How does progressive overload ACTUALLY work?

[brianlee3271]

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

 

[ladayer]

@brianlee3271 I don't think any of that matters all that much, progress was likely slow because you were in a calorie deficit

 

[dawn16]

@ladayer This. Unless you started as a member of the Hutt species, it’s hard to make much progress in a deficit.

 

[brianlee3271]

@ladayer Yeah fair enough, I also think not doing deloads was bad. To be clear I’m not unhappy with my progress, I’m just a bit concerned that my progress was just the result of me being a beginner, and “my luck” will run out

 

[swinswin]

@brianlee3271 I’m gonna be honest I don’t think deloads are at all necessary when you’re benching 135 lbs, it’s not really enough to really tax your tendons or nervous system that much. What’s your measurements?

 

[brianlee3271]

@swinswin I’m 6’2 185lbs at like 15% BF. I don’t always bench at that weight, I just do lower weight and more reps when I’m cutting. Having said that when I do 1RM it’s about 200lbs (gotta love long arms haha), so even then it’s not like I’m putting crazy fatigue on my body.

Still it’s probably best to take a week every few months to chill out, especially because I have physical hobbies outside of lifting, though I don’t know the extent of impact on my body from them.

I’m not in it to become a bodybuilder or anything, just asking some questions to make sure I’m not spinning in circles

 

[swinswin]

@brianlee3271 I’m gonna be honest chief I find it hard to believe a 6’2 185 lbs man at 15% bf couldn’t bench 135 lbs for at least 20 reps. Something seems off here. Cut or not you should be way past that level at your stats. Gotta push the intensity

 

[brianlee3271]

@swinswin Well I guess I’m an anomaly . To be fair I have only been lifting for just over a year, and when I bench it’s controlled decent, I don’t just do limited range and super quick reps. I mean according to an online calculator 135lbs at 12 reps would mean a 1RM of 193, which is very close to mine last time I checked (I haven’t 1RM in over 4 months). Also I’m just weak at bench (probably just weak in general haha), as in my first time benching 15 months ago at 210lbs body weight I couldn’t get 135lbs for 1 rep.

Also I know you harbor no ill will with your comment, maybe I do potentially have an issue with intensity, though I doubt it. I have no issue with my bench numbers, but they definitely have room for improvement

 

[bambamikesell]

@swinswin Let's not forget that we all started at some point, you're not benching 135 for 20 reps when you just started the gym. Social medias bend our perception of what's normal, and a newby that never did physical exercise in his life isn't going to bench 135. You see people starting there but they previously did others sports since they were kids, they spent years to building muscle in other ways. When you never did any exercise before there is just no muscles underneath you start from basically 0.

I started going to the gym 2 years ago (at 28), never did any physical activity in my life, I may be 182 cm and 80 kg but I couldn't bench press 30 kg for more than 10 reps. There was just no muscle to do the job. I'm now benching 65 kg for 6-8 reps and it's no easy.

 

[swinswin]

@bambamikesell He said he’s been lifting over a year and I just can’t see how you’d be 185 lbs at 15% bf and not have a decent amount of muscle. The math doesn’t really work if you don’t

 

[rico71601]

@swinswin I’m 6’2 190lbs around 15%bf maybe 16-17%.

I bench around 135 for 3 sets of 12. Could go a little heavier but no spotter.

I’ve been lifting for a few years mostly in a cut.

I also have really long arms and a shoulder injury(permanent).

For context I can deadlift 405lbs. I’m just a horrible body type for benching, I do my form strictly for hypertrophy, and have a minor injury.

So him lifting 135 is very believable to me

 

[zach2]

@rico71601 Agreed, 32m 6'1, 180-190lbs also 13-17% bf and after a few months of lifting, benching 160 for at most 10 reps after 1.5 years working out, when i started i could barely do 8 reps of 135 even though i've been lifting on and off since high school. For reference, I could dumbell curl 45's one hand for 8 good reps and 10 rep lat pulldown at180lbs at the same time as barely benching 135.

 

[rico71601]

@zach2 The wacky thing for me is I can DB Bench 80 in each hand. So I can bench more for the same reps on a harder lift.

 

[brianlee3271]

@rico71601 Bro you basically just described me haha. Yeah another factor is I’ve had bad mountain bike crashes on my shoulders (as in my one shoulder now sits higher than the other) so that’s a factor to with bench. Most taller people just don’t have great proportions for benching, although of course there are exceptions.

I also think some commenters underestimate the factor height plays in terms of weight. 6’2 185lbs is going to look dramatically different than 5’9 185lbs at the same BF. People hear 185lbs at around 15% BF and think I should be absolutely jacked throwing around crazy weight on bench, and for me at least that isn’t the case

 

[rico71601]

@brianlee3271 Ceedee Lamb is 6’2 200lbs, visually 12% bf or so. I use him as a reference for myself and others. He’s obviously jacked as an NFL wide receiver, but he also looks pretty lanky at that weight too.

 

[thirddayguy]

@brianlee3271 Beginner gains aren’t on a time limit, they are just the amount of strength/muscle a beginner can gain before they start plateauing. You could have them for 6 months, a year, two years.

 

[aquilo]

@brianlee3271 Deloads save you from injury and let your tendons recover. They are not really boosting your gains.

 

[kvolm]

@brianlee3271 You actually had the right idea to begin with. Training hard with a constant RIR and just going hard for more reps week over week then increasing weight when you hit a rep target is a perfectly viable strategy for progressive overload.

You likely didn’t need a deload because the weights you were moving in your first year of lifting just aren’t heavy enough to create all that much fatigue. You don’t need to pre-plan deloads, take one when you feel like you need one.

Something you need to learn is that people have tons of different ideas about how to train properly when it comes to volume, RIR/intensity, frequency, etc. Many of these approaches are viable, there isn’t one BEST way to train. It’s just a matter of finding what works for you.

 

[brianlee3271]

@kvolm Appreciate it. I only deloaded this week due do some slight diet fatigue and transitioning to a bulk. And yeah I generally structure my programs to be in higher rep ranges, so I almost never doing 1 rep maxes, therefore not getting crazy fatigue. Nice to know I got the right idea even with a misunderstanding of the system itself

 

[pinetowntree]

@brianlee3271 These are made up numbers, but it's illustrating a point:

Let's say there's a range of intensity 100/100 being the hardest effort you could possibly do at this time. 70/100 to 100/100 will trigger a response from your body, "hey, we're being asked to do this hard thing, let's adapt so we can get through it in the future. 25/100, your body won't even notice you're training. Your body won't perceive that you're doing something hard so it won't make any changes because it's economical.

On the other hand, if all your efforts are 95/100 to 100/100, however, you will get so tired, fatigued, and sore within the workout, and in the days after, that your ability to get enough training volume will be limited. Your body gets a stronger fitness signal to adapt when you do 10 sets at 82/100, than 1 set at 100/100.

So, you're basically conceptualizing training incorrectly. You don't "progressively overload" by adding weight to the bar. You progress by getting a good training effect by doing enough training in a productive intensity zone.