The Basics Never Die: Progressive Overload Pt.2

 

Progressive overload is a really important fundamental to keep in mind in the beginning. It’s good to develop those good habits as soon as possible. Adding progressive overload in your program design will save you a lot of headache later on when it comes to injuries, issues with form, or knowing how to approach a plateau. 

There’s just too much upside to ignore it…

 It’s we’re heading into a new year and a lot of steemians will be learning how to loose and control their as part of their new years resolutions. This is a perfect time to practice progressive overload as you progress through your weight loss journey. 

 The physical activity recommendation for adults set by the American College of Sports Medicine calls for:  

• 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio-respiratory  exercise per week. 
• 2-3 days of resistance training per week, making sure to target each major muscle group. 
• 2-3 days with time spent working on flexibility 
• 2-3 days per week spent on neuromuscular exercise  

This may be a bit much for some people but the good news is that you don’t have to get there in one day or even 1 week. 

 The best thing to do is to split things up into more “doable” work. 

Most people looking to lose weight will be looking to tackle the cardio and resistance training recommendations. 

The cardio portion can be actually split into bouts of exercise of as little as 10 minutes. If that’s all you can do you do starting out, then start there. 

 It will be better to start out with three 10-minute bouts of exercise a day and work your way up to single 30-minute workout sessions than to dive right in to a 30 minute workout that will leave you never want ting to work out again.  

Add a couple minutes to the first session every few days or so as you progress. You can also work on shortening the rest periods in between sessions each week until you can work through a single 30 – 60 minute sessions enough times throughout the week to hit that weekly 150 minute target. 

There's also resistance training that has to be done for those just starting out people working on controlling their weight. This is just done by challenging your muscle with an external force.

It can be done using things like weight, medicine, balls, resistance bands or even just your body weight. 

 If you are sticking with the body weight exercises be sure to target all major muscle groups throughout the week with different moves like the plank, push-ups, rows, and body weight squats.  You can slowly progress by adding on more reps weekly, and eventually work on more advanced versions of previous moves as you master the basics.