3 Key Principles of Resistance Training
Progressive Overload
Progressive Overload is an important principle in strength training. Without progressive overload you won’t build strength and you won’t gain muscle. However, too much overload can lead to under-recovery and injury. Therefore, it is important to get the balance right, so that you keep improving without exceeding the body’s capability to recover.
Progressive overload can happen in 4 ways:
- Increasing the weight
- Increasing volume: doing more reps/sets
- Increasing frequency: doing more training sessions
- Increasing Tension: Increasing the duration of each repetition within an exercise. A common technique in bodybuilding is to prolong the time under tension of a muscle.
2 important factors for progressive overload to be as optimal as possible are:
- Only increase one thing at a time. Don’t increase the weight, volume and frequency all at once. Change one training variable at a time and progress slowly but surely.
- Increase the volume before increasing the weight/resistance. This reduces the risk of fatigue and injury.
Specificity
Weight training is a very broad umbrella term that encompasses many different programming styles and methodologies. Specificity means that you are training with a clear and specific goal in mind and that your gym program (and diet) reflects this goal.
If your main goal is to maintain strength while losing body fat, the specifics of your weight training routine will be quite different from someone whose primary focus is building muscle mass.
Many variables will be influenced by your training goals, including exercise selection, training volume, the number of reps in each set and the length of rest between sets, as well as caloric intake and macronutrient split.
Rest & Recovery
During your workout, the stress of overload causes some minor damage to your muscle fibres. As you sleep, eat well and rest, your body gets to work repairing and reinforcing the little tears in your muscle’s fibres. This process results in growth and adaptation and can only take place while you’re at rest.
Overtraining exposes your muscles to repetitive stress and strain which increases the risk of injury. Never skip rest day!
