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Progressive overload

Also called progressive resistance, overload principle

Progressive overload is the principle that training has to get a little harder over time: more weight, more reps or more sets than before.

70 kgWorking weightSession 1Session 7
Session 7: 70 kg, a new best. Squat working weight over seven sessions: 60, 62.5, 62.5, 65, 67.5, 67.5, 70 kg. Two sessions repeat; the line still ends 10 kg higher.

In plain words

Progressive overload is a principle, not a program. Three numbers can carry it: the weight on the bar, the reps you get, and the number of sets. Push one up over the weeks and training keeps working; leave all three alone and progress stops. Double progression and linear progression are methods that apply it. A 2022 study by Plotkin and colleagues had 43 trained people train for eight weeks, one group adding weight and one adding reps; the authors concluded both "appear to be viable strategies". It is easy to read overload as more weight every session. It does not mean that. A session that repeats last week's weight for one extra rep has overloaded too.

An example

Take a squat and write down the working weight each session: 60 kg, 62.5, 62.5, 65, 67.5, 67.5, 70. Two of the seven sessions repeat the weight of the one before. Nothing was added on those days, and the line still ends 10 kg above where it started. That is what overload looks like in a log: a weight that rises with flat stretches in it, not a step up every session.

Often confused with

Double progression Progressive overload is the principle; double progression is one rule for carrying it out. Linear progression Linear progression adds the same amount of weight every session, while overload can also come from reps or sets.
Double progression Double progression is a rule for progressing in two steps that take turns: reps go up at the same weight to the top of a range, then the weight goes up.
Linear progression Linear progression means adding the same small amount of weight to a lift every session, with the sets and reps left alone.
Plateau A plateau is a stretch of training in which a lift stops improving: session after session, no more weight and no more reps.
Micro-loading Micro-loading is adding weight in steps smaller than your gym's usual smallest jump, using very light plates of 0.25 to 1 kg.
Deload A deload is a short planned spell of easier training, usually a week, with less weight, fewer sets or both.

Go deeper

Progressive overload, explained with a log What progressive overload is, five ways to add load ranked by how easy they are to write down, and one month of squats in a log with the sums done. Updated

Sources

  1. Plotkin et al. 2022. Progressive overload without progressing load? PeerJ 10:e14142 Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.