle mass. It can be caused by immobility, aging, malnutrition, medications, or a wide range of injuries or diseases that impact the musculoskeletal or nervous system. Muscle atrophy leads to muscle weaknes ...

(see

atrophy Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include mutations (which can destroy the gene to build up the organ), poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply ...

and

muscle atrophy Muscle atrophy is the loss of skeletal muscle mass. It can be caused by immobility, aging, malnutrition, medications, or a wide range of injuries or diseases that impact the musculoskeletal or nervous system. Muscle atrophy leads to muscle weakness ...

). Sedentary people often lose a pound or more of muscle annually. The loss of 10 pounds of muscle per decade is one consequence of a

sedentary lifestyle Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...

. The adaptive processes of the human body will only respond if continually called upon to exert greater force to meet higher physiological demands.

Methodology

In order to minimize injury and maximize results, the novice begins at a comfortable level of muscular intensity and advances towards overload of the muscles over the course of the exercise program. Progressive overload requires a gradual increase in volume, intensity, frequency or time in order to achieve the targeted goal of the user. In this context, volume and intensity are defined as follows: * Volume is the total number of repetitions multiplied by the resistance (weight) used to perform each repetition. * Intensity is the percent value of maximal functional capacity, or expressed as percent repetition maximum. *Frequency is how often a person engages in training activities. Strongly related to training consistency. *Interval duration is the time in between sets of same exercise or between different exercises. This technique results in greater gains in physical strength and muscular growth, but there are limits. An excess of training stimuli can lead to the problem of overtraining. Overtraining is the decline in training performance over the course of a training program, often accompanied by an increased risk of illness or injury or a decreased desire to exercise. To help avoid this problem, the technique of

periodization In historiography, periodization is the process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named blocks of time for the purpose of study or analysis.Adam Rabinowitz. It's about time: historical periodization and Linked Ancie ...

is applied. Periodization in the context of fitness or strength training programs means scheduling for adequate recovery time between training sessions, and for variety over the course of a long-term program. Motivation can be maintained by avoiding the monotony of repeating identical exercise routines.

Example

Through experimentation, the athlete should learn what is the maximum number of repetitions he or she can perform, while maintaining good posture, at a specific weight. For example, if they can do 8 repetitions of the

bench press The bench press, or chest press, is a weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. Although the bench press is a full-body exercise, the muscles primarily used are the pectoralis ...

exercise with 50 kg, that will be the baseline. From that point on, the athlete should focus on improving one of the categories mentioned in the methodology section: volume, intensity , frequency, or interval duration. In this example, the athlete could do the same number of repetitions but with 52 kg. Eventually, through the body's natural adaptation process, an increase in strength and

will allow the subject to continue increasing the weight.

History

Scientific principles

Methodology

Example

References

Further reading