How can progressive overload be applied to interval training

They are definitely related, but increasing muscle size and increasing strength are not synonymous. To build strength, you need to train at progressively higher and higher percentages of your one rep max or 1RM , the greatest load you are able to move for one rep, Nelson says. An easy way to do this is by tweaking your rep and set scheme every six to eight weeks so that you are lifting more weight , but for fewer reps and more sets, he says.

For example, if you currently perform five sets of eight reps of the squat exercise , after six to eight weeks, switch to significantly heavier weights with a set and rep scheme such as five sets of five reps or 10 sets of three reps. No matter the set-up, you should just be able to eek out your last rep with proper form.

If you have more left in the tank, you need to go up in weight. Endurance is all about how long your muscles can work before giving out. When it comes to progressively overloading for this goal, you simply have to push your muscles to go for longer periods of time with each workout. Here are five important ways you can do just that. Probably the most obvious way to increase the demands you place on your muscles is to increase the load, or weight.

If 75 pounds is too easy when curling, try putting 5 pounds on each side of the bar—that should be more challenging! Remember, there's an inverse relationship between load and reps, so when you increase the weight, your reps are going to fall to some degree. That's OK, because soon enough, you'll get stronger with that resistance and be able to repeat the cycle over again.

You don't necessarily have to add weight; alternatively, as you get stronger, you can simply do more repetitions, which is considered another means of increasing the overload. Never stop a movement when you reach an arbitrary rep count; keep going until you can't complete any more on your own with good form. Exercise science indicates that to maximize your muscle-building efforts, the point at which you end your set should be in the 8- to rep range.

So you wouldn't want to indefinitely keep adding reps as you get stronger, because those incremental gains at some point would improve muscle endurance rather than muscle size. When you reach 12 reps or so, you should increase the resistance rather than simply trying to do more. Your reps will come down, but it'll keep you in that ideal range for hypertrophy.

Remember, doing additional reps by means of advanced training techniques, such as your partner helping your complete forced reps, counts too. This variable is another way to increase the overload.

Volume is simply sets multiplied by reps multiplied by resistance. By adding more sets either by doing more exercises or adding another set for your existing exercises , you're making progressively greater demands on your muscle tissue. Going back to our example of the squat, where you normally do 3 sets of 10 at 50kg, try doing 4 sets of 10, or 3 sets of reps. Increase in the number of training sessions Although this option may be harder to fit in, you can increase your load by training more, although you have to be careful not to over train.

If you have been resistance training 3 times a week for some time, increasing to 4 sessions will increase your overall training load. Change the rest interval Decreasing the rest interval between your sets will increase the intensity of your workout, making it more challenging. You can also try using supersets, where you perform 2 exercises back to back with little rest in between.

Variation of exercises during training is also important to consider, as different modes of exercises can add challenge to your workouts and avoid plateaus with common exercises.

Overall, the best way to go about progressive overload Is to use a mix all of the above strategies to get the best results. Need help with your resistance training programming or getting started with exercise?

Book in at Coast Sport by calling 02 or book online via the button below. Again our body is lazy and wants to create a state of balance homeostasis. The training stimulus leaves our muscles fatigued and our body out of balance. Our muscles subsequently have to recover from this fatigue to once again reach their baseline level of fitness.

The muscles recover further in order to reach a higher level of fitness than before the stimulus. This process is called adaptation or supercompensation.

This is crucial, because we see that training has to create a homeostatic disruption in order for our muscles to adapt and improve. Therefore muscle gain is all about presenting the right stimulus and letting the system recover from it in order to adapt. In order to do so, you do bicep curls with a barbell. You know that you can lift 30kg for 5 clean repetitions. But only choose to use 20kg for 3 repetitions, because you are lazy. Why not?