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How is progression performed - the most important principle in training?
If I had to determine the most important principle in training focused on the progress of the individual, I would choose just a progressive increase in workload. Why? Read below.
Our body possesses the ability to adapt. This ability serves to keep the body ready for future challenges based on the experience and existing challenges it has experienced in the past.
The human body is a machine for survival and adaptation to current conditions. Tens of thousands of years ago, that stimulus was going hunting. The body had to be ready for miles and miles of running and fighting savage game.
Thus, adaptation to the stimulus made the difference between life and death.
Connection with progression and training?
Today, fortunately, the stimulus is a bit milder, it’s done in controlled conditions of training centers. If we expose our body to a certain type of stimulus, such as weight training, it is looking for a way to adapt to the stress and stimulus that we constantly provide.
It will adapt precisely to muscle growth, and this is where what we call hypertrophy training will happen.
Hypertrophy, or muscle growth, is nothing but the body’s adaptation to the stress we give it.
The only way we can constantly challenge adaptation is to give our body a new stimulus that it is not used to. We will do this through a progressive increase in workload, that is, making our training more difficult over time.
Strength increases, weight training volume increases = muscle mass increases.
The reason for the lack of progress in the vast majority of people is that they don’t make training difficult and stay in place for years.
That is why it is important to keep a training diary so that we have an insight into the intensity and volume with which we worked on a particular series that day.
How to progress?
We can achieve progression through several methods:
Increasing working weights
Example: so far you have done a bench with 100kg, 3×5, now the goal is 102kg, 3×5.
Increasing the number of repetitions in a series
Example: so far you have done a bench with 100kg 3×5, now the goal with 100kg is to do 3×6.
Increasing the total number of work series for a given group
Example: so far you have done a bench with 100 kg 3×5, now the goal is to do 4 series, so 4×5, with 100 kg.
We can also achieve progression by reducing the duration of the break for example. But if we are talking about training for muscle growth, this method is ungrateful because we need some rest between sets for optimal performance. Most beginners and even moderately experienced exercisers will be able to do progression almost every training session, either by adding volume or intensity.
With advanced practitioners, things will go a bit slower, although even then progress is very possible, contrary to various claims.
If you are a begginer or advanced athlete and need help from a personal trainer in Dubai feel free to contact me.
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