Does Progressive Overload Happen Automatically? — Transcript

Explores whether progressive overload happens automatically or requires force, focusing on sustainable hypertrophy training methods.

Key Takeaways

Progressive overload by adding reps can happen automatically with proper training structure.
Weight increases must be added thoughtfully and only when necessary to avoid injury and poor form.
Sustainable hypertrophy training requires balancing reps and weight increases.
Overemphasis on adding weight can be detrimental to long-term progress.
Training fundamentals are critical for effective progressive overload.

Summary

Progressive overload is often emphasized as something to be forced, but it can happen automatically under certain conditions.
Two main sustainable methods for progressive overload are increasing weight and increasing reps.
Adding reps happens automatically when training with a non-static rep range and using reps in reserve (RIR) approach.
Weight progression requires conscious effort and should be added only when necessary, not whenever possible.
Overemphasis on constantly adding weight can lead to sacrificing technique and training quality, resembling powerlifting rather than bodybuilding.
Proper hypertrophy training balances reps and weight increases to maintain technique and sustainable progress.
Training fundamentals must be in check for progressive overload to occur effectively.
Progressive overload is simple but often overcomplicated in the fitness industry.
The video advocates focusing on when to add weight or reps rather than blindly pushing for more weight.
Sustainability and long-term results depend on understanding and applying progressive overload properly.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

All right, so today's video is going to be on progressive overload and whether it happens by force or whether it happens automatically. So, I'm going to give my thoughts on how this stuff works with my experience, and let's get right into it. So, does

Speaker A

progressive overload happen automatically? I think that's something that we've all asked ourselves or have been wondering. And in general, the consensus answer from what I can tell through talking to people and seeing what people talk about online, there's a

Speaker A

gigantic emphasis on forcing progressive overload to happen. It is like the most talked about thing, and while it's important, I think we're viewing it incorrectly. And I'm going to give my thoughts on why and a solution for you

Speaker A

guys on how to view it properly and utilize progressive overload in a proper, sustainable way for long-term results. So, does progressive overload happen automatically? The short answer is it depends because there are multiple ways to progressively overload. The two main ways, in my opinion, that are

Speaker A

best for long-term sustainability are going to be increasing weight and increasing reps. So, when you're increasing weight, you're generally just going to be increasing your tonnage, which is really good for muscle growth. When you're increasing reps, it's a sign that you're getting

Speaker A

really good at that specific lift and you're getting stronger, and you can just have better endurance and your muscle is stronger. So, you add reps until you need to add the weight. So, it's kind of like a loop, and they both

Speaker A

go together to a degree. So, there are definitely other ways to progressively overload, which we're not going to get into today, but for the sake of my video, I'm going to stick to these two because I do think that they're the

Speaker A

most practical and the most sustainable. Obviously, you can overload with like rep speed or decreasing your RPE or whatnot, but those are just a little bit obscure. Not they're not useful, but they're a little bit obscure

Speaker A

and not going to be, in general, the primary ways to overload for hypertrophy. So, the first one I want to start with is reps. So, progressive overload by adding reps to your training, this does happen automatically. You can't

Speaker A

force it. So, as long as you're training with a non-static rep range, this will happen automatically. So, an example that I want to get into here is going to be just a static rep range like a 3x10 versus utilizing

Speaker A

something of more of like a RIR, so reps in reserve approach with like, say, an evolving rep range from natural hypertrophy or rep goal system from Steve Shaw, which is the way I actually train. So, if I'm utilizing a system where I don't

Speaker A

pre-select the amount of reps I'm going to do each set, it's up to me to judge when I hit that number on the reps in reserve to stop that set. If I got stronger week over week, let's say I'm doing a barbell curl with 100

Speaker A

pounds and I got 10 reps with one rep in the tank, and that's the way I trained. I just do one rep in the tank. Then the next time, if I got stronger, when I'm not necessarily that next session, but

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eventually, whether it's the next session, the session after that, or the next week or whatever, I will be hitting 11 but also with one rep in reserve. So, as long as I stick to my fundamental of that set

Speaker A

of leaving one rep in reserve, I will automatically do more reps that set. So, yes, this does happen automatically. You can't force it. You can't milk out another rep unless you cheat on your form or, yeah, I mean, that's pretty much what

Speaker A

you'd have to do. So, this does happen automatically. I don't really hear people talk about this, so that's why I want to emphasize that point here. The next example that I brought up today is going to be weight progression. So,

Speaker A

this is going to be the second example of progressive overload that we go over today. This is when the main focus of your training is to get stronger and add weight when you can. This will not happen automatically, but

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it is very, very simple. Once you reach a certain number of reps, which is how I suggest you train, you just need to add weight. It's not that hard. The weight isn't going to just automatically appear on the bar,

Speaker A

obviously, but all you have to do is just understand when to add weight and put the weight on the bar. That is all you have to do. Very, very simple. It's way overemphasized and way overcomplicated on

Speaker A

YouTube fitness and the fitness industry in general, and I'll go into what we should shift that emphasis into a little bit later here. I believe there is too much of an emphasis on just getting stronger. Wait till next week when I debunk that

Speaker A

with stand strength because that is an extremely oversimplified way of viewing lifting that is actually detrimental to your progress and sustainability, in my opinion. When it comes to adding weight, my philosophy is also simple, but I believe it is better because it

Speaker A

allows you to focus on what you need to actually focus on. So, this is what I'm going to get into when I say, and I make these claims that we have too much of a focus on progressive overload when, in general, it

Speaker A

kind of does happen automatically. This is what we're going to focus on here. You need to add weight when necessary, not when possible. So, the emphasis that a lot of us get into when we're first starting training or that we hear people

Speaker A

tell us, like all these big YouTubers will say, "Oh, just add weight whenever possible. Just keep getting stronger. Progressive overload, oh my God, like that's all that matters." It's just not true. And while it's important, this stuff is so much simpler

Speaker A

than we think. Like, how many people are just doing the exact same sets, reps, and weight every single time? Like, anyone training for muscle growth, 99% of those people are going to be overloading too hard versus not hard enough, if that makes sense. So, this is

Speaker A

just the—I think we have this backwards. So, to repeat my point here, you need to add weight when necessary, not when possible. There's a very big difference between the two. If you're training properly for hypertrophy, you can always add weight. You can—I mean,

Speaker A

I did it, and I didn't get any results from it because I was sacrificing other areas of my training when I kept adding weight when I wasn't supposed to. And when I, like, couldn't do it properly, I would sacrifice other areas of my

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training. So, I'd sacrifice my technique. I'd sacrifice the RIR I was using. There's all these little things that start to add up, and eventually, before you know it, you start to train a little bit more like a powerlifter, and you focus way

Speaker A

too much on the number. And I know I've talked about this before when it comes down to, like, the real versus artificial progression video, which I probably put out two months ago or something at this point, but

Speaker A

when you need to add weight, that's when you should do it. So, if you're training in your rep—let's say you're using the rep goal system—if you're hitting 45 total reps throughout three sets of a barbell curl

Speaker A

and you get 47, it is necessary for you to add weight because now you're getting into a little bit too light of a rep range. It's a little bit too much of a low intensity. So, that is necessary to add weight.

Speaker A

But let's say I could technically add weight, but I'm sacrificing a little momentum, and I'm starting to cut the range of motion a little bit and slow down and not slow down and speed up the eccentrics a little bit. Like, yeah, it's

Speaker A

possible for me to add weight, but that's called powerlifting. We're talking about bodybuilding here. We're talking about hypertrophy training. Adding reps and adding weight are the two most fundamental, practical ways to progressively overload, and they're so incredibly simple to utilize that

Speaker A

there's not really a point in putting such an emphasis on them. What we should be focusing on is understanding when to overload and adding reps. Like, all you have to— all you have to know is when to stop adding reps

Speaker A

and just add weight instead. Once you get to a certain point, like I couldn't just do that 100-pound barbell curl until I was getting like 50 reps, eve

Speaker A

hypertrophy it would make much more sense for me to say okay well once i get to 45 or 50 reps across three sets let's increase the weight by 10 and maybe get 20 or 30 reps and keep going from there

Speaker A

so as long as you understand when to overload that makes a lot more sense or it makes a lot yeah it makes a lot more sense to focus on that than it does to just add weight when possible oh i i

Speaker A

didn't get stronger from lift to lift like i should probably try and squeeze out five pounds and that's when you start to sacrifice progress and you're just driving yourself down and down until you eventually have to reset everything and it's all been a

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waste of time not trying to fear monger at all it's not you're not going to get any results training more like a power lifter but it isn't optimal and i'm trying to save you because i've gone through that before

Speaker A

to [Music] let's see to summarize what we've covered so far overloading in reps does happen automatically when you're training properly and adding weight will happen as long as you know when to add it the only way these forms of progressive

Speaker A

overload don't happen is if your training fundamentals are not in check or if you forget to add weight to the bar and i know it's kind of sarcastic that second part in reality progressive overload comes down to how well you execute your

Speaker A

fundamentals pay attention to this stuff pay attention to what i'm saying right now this is important understanding proximity to failure technique exercise selection and volume will allow you to overload if you don't understand how these fundamentals work and you haven't experimented on yourself

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you will not be able to overload properly if you're focusing on progressive overload and you don't even know how to execute a lift or what lift to pick in the first place you're five steps ahead of where you

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need to be when you focus on these fundamentals and you have everything a check that needs to be in check there is literally no way you won't be able to progressively overload as long as there's no weird outside factor like an

Speaker A

injury or bad sleep or bad diet or whatever but that's very easy to control and very rare so think about that for a second this is very important this is a very big piece of my training philosophy at the end of the day progress does

Speaker A

progressive overload happen automatically i'd argue yes for the most part there's no point in focusing on overload when you don't even understand the fundamentals it's like trying to beg your boss for more money when you don't even understand how your pay works in

Speaker A

the first place the practical advice for you guys to take away from this video i do want to leave you with something i don't just want to like get my point and have you not understand it if you're going to take away anything

Speaker A

from this video progressive overload is important but focusing on it as much as you've been told as much as we've all been told by 99.9 of people on youtube it is counterproductive what you should do is shift your focus to the fundamentals

Speaker A

that i mentioned earlier and the overload will come so focus on those four fundamentals get those down if you're doing everything right in your training you will overload if the overload isn't happening you're doing something wrong so analyze your training make sure you

Speaker A

really understand technique exercise selection change a couple things around you'll have to experiment if you start to force things you're just driving yourself into a wall and you'll eventually burn yourself out and you will have to kind of restart like i

Speaker A

talked about earlier i'm gonna leave it at that today not gonna make it too confusing or too long um this is definitely an important video so i hope you watch through that whole thing if you did i do think you'll at

Speaker A

least learn one or two things from this if you have any questions uh definitely let me know in the comments i'd love to talk about this stuff and i think i understand it pretty well so i'd be happy to talk to anybody about this

Speaker A

stuff so thanks for watching

Topics:progressive overloadhypertrophy trainingweightliftingmuscle growthreps in reservetraining techniquestrength trainingbodybuildingfitness philosophysustainable training

Does progressive overload happen automatically?

Progressive overload by adding reps can happen automatically if you train with a non-static rep range and use a reps in reserve approach. However, increasing weight requires conscious effort and does not happen automatically.

When should I add weight to my lifts?

You should add weight only when it is necessary, such as when you exceed your rep goal with good form and adequate reps in reserve. Adding weight just because you can may sacrifice technique and hinder progress.

What are the best ways to progressively overload for hypertrophy?

The two most practical and sustainable ways to progressively overload for hypertrophy are increasing reps and increasing weight, focusing on proper form and training fundamentals.

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