5 Ways To Progress Exercises To Keep Making Gains
We all have our own goals when we walk into the gym. But, one thing is unanimous amongst all people that train; we want to make progress over time. If we couldn’t make progress, chances are we wouldn’t put ourselves through grueling training sessions and push for one more rep or a few seconds faster day in and day out. Unfortunately, there is a something called the “Law of Accommodation”, that essentially states that once a stimulus is perceived by the body, it will adapt to better handle the stress and then reach a point where it is accustomed to it where no further progress is made. Your body doesn’t want to change regardless of how badly your brain may want it to. You need to force it to adapt by consistently and intelligently applying new and challenging stress’ to it. (Enter the role of the strength coach)
This week we’re going over exactly how to do so!
- Load
This is probably the most common way people will attempt to progress their exercises. It makes sense, if I want to get stronger I need to lift more weight each time I walk into the gym and it is an accurate statement. If our goals include increasing strength and/or building muscle then we must consistently add more weight to the bar or use heavier dumbbells to elicit the type of changes in the body that increase strength. These include, increased efficiency and firing rate of the nervous system, increases in number of motor units recruited, increases in the number of fast twitch muscle fibers and an increase in the size of muscle fibers.
- Volume
Another way to progress your exercises, aside from simply adding more weight, is to do more reps at the same weight. Increasing volume can be done a few ways. You can increase volume per set, such as doing sets of 8 on week 1, then 10 on week 2, 12’s on week 3 etc etc. or you can keep the number of reps and weight constant and increase the number of sets each week. For example, 3 sets at 80% week 1, then 4 sets week 2 5 sets week 3 etc. How we increase volume largely depends on what our goal is. If we increase reps per set, there will mostly be an increase in muscle mass and repetition endurance. If we increase the number of sets than chances are well get an increase in strength or strength/power endurance.
- Rest Intervals
Progressing rest intervals is another way to for the body to adapt. It is a different method of progression that largely demands improvements in the bodies energy systems or its ability to utilize its various fuel sources. It will also dictate which kind of adaptation occurs. Strength improvements will require longer rests and muscle building occurs more with shorter rests. When we strength train, the majority of energy for the work we do is coming from phosphocreatine stores in the muscles as well as stored carbohydrates in the muscle called glycogen. These two substances are broken down to generate ATP, the energy currency in the body. When we perform a rep/set, ATP is used up and the fuels or “substrates” are depleted further to regenerate ATP in preparation for the next set/rep. When we progress rest intervals, we are essentially giving the body less time to regenerate these fuel stores and thus making it harder to make ATP as well as coaxing the body into storing more of them for future training sessions. Progressing rest intervals can be as simple as 2 min breaks week 1, :90 breaks week 2, :60 breaks week 3 etc etc.
- Tempo
When we talk about tempo during training we are talking about the time under tension that occurs over the course of 1 rep. In essence, the time it takes to go from the top of the movement, to the bottom of the movement and then back up.The reason why adjusting tempo can be used to progress a movement is because you are asking you body to handle the weight for a longer duration of time. Increasing tempo or the time per rep can make an exercise much more difficult by forcing your muscles to slowly lengthen to reach the bottom of the movement, which costs energy (ATP) and then still produce the required force needed to complete the rep. Thus, expending more energy and causing more muscular damage than if you were allowed to simply move at a self selected pace. A progression in tempo could look like “2 seconds down, 0 seconds in the bottom, 1 second on the way up, 1 second at the top” or “3 seconds down, 0 seconds in the bottom, 1 second on the way up, 1 second at the top”. There are many ways you can vary the stimulus by playing with each phase of the lift. Speeding things up or slowing things down both allow for increased difficulty of movement.
- Velocity
The final way to progress an exercise is to perform the rep faster. When we talk about speed in training we are referring to the meters per second that they barbell or dumbbell moves through its range of motion. When we move the barbell or DB faster and faster we are forced to recruit more and more fast twitch muscle fibers as well as contract them faster and faster. There is increasing amounts of research that show a direct correlation between the speed at which the bar or DB is moved and the maximum strength of the person moving it. Similarly, when there are improvements in speed at a given weight, there is also usually an improvement in maximal strength. The speed at which you move the barbell or DB will also determine what kind of adaptation you get from training. Slower bar speeds tend to produce more strength adaptations while moderate speeds produce more muscle building and faster bar speeds produce more changes in explosiveness. A progression for velocity would look like .5 m/s week 1, .75 m/s week 2 and 1 m/s week 3. All while keeping weight and volume the same.
Those are the 5 most common ways to progress your exercises to keep the gains coming! I hope after reading this weeks newsletter you feel equipped to progress your exercises, keep training exciting and feel confident that what you are doing is progressing you towards the goals that you have.
