![]() ![]() Muscle hypertrophy is more than just muscle growth. You'll still be fitter than the average person, but that's not what weight training is all about, is it? If your primary objective is to build muscle, the goal of your training program should be hypertrophy. But if you follow the exact same workout routine, with the same amount of weight, number of sets, number of reps, and number of training sessions per week, of course, your body will adapt and stop building muscle. Related: 5 Training Methods to help you break through a weight training plateauīeginners often reach a plateau after months of increasing muscle size. With progressive overload, you can break through, or even prevent, plateauing while increasing muscle mass and reaching your fitness goals. This means that your body has adapted to the type of exercises you’re doing. When the compound exercises you're using to build a major muscle group stop yielding gains at a certain weight for a certain number of reps for three or four weeks, you've plateaued. A plateau is when you get stuck in a rut, so to speak. However, cardiovascular fitness buffs, especially those training for high-intensity sports like football and tennis, understand the overload principle for increasing their muscular endurance.īy changing up your workouts and adding additional tension to your muscles, you can avoid plateauing. It is almost exclusively a weightlifting concept. This promotes muscle growth and strengthens your musculoskeletal system in general. Progressive overload is when you gradually add heavier weights, increase your training frequency, and/or increase the number of repetitions in your strength training routine. And, If you are serious about building muscle and strength, this bodybuilding term and training concept is one that you must become friends with. If you hang about the gym long enough, you will undoubtedly come across this term. ![]() Prioritize what's important to you.The principle of progressive overload is probably familiar to you, but just not by that name. The techniques you use should be in line with your fitness goals. While factors such as increasing total volume will be important to a bodybuilder, decreasing the rest time between sets and increasing repetitions may be more beneficial for endurance athletes or individuals concerned with muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness rather than gains in strength and power. Likewise, individuals interested in increasing muscle endurance may find that higher repetitions combined with increases in reps, not load, is better suited for their activities. If you're looking to focus on strength, increasing the load may be a more favorable option than simply doing more reps. Of course, this is all assuming you're interested in building muscle (staying with the 8- to 12-rep range, which is optimal for hypertrophy). As adaptation eventually occurs, and surely it will, it's good to know you have some options available, especially if simply putting more weight on the bar just doesn't seem to work any longer. You can include any of these methods in your training, but it's best to focus on just one at a time. That's OK, because soon enough, you'll get stronger with that resistance and be able to repeat the cycle over again. 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. Probably the most obvious way to increase the demands you place on your muscles is to increase the load, or weight. Here are five important ways you can do just that. However, your biceps will become bigger and stronger if you place even greater demands on them. There's no reason for your biceps to grow larger or stronger they're already capable of handling the overload. If you continue performing that single set of 75 pounds for 8 repetitions, don't expect any further gains. As your biceps have adapted to the initial overload you introduced, where do you go now? Do you continue using the same load for the same number of repetitions, or are there changes you should consider making?
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