4 Factors to Use Progressive Overload in Workouts to Build Muscle

REAL MUSCLE GROWTH is intentional. Serious size doesn’t simply appear when you hit your protein goal if you’re just cruising through your workouts without following a plan. You need to push yourself to make significant change.

Your body is efficient, and muscle needs a reason to grow—it’s not going to waste resources generating new tissue if it doesn’t need to. To pack on serious mass, you need to place your muscles under progressively more challenging stimuli, forcing adaptation.

Simply put: Your workouts need to be challenging from one to the next, introducing some additional factor of difficulty for your muscles to overcome. That concept is called progressive overload, and you won’t build the physique you want without it. Here are a few ways you can apply it to your workouts.

Lift Heavier Weights

There’s a reason you don’t see everyone curling the same 15 pound dumbbell they started out with their first time in the gym. The more you train, the more your muscles adapt to become suited to moving the weights you use. The more weight you use, the more they’ll need to grow to be able to handle the increased stimulus.

This doesn’t mean that you can just slap three plates on a barbell and make gains—you’ve got to work up to heavier weights. To do that, apply the two-for-two rule: If you’re able to crush two extra reps at the end of your last set with perfect form for two weeks in a row, you’re ready to increase your weight the next time you lift. Once you get there, try adding on 2.5 to 5 pounds for an upper body lift, and 5 to 10 pounds for a lower body lift.

Increase Time Under Tension

The longer your muscles are subjected to that growth-inducing stimulus, the more effective the workout. This is called time under tension. For example, if you have 10 reps in your set of biceps curls and you perform at a normal, constant pace, you might work your target muscle for about 10 seconds. To increase that time, slow down your reps. This is called tempo, and it’s just another factor in your muscle-building toolkit.

Pace yourself as you lower the weight down, counting to three each time. That will increase your time spent under growth stimulus to about 30 seconds. Focus on slowing down the eccentric, or lowering, portion of the movement—where the mechanical demand on the muscle is higher.

Level Up the Difficulty of Your Exercises

Been crushing your pushups recently? Try attacking an archer pushup next.

Changing up the demand to joint range of motion and muscular emphasis will allow you to further progress the challenge of your workouts. There’s also a neurological challenge at play here; as you learn how to do the new movement, your brain and body are working together to make neuromuscular adaptations to make the task easier. Pick a more difficult exercise to layer into your routine once you’ve got the basics down.

Increase Your Work Volume

Ever get through your sets and feel like you have more left in the tank? You can also add more reps to your training as a means of progressive overload. But you shouldn’t just tack on an extra set by feel to burn out the muscle—you’ll be at risk of adding junk volume to your workout (reps that aren’t useful for your intended goal), which can cost you in the long run. Instead, consider adding on a dropset for smart progression.

Let’s keep the biceps curl example. After you complete your last set of 10 reps, try dropping the weight in half and squeezing out 5 to 6 more reps. This will give you the stimulus to push your muscles to fatigue, while minimizing the risk of injury that might come by adding in more reps at your regular working weight.

Want to know more about building real muscle? Check out the MH Ultimate Guide to Muscle-Building, which features the advice, exercises, and training plans you need to achieve your goals.