Once your technique is in place, the next question arises: How do I actually get stronger? The answer is progressive overload, and it's about far more than just adding weight to the bar. Here, Thilde Maarbjerg explains how to create development systematically, and how to know your training is hard enough.
The body only adapts when it's challenged
The basic principle is simple: the body only gets stronger if it's faced with a need to be stronger. If you keep doing the same number of reps with the same weight, the body soon stops adapting, and progress stalls.
You have to keep challenging it, and that's exactly what progressive overload is about.
There's more than one path than just more weight
More weight is far from the only way. You can also add repetitions, add more sets, train a little more often, or slow down the tempo of your reps. Every path has the same purpose: to make the body stronger and set off the development you're after.
Development should also be seen in a broader light. With age, the body becomes slower to develop and recover, and at a certain point in life, maintaining muscle mass is itself a progression. That's important to keep in mind, so you don't beat yourself up when the curve flattens. We always make the most progress at the start, and after that the curve naturally becomes a little flatter. It doesn't mean you're not improving, it's simply a law of nature.
Get close enough to failure
Newer research shows you can build muscle mass at anything from 5 to 30 reps. What matters is getting close enough to failure, meaning the point where you can't do any more.
There are three physical signs you can look for to know whether you're close enough:
An involuntary drop in tempo. You try to keep the pace, but it slows down no matter how hard you try. In most cases, that's sign enough to end the set.
Your form breaks down. You can't maintain the quality of execution you started with.
Loss of full range of motion. You can no longer complete the full movement you began with.
It's not about how heavy the weight feels, but whether your body has just barely enough capacity to manage it. That's how hard it should be.
A strategic model for progression
One concrete way to work: Find a weight you can lift just about 10 times, where one of the three signs of failure appears around the 9th or 10th rep. You stick with that weight in the following sessions until you can do 12 reps before the signs appear.
Once you can do those 12 reps fairly safely, you add more weight and go back to 10. From there you work your way up to 12 again with the new weight. This way you progress by alternating between weight and reps, rather than focusing on just one. It's a strategic way to plan your progressive overload.
Measure it, so you can see it working
If you've decided to invest time in training, you naturally want it to work. Beyond technique, progressive overload is what lets you measure and systematize how you're getting stronger over time.
Thilde's tips for your progressive overload
Progress on several elements. Alternate between adding a little weight and adding reps, rather than focusing on just one.
Train close enough to failure. Use the three physical signs to judge whether your training is genuinely hard enough.
Keep a logbook. Note your weight and reps so you can track your progress. It shows you in black and white that you're getting stronger, not just feeling stronger.
