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If you are trying to build strength, build muscle, and improve your
endurance, advancing your weight training over time is key to seeing
progress and avoiding a plateau. This concept is known as the principle of
progression.
Of course, if you are happy with strength training only a few times a week
with little variance in weight, duration, and muscles worked, it's OK not to
follow the principle of progression.
Put simply, if you want to see results when lifting weights, you have to lift
more weight than your muscles can physically handle at the time.
The only way your body physically changes and grows is if the muscles
are taxed to the point where they must grow stronger to lift that weight.
When the muscle fibers are taxed in this manner, it causes micro-tears in
the fibers. When you rest, these repair themselves and grow back
stronger than before. The overload process causes the muscle fibers to
grow stronger (and sometimes bigger) in order to handle the additional
weight.
Overload in Strength Training
Once an exercise starts to feel easy, it's time to up the ante so you're
regularly overloading your muscles and adapting.
Types of Progression
There are different types of progression you can employ to advance your
workout, including exercise frequency, intensity, and duration.
Frequency
How often you work out can depend on a number of factors. Two to three
days per week is the recommended frequency for full-body strength
training.2
If you start off lifting weights just once a week, you can progress by
upping it to two or three. If you split your strength workout between the
upper and lower body, you might try incorporating an additional day for
each.
Intensity
Intensity is how hard you work out during a session. Variables that affect
intensity can include the type of exercise, number of sets and reps, and
amount of weight you lift. You can adapt the intensity of your workout to
your strength goals.
As a beginner, start off with lighter weights, more reps, and fewer sets.
As you advance, you might start using heavier weights with fewer reps
per set or a higher number of sets with a modest amount of repetitions in
each.
Duration
The duration of your workout is also malleable. If you are doing a full-
body weight lifting session, it may take you longer to complete your
desired number of sets and reps for each muscle group. Split or targeted
workouts, on the other hand, may take less time.
You can try working out for longer with similar weights to what your body
has adjusted to, or add more weight and work out for a shorter period of
time.
An effective way to progress is to hit your target reps and sets for an
exercise, then increase the weight by a small amount the next time you
perform the exercise. For example, if you do three sets of eight reps at 60
pounds successfully, up the weight to 65 pounds on a subsequent
attempt.
It's unlikely you will be able to hit the new target each time. If you only
do six or seven reps after increasing the weight, that is still considered a
success. Your goal should be to outperform your previous try even
slightly. Even though it might not be consistent, a little progress is still
progress.
For example, jumping from 50 pounds to 100 pounds in one session is too
much for the body to handle. Instead, stick to small increases. Exercising
above the target zone is counterproductive and can be dangerous—
potentially resulting in injuries.
Potential Challenges
While consistency is crucial when weight training, you shouldn't attempt
to train hard all the time. Pushing yourself too hard too often will lead
to overtraining, which can be both physically and mentally draining.
Overtraining is when a person believes that the harder and longer they lift
weights, the better they'll get. On the contrary, continual stress on the
body and its joints, as well as constant overload, can potentially result in
exhaustion and injury.
Source: https://www.verywellfit.com/progression-definition-3120367