• Progressive Overload

    by Alexander Becker on December 27, 2006 | Link

    Add more, adapt, then add some more. Repeat.

    ... that which is used develops, and that which is not used wastes away. Hippocrates

    In order to improve strength, endurance and overall performance, you must apply more resistance than you are accustomed to. Overload stimulates the natural healing processes of the human body to regenerate in order to become bigger, stronger, or faster than it was before.

    The same way an addiction is served with ever more of the stuff you depend on, it happens to work with training and adaptation to consistent loads and demands. In order to satisfy the hunger, to maintain tension and to stay interested, the load has to continually increase. The challenge may be the hardest in the world, yet when conquered once, on second encounter it couldn't be any easier. Without an increase in the difficulty, in quality, quantity, or potential reward of the respective task, the only aspect to train is the patience of doing the same thing again. But you want more.

    Now, for a given load to become noteworthy, it has to be somewhat heavy. Only to the point where it is still possible to lift it, after all. A challenge within theoretical reach. The overload has to be significant, yet manageable. Here comes the progressive part. What about simply doubling the load on each and every try? Apart from being within at least theoretical reach, the progression itself has to be somewhat sensible. A continuous progression does not consist of leaps, think more of it in terms of gradation.

    Progressive overload is ever increasing tolerance, you can bear only so much -- at any one time -- but next time, confronted with just a little bit more, you begin to feel that you are capable of more and more.

    • The core of progressive overload is resistance and resistance vs. resistance, the one and most basic requirement is the willingness -- maybe the instinct -- to resist.
    • The objective of progressive overload is expanding the comfort zone, continuously expanding the zone through challenge and active resistance.
    • The result of progressive overload is stretching perceived and physical limits to a point beyond relative limits.

    Progressive overload and the manipulation of thresholds is the essence of training, of improvement, it is meta-training, be it physical or mental, even spiritual development, the key is progress, progression and gradual but ever increasing challenge.

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