10- Understanding Progressive Overload

Episode Title: Understanding Progressive Overload 

Episode Summary: In this episode of the Milesfromherview podcast, we dive deep into the concept of progressive overload and how it can be viewed from two distinct perspectives. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just starting your fitness journey, understanding progressive overload is crucial for continual improvement and muscle growth.

Key Discussion Points:

1. Defining Progressive Overload:
   • Planned Process: Increasing or changing programming factors to add new stresses to muscles.
   • Natural Outcome: The natural result of well-designed programs and their execution.
   • Both approaches share the same goal: introducing more stress through different training factors to foster growth and improvement.
2. Key Factors for Progressive Overload:
   • Weight: Gradually increase the weight you're lifting.
   • Reps: Increase the number of repetitions.
   • Tempo: Slow down the lifting tempo to increase time under tension.
   • Volume: Add more sets to your routine.
3. Practical Guide to Progressive Overload:
   • Building a Base: Start by increasing your reps to establish a strong foundation.
   • Increasing Load: Once comfortable with your reps, increase the weight.
   • Adjusting Volume: Use the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) to gauge when to add more sets or reps.
   • Playing with Tempo: Experiment with slower tempos to enhance time under tension.
4. Implementing Progressive Overload in KatFit Strength:
   • Establish a routine with consistent strength training sessions (e.g., 2-3 times per week).
   • Monitor adaptations, which typically take 4-6 weeks.
   • Adjust reps, load, volume, and tempo one at a time to ensure proper progression and avoid overtraining.
5. Final Tips:
   • Consistency is key before tweaking variables.
   • Focus on one factor at a time to ensure sustainable progress.
   • Aim for a structured and disciplined approach to foster continuous improvement.

Episode Takeaways:

• Progressive overload is essential for muscle growth and athletic improvement.
• There are multiple ways to implement it, each tailored to your specific goals and current fitness level.
• Consistency and a well-planned approach are crucial for long-term success.

Listener Engagement: How do you incorporate progressive overload into your training? Share your experiences and questions with us! We'd love to hear from you and discuss how you're making strides in your fitness journey.

For more insights and personalized coaching tips, visit KatFit Strength and explore our programs designed to help you achieve your wellness goals.

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Transcript

Kat: 0:03

Welcome to miles from her view, the podcast, where we dive deep into the unfiltered reality of fitness, strength, training, and nutrition within womanhood and motherhood. I am your host, Kat founder of Kat Fit Strength. I'm a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, lifelong athlete, and a mom of two. In each episode, we explore the unique challenges and triumphs faced by women navigating the complexities of life from juggling family and career to prioritizing self care. We dissect the systems and the habits that shape our health and wellness. Join us for real stories, authentic advice, and genuine conversations as we empower each other to embrace our journeys and find strength in vulnerability. Welcome to another episode of miles from review powered by KatFit strength. I'm Kat your host today. We're diving into a topic that gets tossed around a lot in the fitness world, progressive overload. So you might've heard this term from me or other trainers, coaches, physical therapists, or bodybuilders. They all mention it, but what does it really mean? So today in this episode, we are going to break it down. Are you curious about KatFit Strength? Well, KatFit Strength is designed to help you achieve your fitness goals with confidence and clarity. Whether you're a busy mom juggling multiple responsibilities, a woman navigating unique challenges of prenatal, postpartum, or perimenopause, or an athlete looking to enhance your performance. KatFit strength has you cover. Let's get down to it. KatFit strength offers personalized programs tailored to your unique needs, goals, ensuring you get the most out of every workout. Expert guidance provided for you with the understanding of the importance of balancing strength, training, cardio, and mobility. Flexible workouts designed to fit into your busy schedule, whether you're at home or at the gym or on the go. So why choose calf fit strength? I believe in creating sustainable fitness habits that adapt to your lifestyle. I focus on helping you lift effectively, move better and feel stronger every day. Plus emphasis is on realistic goal setting, celebrating every win and helping you stay motivated and inspired. Progressive overload can be viewed in two ways. First, it's something that we program specifically for, where we increase or change the programming factors to add new stresses to our muscles. Second, it's something that naturally happens due to our program design and how we execute it. So one perspective is about a pre planned process. Well, the other is about an outcome. Both are valid and they share the same goal by introducing more stress through different training factors. So the common question is, what do I change first for progressive overload to continue to see that change? Should you increase weight, increase reps? Slow down the tempo or add a set. So this is a great question. And like most things in health and fitness, the answer is it depends. The key to understanding the logic behind the decision is focusing on hypertrophy, which is muscle growth. That's a stimulus that you're aiming for is to increase the muscle cell size to achieve this. There's really no harm in playing around a bit with it, you know, with volume and load. So here's how you approach it. First. You can increase the reps. First, start by increasing your reps to build your capacity for work. So you're really establishing that base. So how this looks for cafe strength. When a client comes in, I really work on building their base and increasing reps. with their exercises that they're doing. Number two, increasing the load. So once you're comfortable with a certain number of reps, you want to increase the load at the same amount of reps. So that's increasing the weight, the resistance, the load on the body. Then from there, you're going to adjust the volume. So when you use your rate of perceived exertion and when that drops at the given load and reps, so we've established the base with the reps. We're increasing the load. And now when that volume kind of decreases, when that RPE starts to feel easier, we wanna inc either increase the reps or add another set to drive up that volume. Okay. And then the last thing is playing around with temp. Tempo is the speed in which you are lifting. And we want to increase that time under tension. When we have a greater time under tension that's where we continue to drive hypertrophy. So after we increase the load and reps, You can experiment with tempo. Slowing down your tempo increases that time under tension. Again, that is a huge driving force behind hypertrophy. However, I encourage you that we really need to establish that base with this working with those reps, making sure you have a good rep base capacity. Then we increase that load and then we adjust the volume and then play with the tempo. Again, there's no black and white rule for how best to use progressive overload, but the main goal is to push your body to a point where the desired adaptation occurs. So choose one factor at a time to increase or change. And that's how you're going to go from there. So we're not going to adjust all of these play with one area and go from there. But I recommend that at first we get in on a routine and be consistent with that. You know, so what that might look like is maintaining two strength training sessions per week, getting consistent with that, or maybe three or one. Okay, looking at that first before we start playing with the variables. Typically, the adaptations take between four to six weeks. It's different for every person, but really with progressive overload and how I look at clients is before I start changing the stimulus is the increase of Reps, load, volume and tempo is I want to see that consistency first to make sure we have that good base and then from there we start to tweak things so that they are seeing that progressive overload that they are building muscle and seeing that adaptation and change over time. All right. So there you have it. It's just a practical guide to understanding how to apply progressive overload in your training. Remember, the goal is to continually challenge your body to foster growth and improvement. Thank you for joining me on another episode of miles from her view. Your support means the world to me, and I truly appreciate you being a part of our community. If you found today's episode helpful and want to stay informed about all things KatFit Strength, make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You'll receive exclusive insights, tips, and updates straight to your inbox. To sign up, simply visit the show notes or the subscription link. To discover more about KatFit Strength programs and how you can ignite your fitness journey, head over to our website at www. cat. fit. There you'll find everything you need. To invigorate your path to strength. Once again, thank you for tuning in and I can't wait to connect with you in our upcoming episodes. Take care and remember act to take the next step.