Basic Primer on Effective Training – Overload

The Overload Principle as at the root of all training progress. It states that a greater than normal stress on the body is required for a training adaptation to take place. The body will in turn adapt to this increased stress. In the context of getting stronger, you must subject your body to stresses greater than it is used to in order to force your body to adapt. This is basically how all training adaptations occur. There are multiple ways in which you can increase the workload and stress your body is subjected to and interestingly enough they all relate back to the three primary triggers for muscle growth – mechanical load, density and total time under tension. First, you can increase the amount of force generated during the workout. Quite simply, this means using more weight or even moving the same weight faster. This ties into the earlier point on the need to get strong. Remember, that explosive concentric contractions have the ability to recruit the high threshold motor units – the big, powerful ones. Secondly, you can also decrease the amount of time it takes to complete the workout. In this case you’re doing the same amount of work (or perhaps even more) in less time, which increases training density. And finally, you can increase the amount of total workload or volume in a given workout, which positively affects the total time under tension that you subject your muscles to. Not paying attention to this training principle means that you’re doing the same thing day in and day out, and that pretty much guarantees no progress.