Progressive Overload: The Key to Continuous Fitness Gains

If you’ve been keeping up with our MOX Fitness blog, you know that acute training variables are the keys to customising workouts that hit your fitness goals—whether it’s building muscle, increasing endurance, or simply feeling strong and energised. But how do we ensure that all our hard work translates into consistent, long-term progress? Enter the principle of progressive overload.

What Is Progressive Overload?

Progressive overload is the backbone of effective training. It’s the concept of gradually increasing the demands placed on your body over time to make it stronger, more powerful, and more resilient. In simpler terms, if you keep lifting the same weight, running the same distance, or doing the same number of repetitions, your body will plateau.

To keep improving, you need to keep challenging yourself in new ways.

Progressive overload works because the body adapts to stress. If the intensity stays the same, your body has no reason to get stronger, faster, or fitter. By slightly increasing the load, duration, or intensity of your workouts, you stimulate adaptation and continue to grow.

How to Apply Progressive Overload in Different Workouts

Here’s how you can incorporate progressive overload into your routine, whether you’re strength training, working on cardio, or even mastering sport-specific skills.

1. Strength Training

For strength training, progressive overload can be applied in several ways:

Increase the Weight: If you’re lifting dumbbells for squats and feel like you can comfortably complete 12 reps, try moving up to a heavier weight. For example, if you’ve been squatting with 15 kg, increase to 17.5 kg.
Add More Reps or Sets: If you’re working on muscle endurance, try adding another set or performing one or two more reps each week.
Reduce Rest Time: Shortening your rest periods between sets can make a workout more challenging and keep your muscles engaged.

Example: Imagine you’ve been doing three sets of 10 reps of bench presses at 30 kg. To apply progressive overload:

Week 1: 30 kg, 3 sets of 10 reps
Week 2: 32.5 kg, 3 sets of 10 reps
Week 3: Keep the weight but increase to 12 reps per set
Week 4: Increase weight to 35 kg and drop reps back to 8-10

2. Cardiovascular Training

For improving cardiovascular endurance, progressive overload is just as essential:

Increase the Duration: If you run for 20 minutes, try bumping it up by a couple of minutes each week.
Increase the Intensity: Add intervals of higher intensity, such as running at a faster pace or incorporating hill sprints.
Reduce Recovery Time: Shorten your walking or light jogging recovery periods between intervals.

Example: If your goal is to run longer distances:

Week 1: Run for 20 minutes at a steady pace
Week 2: Run for 22 minutes
Week 3: Run for 20 minutes but include two 1-minute bursts of sprinting
Week 4: Run for 25 minutes, mixing steady pace and intervals

Key Tips for Effective Progressive Overload

Be Consistent but Patient: Changes don’t need to be drastic. A 5-10% increase in weight, duration, or other changes in training variables each week is enough to stimulate growth.
Track Your Progress: Keeping a workout journal can be a game changer. Note your weights, reps, and how you feel after each session. There are countless apps to help you with this too. At Mox Fitness we like Fitbod, for example.
Listen to Your Body: It’s normal to feel challenged, but you should never feel pain or extreme fatigue. Recovery is part of the process!

Final Thoughts

Applying progressive overload can take your workouts from good to extraordinary. Whether you’re a strength training enthusiast, or a runner aiming for a new personal best, gradual and strategic increases will keep your body guessing and growing. So, push yourself a little more each week, celebrate those small wins, and keep your eyes on the prize.

Progress, after all, is just a series of tiny steps forward!