In my last article, I talked about the secret sauce in strength training. What sets those who get results apart from those who tread water for years?
The simple trick is: to add a little bit of weight over the last time.
Or add a rep. Or a set.
The point is to look at your past workout and try to just improve on it in some small way.
What if you did this in your next training session?
Let’s say you lifted 80 kg (~175 lb) for three sets of five reps last time, and this workout you added 2.5 kg (5 lb) and tried to do three sets of five again.
Maybe, if you have stuck with the previous weight for a long time, you might surprise yourself and get three sets of five at the new, heavier weight.
Or maybe, you can only get 5, 4, and 3 reps in those three sets.
Either way, you have just shocked your system.
If your muscle fibers could talk, they would say something like “Say whaaaat! I’m not used to this!”
And if your muscle fibers had receptors that sense mechanical force, they would get a signal that stimulates growth.
Oh, wait, they do!
The point is that you’ve asked more of your body.
Or, in full nerd-speak: You’ve exposed your body to a new stressor. You’ve disrupted homeostasis.
So when you hit the locker room after that workout and chug your strawberry protein shake (they’re the best), your muscle cells are already at work adding tiny threads of protein to your muscles, building themselves up to better withstand that same weight the next time.
What if You Keep Doing This for a Week?
Imagine that you hit the gym two more times in the next week, and make an effort to add weight or reps.
Every time you complete three sets of five reps, you add another 2.5 kg or 5 lb.
You may now be lifting 5 kg or 10 lb more for the same number of reps that you did last week.
And it probably doesn’t feel more uncomfortable than when you lifted the lighter weight! If you where to move back to your old weight, it would now feel light.
Imagine that you keep doing this for a full month. Making an effort to gain a rep here or add a small weight there.
Most people who try this make more progress in that month than they did in their last year of training combined.
What would happen if you kept this up even longer?
For three months?
Or through a full year?
I recently followed this progression method in the deadlift. I started at 180 kg x 3 x 5 and a few months later, I’m pulling 210 kg x 3 x 5 in the video below.
A Time-Tested Progression Method
A classic and proven progression method is to add 2.5 kg or 5 lb every time you can complete three sets of five repetitions with good form.
If you can’t get all three fives, stick with the same weight until you can, and then increase the weight again.
It doesn’t have to be three sets of five reps. It could be sets of eight or ten reps. Or five sets of five reps (another classic).
And to pre-empt objections:
– No, you won’t be able to improve every workout.
– And yes, you will probably need to take easier weeks here and there before you make another push forward.
But what if you kept trying?
What kind of results could you get?
How strong could you be?
I wonder.
And by the way, adding weight or reps aren’t the only ways to challenge your muscles.
Below are five different ways to progress your training.
Number three is the one I go to when I can’t increase the weight or reps.
