The Overload Myth

Let's face it, there are always going to be fitness myths that are perpetuated by marketing, hype, and unfortunately, bad coaching. Recently I had an opportunity to hear some top level strength coaches speak and was sorely disappointed when I heard some of these myths still being promoted! One in particular that drives me a little nuts is the misunderstanding fot he one of the most fundamental concepts of training...overload.

Progressive overload is crucial because this has everything to do with achieving results from your training. Most people associate load or weight with overload, this would be the most common view of overload, simply make things heavier! Guess what? This does work, making a weight heavier will stimulate more change, in fact, research has shown novice lifters need only 40% of their max and more experienced lifters 60% of their max to stimulate some strength gains. So, there is a minimum amount of weight people need to use to stimulate changes, however, overload isn't just about how much you lift.

Changing Leverage
Another means in utilizing overload is changing the position of the load. By changing where the load is placed in relationship to the body you can make the same weight feel heavier. A classic example can be shown by squatting. If we begin people with a bear hug squat this represents the base level of squatting and the load is more easily dispersed throughout the body. Therefore, this is the position where the greatest amount of weight can be lifted. So, when the lifter is looking for progression, they have several options...

1. Increase the weight of the sandbag
2. Change the position to a zercher squat (which doesn't have as advantageous leverages as bear hug)
3. Alter programming variables.

Now if we use option two and change to a zercher, the same weight will feel heavier. In the same respect, if we then change from the zercher to shoulder, again the same weight will feel heavier. This is definitely a form of overload.

Alter Speed
There times I think people would not have as much confusion about overload if we also looked at force production. The idea of increasing load is to stimulate the body to have to produce more force. This recruits more muscle fibers and motor units leading to better gains in strength and muscle. What most people don't understand is that when you move intentionally slower, the force production drops even though the time under tension increases. While slowing down and increasing time under tension is helpful for adding some muscle mass, it generally doesn't add as much to functional strength gains.

So, if you want to increase overload try lifting the weight faster. In using our squat example, we can work on slowly lowering the weight and then trying to add an explosive squat up. We can also add a pause in the bottom, removing any elastic energy, and then adding an explosive squat and we would again increase overload. This definitely demonstrates how lighter loads can be still very challenging.

Plenty More
There are a lot of options in increasing the overload of an implement. This post was intended to discuss two of the more popular means that give you a large return for your time. In our workshops and clinics we discuss many other training means, but I hope this helps you realize that training can be more than simply adding more weight!