brianlee3271
New member
I’m trying to understand how progressive overload actually works.
For context I’ve been lifting for just over a year now, majority of that time spent in a calorie deficit. To give a general idea for you guys over the past year I’ve tracked my lifts, and clearly I’ve “progressively overloaded”, but looking back I didn’t necessarily approach it in the proper way. Basically for most of my lifts I would do 3 sets, leave 1 rep in the tank for Set 1 and 2, then go to failure on the last set. Initially this doesn’t sound bad, but every workout was spent going as hard as possible, and I never considered taking deload periods until now. For example for bench press my last workout was this:
135lbs x 12 reps (1RIR)
135lbs x 9 reps (1RIR)
135lbs x 7 reps (failure)
Basically most of my training has followed this approach and although I’ve progressed (for example 1 year ago at 30 pounds bodyweight heavier my bench was 95lbs x 8 reps then to 7 then to 4), progress is slow and it seems not ideal.
I’ve now done some research and found that it’s best to deload and not put near max effort every time in the gym, but I’m finding this hard to process. I’ve also found conflicting information, and I don’t understand how to balance progressing while not overtraining.
Based on what I’ve seen for my next workout I should do 8 reps across the board, then the week after 9 reps, and so on until I get 12 reps for each set, at which point I would increase weight. During this time too I would have a deload week when I am lifting significantly less to give my muscles a break.
To me this seems counterintuitive, since I’m doing less volume on a workout plan where I don’t have “excess” volume. Also if I’m not going to or near failure until the last set, how am I progressing? I understand the principle of maxing out a rep range then adding weight and repeating, but I don’t get the concept of majority of my sets being relatively far from failure. Is it possible I just have a warped view of lifting, and just don’t understand how building muscle / strength actually works?
If anyone can elaborate / show me their general guide for progressive overloading bench (or any exercise bench is just an example) that would be great. I can’t seem to make sense of what I am seeing online, and how to apply it for myself. I feel like I just don’t understand how to workout properly, and have only gotten this far by going hard, having decent form, and being a beginner.
Edit: I’ve gotten some great comments explaining progressive overload to me. It seems like there’s lots of types of overloading, I was just doing a different method of it, but didn’t fully understand the why of it until now. I’ve pretty much gotten the answers I needed
For context I’ve been lifting for just over a year now, majority of that time spent in a calorie deficit. To give a general idea for you guys over the past year I’ve tracked my lifts, and clearly I’ve “progressively overloaded”, but looking back I didn’t necessarily approach it in the proper way. Basically for most of my lifts I would do 3 sets, leave 1 rep in the tank for Set 1 and 2, then go to failure on the last set. Initially this doesn’t sound bad, but every workout was spent going as hard as possible, and I never considered taking deload periods until now. For example for bench press my last workout was this:
135lbs x 12 reps (1RIR)
135lbs x 9 reps (1RIR)
135lbs x 7 reps (failure)
Basically most of my training has followed this approach and although I’ve progressed (for example 1 year ago at 30 pounds bodyweight heavier my bench was 95lbs x 8 reps then to 7 then to 4), progress is slow and it seems not ideal.
I’ve now done some research and found that it’s best to deload and not put near max effort every time in the gym, but I’m finding this hard to process. I’ve also found conflicting information, and I don’t understand how to balance progressing while not overtraining.
Based on what I’ve seen for my next workout I should do 8 reps across the board, then the week after 9 reps, and so on until I get 12 reps for each set, at which point I would increase weight. During this time too I would have a deload week when I am lifting significantly less to give my muscles a break.
To me this seems counterintuitive, since I’m doing less volume on a workout plan where I don’t have “excess” volume. Also if I’m not going to or near failure until the last set, how am I progressing? I understand the principle of maxing out a rep range then adding weight and repeating, but I don’t get the concept of majority of my sets being relatively far from failure. Is it possible I just have a warped view of lifting, and just don’t understand how building muscle / strength actually works?
If anyone can elaborate / show me their general guide for progressive overloading bench (or any exercise bench is just an example) that would be great. I can’t seem to make sense of what I am seeing online, and how to apply it for myself. I feel like I just don’t understand how to workout properly, and have only gotten this far by going hard, having decent form, and being a beginner.
Edit: I’ve gotten some great comments explaining progressive overload to me. It seems like there’s lots of types of overloading, I was just doing a different method of it, but didn’t fully understand the why of it until now. I’ve pretty much gotten the answers I needed