What is "Progressive Overload"?

[Ursus]

Natties can also use progressive overload. Anyone who trains can and should think about implementing it on their routine

[spude]

Hold on a minute. The reason I get stronger and bigger is because of the past 6 years I have gradually lifted heavier weights and gradually ate more food to recover. Obviously gains are slower and I won't add 50lbs a year to my bench press but I am still adding lbage. If I only add 5lbs a year over the next 10 years I will still have a 450lb bench which for a natty isn't too shabby at all. (Granted I am heavy)

Dude, you are talkin about a different thing...of course you can and will get stronger by "progressive overload", but if you want to get BIGGER, musclewise, drugs + mind-muscle connection is the key. Cos when you increase poundages you build your tendons, bones...yes muscles also to some extenctent, but very little...If you want to build muscle you need to eat to give them nutrients, stress the muscle to make yor body realize where those nutrients need to go and take peds to multiplie the effectiveness of the whole process by 10...thats it, and rest of course...powerlifting and bb`ing are two different "sports", gotta remember that

[ManBearPig...]

Hold on a minute. The reason I get stronger and bigger is because of the past 6 years I have gradually lifted heavier weights and gradually ate more food to recover. Obviously gains are slower and I won't add 50lbs a year to my bench press but I am still adding lbage. If I only add 5lbs a year over the next 10 years I will still have a 450lb bench which for a natty isn't too shabby at all. (Granted I am heavy)

but you won't add 5 lbs a year.

[Ursus]

but you won't add 5 lbs a year.

Possible. Especially if I get heavier. Weight moves weight.

I misunderstood spude. I agree food builds size.

[no one]

 Progressive overload is the principle that dictates that muscles grow from increasing strength. The explanation for this is in physiology and physics. The strength of the individual contractile unit(the sarcomere) does not increase, so the only way for a muscle to become stronger is by adding more sarcomeres and thus becoming bigger in volume. A simple physiological fact(that sarcomeres don't increase in strength so the only way for a muscle to increase in strength is by adding more sarcomeres thus increasing in volume) and a simple fact from physics(that the only way for a unit that generates force to increase it's ability to generate force if it can't generate more force per unit of size is to increase in size) explains the phenomena of muscle growth. There is nothing more to it. Everything else is bullshit to sell supplements.

SUUCKMYMUSCLE

shut up, stupid.

[cephissus]

lol i've heard so many times "progressive overload is THE NUMBER ONE REASON people fail!  they don't do it!!!!" on natural boards etc.

i can't think of a single person who doesn't know to increase the weight or muscle stress over time.  not even one.

there are, on the other hand, billions, probably 99.9% who increase the weight when they shouldn't, when it will do nothing for their physique except ruin their tendons.  they sacrifice all form, all tissue integrity, and all common sense for this progressive overloading. 

[Master Blaster]

lol i've heard so many times "progressive overload is THE NUMBER ONE REASON people fail!  they don't do it!!!!" on natural boards etc.

i can't think of a single person who doesn't know to increase the weight or muscle stress over time.  not even one.

there are, on the other hand, billions, probably 99.9% who increase the weight when they shouldn't, when it will do nothing for their physique except ruin their tendons.  they sacrifice all form, all tissue integrity, and all common sense for this progressive overloading. 

they think muscle growth is like some kind of physics formula, in the way you would describe the actions of a fulcrum

[dj181]

Hmm... Me thinks dat you fellas are missing something here. Lets take da King Mr. Arnold S. as an example... Arnold had pretty big biceps, yes? Well... How do you think dat his biceps got so big? By training with less and less weight? NO! HIS BICEPS GOT BIGGER FROM USING GREATER AND GREATER TRAINING LOADS. Yes, his bis weren't massively strong, but dat is beside da point. But here's da point, his bis got bigger AS A DIRECT RESULT OF USING GREATER AND GREATER TRAINING LOADS. 

[suckmymuscle]

shut up, stupid.

  You didn't understand anything I wrote, because you are a dumb person and hence you got frustrated. I understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[pellius]

  You didn't understand anything I wrote, because you are a dumb person and hence you got frustrated. I understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

Shut up, stupid.

[suckmymuscle]

Shut up, stupid.

  You didn't understand anything I wrote, because you are a dumb person and hence you got frustrated. I understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[Master Blaster]

  You didn't understand anything I wrote, because you are a dumb person and hence you got frustrated. I understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

dumb dumb doesn't even know that bench shirts are like extra tendons

[pellius]

I think it is incorrect to say that bodybuilders, especially NPC/Professional level, are not strong. It depends on what context you use to measure them. They seem to always be compared to power lifters/Olympic lifters.

I remember watching one of Jay's videos. It was the one where he lost to Coleman for the last time. He was benching 315, very strict, for around 8 or 9 reps as I remember. He was squatting 405 for maybe 10 reps or so. Now compared to hard core lifters and when you look at the size of Jay it doesn't seem like much. But when you compare him to athletes from other sports, forget the average gym rat or person on the street, he is incredibly strong. Even many juiced up football players and wrestlers his size will find it hard to match that performance.

Bodybuilders are not strength athletes as such, but as a group they are certainly one of the strongest people on this planet. Even the average gym rat is far stronger than the average fatty waddling around in this country. Personally, I am below average strength wise when I consider how long I've been training and how I match up with others in the gym. And I always strive to lift as heavy as I can using strict form. If I can get 12 clean reps on an upper body exercise I will increase the weight and I almost always try to exceed my previous performance. If I did 8 reps the last time I think 9 reps this time. But despite the fact that I am considered pathetically weak in the gym in normal everyday life I am considered strong and I'm always the one at work that gets asked to move the fucking boxes of computer paper or other crap that needs to get moved or lifted.    

[dj181]

We shouldn't be talking in absolutes here ie Arnold or Jay is weak, ok maybe they are weak compared to Ed Coan. But... The fact is that their muscles got bigger as a direct result of their increased training loads. Increased training loads=bigger muscles, decreased training loads=smaller muscles

[suckmymuscle]

dumb dumb doesn't even know that bench shirts are like extra tendons

  Because they are not. I have already explained why. Go read my explanation several times until you understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[Master Blaster]

  Because they are not. I have already explained why. Go read my explanation several times until you understand.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

tendons make you strong 

[Ursus]

tendons make you strong 

Yes.

[Master Blaster]

Yes.

no tendons = no lift anything

ipso facto tendons make you stronger  

bench shirt help you lift? then bench shirt just like tendon

[cephissus]

I think it is incorrect to say that bodybuilders, especially NPC/Professional level, are not strong. It depends on what context you use to measure them. They seem to always be compared to power lifters/Olympic lifters.

I remember watching one of Jay's videos. It was the one where he lost to Coleman for the last time. He was benching 315, very strict, for around 8 or 9 reps as I remember. He was squatting 405 for maybe 10 reps or so. Now compared to hard core lifters and when you look at the size of Jay it doesn't seem like much. But when you compare him to athletes from other sports, forget the average gym rat or person on the street, he is incredibly strong. Even many juiced up football players and wrestlers his size will find it hard to match that performance.

Bodybuilders are not strength athletes as such, but as a group they are certainly one of the strongest people on this planet. Even the average gym rat is far stronger than the average fatty waddling around in this country. Personally, I am below average strength wise when I consider how long I've been training and how I match up with others in the gym. And I always strive to lift as heavy as I can using strict form. If I can get 12 clean reps on an upper body exercise I will increase the weight and I almost always try to exceed my previous performance. If I did 8 reps the last time I think 9 reps this time. But despite the fact that I am considered pathetically weak in the gym in normal everyday life I am considered strong and I'm always the one at work that gets asked to move the fucking boxes of computer paper or other crap that needs to get moved or lifted.    

Great post, you sound a lot like me...

[TacoBell]

sorry... i have to disagree... i come from a country where if you train heavy, you're rendered as an idiot who wants to hurt himself.
upping the dose is the only way to guarantee you keep growing...

when someone says "yeah, progressive overload man... but you have to eat more... and you have to gradually raise your dose with time when you plateau for 2 years... it's the weights that give you the muscle, but the food and aas is what helps you get stronger... if you don't try to get stronger, you don't grow!"

getting stronger is a sure fire way to ensure you'll get injured... up the dose, you get hungrier, you get bigger... no need to increase the weight... i assure you.

I know A LOT of big guys who look like they can easily bench 455 lbs, but they fail at 12 reps with 275 or 315...

Though I agree with you, to be fair, you also come from a country where if a woman leaves the house with her elbows exposed she risks being stoned to death.


Oh and tbomz, u never should have been using 1500mg in the first place.

[suckmymuscle]

tendons make you strong 

  The benching shirt increases strength by restricting your range of motion, which decreases the involvement of ancilliary muscles and thus increases your neuromuscular efficiency which allows you to recruit more motor units to move the weight rather than to balance it. It has nothing to do with it working like tendons. Nothing.

  You = idiot.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

[Master Blaster]

  The benching shirt increases strength by restricting your range of motion, which decreases the involvement of ancilliary muscles and thus increases your neuromuscular efficiency which allows you to recruit more motor units to move the weight rather than to balance it. It has nothing to do with it working like tendons. Nothing.

  You = idiot.

SUCKMYMUSCLE

bet you couldn't lift anything without tendon

therefore adding tendon makes more stregnth

[Ursus]

bet you couldn't lift anything without tendon

therefore adding tendon makes more stregnth

Tendon=Strength

[Jaime]

Hmm... Me thinks dat you fellas are missing something here. Lets take da King Mr. Arnold S. as an example... Arnold had pretty big biceps, yes? Well... How do you think dat his biceps got so big? By training with less and less weight? NO! HIS BICEPS GOT BIGGER FROM USING GREATER AND GREATER TRAINING LOADS. Yes, his bis weren't massively strong, but dat is beside da point. But here's da point, his bis got bigger AS A DIRECT RESULT OF USING GREATER AND GREATER TRAINING LOADS. 

Did you go to the same school as GH15?

[suckmymuscle]

bet you couldn't lift anything without tendon

therefore adding tendon makes more stregnth

  It is amazing how wrong you are. You cannot lift anything if you didn't have tendons attaching your muscles to your bones, but adding extra tendons does not increase your strength in the slightest. Tendons do not contract, dumby.

  Put the tendons of a 350 lbs powerlifter and attach them to the muscles of a 130 lbs woman who has never benched(and therefore has no neuromuscular efficiency) and her bench press will be what a 130 lbs woman can bench and not what a 350 lbs powerlifter can bench. This is simple logic, but for whatever reasons you are unable to understand this.

  You = slow.

SUCKMYMUSCLE