Fun and Fitness: New ways to work it
I've written about overloading your body in training so that it can progress based on adapting to new stimuli. If you want to get stronger or bigger, you lift heavy weights. If you want to have more stamina, you challenge your heart aerobically.
But how do you progressively overload when it seems like you've maxed yourself out? The following are the main methods in which you can progressively overload for resistance training in particular.
Increase resistance — so you're finally able to lift that weight? Add more resistance to further challenge your body to gain more strength or size.
Altering lift tempo — muscles respond to time under tension. Why not slow down your lifts so that you can maximize this physiological response to your advantage.
Alter rest interval — taking two minutes rest in between sets? Try shortening rest intervals to a minute or even less. You'd be amazed at how much this can keep your heart rate elevated.
Increasing number of sets — like I said before, muscles respond to time under tension. Now you know why programs usually consist of three or so sets. More sets equals more time under tension, just be sure not to overdo it or you'll over train.
Increasing number of reps per set — why not confuse your body and challenge it to a higher number of reps? Mind you you'll have to sacrifice weight in order to increase repetitions, but it can be a useful tool to introduce a different stimulus to your body.
Altering exercise order — people often follow the same redundant order of exercises whenever they hit the gym. Try mixing up the order in which you perform your program. Just be sure not to work small muscle groups before exercises where you'll be needing them to assist you with big muscle group exercises. It sounds simple, but it can be quite effective.
Altering exercise choice — this is one of the most obvious and biggest factors to inducing new stimuli on the body. Try out different exercises for different body parts. There are tons of methods in which you can work a muscle group in many different ways. Just when your body starts getting used to something, you trick it into learning something new and improving.
The most important thing to remember is that in order to progressively overload, you have to stay consistent. What this means is that you shouldn't just randomly mix up your program too often or else your body will never be able to maximize itself. You want to challenge your body, but if you're constantly confusing it, it will never fully develop the way you want it to. So be mindful of when to change things up in order to defeat plateaus. Experiment and document what works for you.
But how do you progressively overload when it seems like you've maxed yourself out? The following are the main methods in which you can progressively overload for resistance training in particular.
Increase resistance — so you're finally able to lift that weight? Add more resistance to further challenge your body to gain more strength or size.
Altering lift tempo — muscles respond to time under tension. Why not slow down your lifts so that you can maximize this physiological response to your advantage.
Alter rest interval — taking two minutes rest in between sets? Try shortening rest intervals to a minute or even less. You'd be amazed at how much this can keep your heart rate elevated.
Increasing number of sets — like I said before, muscles respond to time under tension. Now you know why programs usually consist of three or so sets. More sets equals more time under tension, just be sure not to overdo it or you'll over train.
Increasing number of reps per set — why not confuse your body and challenge it to a higher number of reps? Mind you you'll have to sacrifice weight in order to increase repetitions, but it can be a useful tool to introduce a different stimulus to your body.
Altering exercise order — people often follow the same redundant order of exercises whenever they hit the gym. Try mixing up the order in which you perform your program. Just be sure not to work small muscle groups before exercises where you'll be needing them to assist you with big muscle group exercises. It sounds simple, but it can be quite effective.
Altering exercise choice — this is one of the most obvious and biggest factors to inducing new stimuli on the body. Try out different exercises for different body parts. There are tons of methods in which you can work a muscle group in many different ways. Just when your body starts getting used to something, you trick it into learning something new and improving.
The most important thing to remember is that in order to progressively overload, you have to stay consistent. What this means is that you shouldn't just randomly mix up your program too often or else your body will never be able to maximize itself. You want to challenge your body, but if you're constantly confusing it, it will never fully develop the way you want it to. So be mindful of when to change things up in order to defeat plateaus. Experiment and document what works for you.
