Skip to content

Home / Journal / Training

Training

Progressive overload, without the mystique

It is the most quoted principle in training and the most misapplied. Here is the version you can actually run.

Only three things need to move

Load, volume and frequency. Everything else – exercise selection, order, tempo – is comparatively stable, and changing it constantly is what stops most people progressing.

Load

Complete every prescribed rep at a given weight and rate the session as manageable, and the weight goes up next time. Miss reps on two consecutive sessions and it holds or drops. That is the whole rule, applied per movement rather than across the board.

Volume

Total sets per muscle group climb across a block and then drop for a recovery week. The climb is small; adding a set every week or two is enough.

Frequency

If you consistently miss the fourth session of a four-day plan, a four-day plan is the wrong plan. Three days you actually do produces more training than four days you do not.

What should not change

The exercises stay put for the length of a block, usually four weeks. You cannot tell whether you are getting stronger at a movement you performed twice. Novelty feels like progress and rarely is.

Reading a stall

A stall is information, not failure. Before changing the programme, check the three things that cause most of them: sleep, total food intake, and whether the sessions were actually completed as written. Fix those and most stalls resolve on their own.

General guidance for healthy adults, not medical or dietetic advice. If you have a health condition or are unsure whether an approach suits you, speak to a qualified professional.

← Back to the journal

Membership

Ready when you are

Answer the intake, and your first training block and fuelling targets are waiting before you close the tab.

Membership is $11.99 per week in Australian dollars, billed until you cancel. Cancel any time by email or from your account settings. See the Terms of Service and membership details.