When we talk about training alone, we can talk about a single factor that is most responsible for gaining muscle - progressive overload.Of course you cannot gain muscle without proper nutrition and rest but those two factors are not a subject of discussion in this article.

The human body evolved to be a perfect survival machine. This means the body doesn't need big muscles, in fact it's quite the opposite.The only thing the body is interested in is keeping you alive and functioning as efficiently as possible. Big muscles waste a lot of energy just to maintain themselves.

The trick is to somehow tell your body that it has to accumulate muscle mass in order to survive. If you create an environment where the body needs to build muscle in order to survive it WILL build muscle.This is where progressive overload comes into play.

Progressive overload refers to an ever increasing amount of work that you are making your body do and it comes in the form of weight lifting.We keep increasing this amount of work by doing something harder than last time - more weight on the bar, more reps, etc...

For the sake of simplicity, lets say you squat 200lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps.Your leg muscles adapt over time and grow to some proportions so you can lift this load.If you continue doing 3x8x200lbs on squats week in week out, your legs will stop growing. Why will you stop progressing? Simply because the body has adapted and built all the muscle needed to perform this task and does not need more muscle (more muscle means more food, remember?).But if you push your legs to work harder, the body will have to adapt to this new stress and build more muscle so your legs can lift this extra weight.

How can you implement progressive overload ?

I'll use the squats example:

Lets assume you can squat 200lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps:

set 1. 200 x 8 reps
set 2. 200 x 8 reps
set 3. 200 x 8 reps

The next workout you make a small increment of the weight:

set 1. 210 x 8 reps
set 2. 210 x 7 reps
set 3. 210 x 6 reps

You can't complete all the repetition on set No.2 and No.3. Don't worry, you didn't fail.This is a perfectly normal response of your body.The next workout you should use the same weight (210 lbs).This time the body began the adaptation and you can complete the set No.1 and No.2 but fail to complete the third set.

set 1. 210 x 8 reps
set 2. 210 x 8 reps
set 3. 210 x 7 reps

This means you will stay at this weight (210lbs) until you can complete all 3 sets of 8 reps.Once you are able to complete 3sets x 8reps with 210lbs you will make a small increment of the weight again and repeat the whole process.

The lack of progression is probably the number one reason (diet and rest aside) why so many trainees stay the same year after year and cannot build muscle.Instead of getting stronger, people waste their time worrying about what exercises and types of workouts to do, how much sets and reps and advanced technique to "burn" the muscles.

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