Making
Peace With Progression
“Poundage progression is the unifying factor that makes all strength-training methods work…. Always remember that the main stimulus for muscular strength and size is poundage progression, not going to failure, tension, rep speed, equipment, etc.” Bob Whelan, “Bob Whelan’s Q&A,” Hardgainer, May-June 2002, Vol. 13, No. 6, p. 16.
I love adding pounds to my lifts. Doesn’t everyone? A few years back, I enjoyed fast, steady progress like most beginners, but those days are over. Now, I keep my enthusiasm alive by focusing on motivating results of strength training like great vitality, a hot-burning metabolism, and unusual strength for a woman in her fifties. Still, I always return to this basic “unifying factor” in strength training—adding pounds. How can I keep progressively adding weight to the bar, dumbbell, or stack so I know my program is succeeding?
This article is directed toward beginners and early intermediates.
We’re all in a hurry. Even if we’ve been 30 lbs overweight for 10 years, we secretly believe we can lose the weight and change our psychology enough to never gain it back—all in two months! If we’ve neglected our exercise needs for years, we want to get in shape overnight. Still, beginners do experience fast initial progress because of neuro-muscular adaptation. The nervous system learns a new skill quickly, but neuro-muscular changes are merely a prelude to long-term, sustained strength and muscle growth. In time, usually in less than a year, quick progress slows to a trickle. This is when many beginning lifters give up in frustration. They don’t realize that even though their initial neuro-muscular progress has slowed, the muscle fibers are thickening, the metabolism is changing, and the mind and body are learning to generate the intensity that makes workouts effective over time.
After the exhilarating months of beginner’s progress, we need to develop patience and get in harmony with our body’s slower rhythms if we want to generate enthusiasm for a lifetime of lifting. We also need to understand basic techniques that will enhance our lifting progress. Here’s a quick review.
Focus on adding weight. Choose target reps and sets, and add a small amount of weight to the bar, dumbbell, or weight stack every workout or every few workouts while keeping to this fixed number of reps. For example, leg press 2 sets of 10 reps. If you’ve mastered this with good form at a certain resistance, add a small amount of resistance the next workout and go for 2 sets of 10. As you get to the end of a cycle, small partial plates or 1 lb weight stack increments may help keep your progress going.
Focus on adding reps. This works well when you’re lifting with 5 lb increments (two 2 ½ lb plates) or machines that have large leaps in resistance from one weight stack to the next. For example, when you’re doing one working set of machine dips, do a few warm-up sets and then put enough resistance on the machine to do 1 set of 8 or 9 reps. Go as far as you can in good form. The next workout, try for 1 more rep in your working set. Keep adding a rep with good form until you reach your target number of reps, perhaps 12. At this point, you’ll add resistance or weight, so you’ve done what comes naturally and combined adding resistance and reps into what’s called double progression.
Double progression. When you reach your predetermined rep destination, add weight the next workout. If you don’t reach your target number of reps, stop when you can’t continue in good form and then add 1 rep at a time in subsequent workouts until you reach your target. Progress achieved at a slow to moderate pace will allow your body time to adjust to the added demands. You’ll have to find what pace works for you through experience and experimentation.
Don’t cheat on form to get a rep. A cheated rep is no improvement at all and doesn’t target the muscles you want to strengthen. In the end it won’t develop the lift, and it’s a great way to get hurt. I learned this the hard way with squatting. I relied on my strong back and used more weight than my thighs could handle, leaning too far forward. This was hard on my knees, plus it allowed me to overwork the exhausted leg muscles so they couldn’t recover from workout to workout. I had to start over a number of times before I got the form right. Now using good form, my legs get adequate stimulation without over-exhaustion, and I keep adding weight to the lift.
Don’t flip-flop around in your goals and abandon a good plan without giving it enough time. Missing your goals for a week or two doesn’t mean the plan isn’t good. It may mean you’re stressed or tired. Maybe you need more sleep or a week off.
Don’t assume that your whole body will progress at the same rate or with the same technique, because one set of muscles may respond differently from another. It takes time to understand the uniqueness of your body, plus the body keeps changing so that what worked in the past may not work now. In the last year, I’ve learned that, although my upper body progresses well with higher reps, 1 set, and a variety of exercises that stimulate the same muscle groups twice a week, this doesn’t work for my legs. I do better if I squat once a week with 2 sets of 6-8 reps. Progress stalls if I squat more frequently or do other compound exercises like the trap bar deadlift that works similar leg muscles. On the other hand, if I squat one day and do a Romanian deadlift (a lift that has more knee bend than a stiff leg deadlift, but doesn’t demand a deep squatting motion) and a set of heel raises on the alternate day, I can progress in all the lifts. Only experimentation could teach me this, and experiments keep lifting interesting.
Don’t compare yourself with others. Resist the temptation to compare yourself with women or men who are stronger, more experienced, more genetically gifted, younger, or older. Compare yourself with what you were when you began or what you were a few months ago. Be your own measuring stick and progress at your own natural pace. It’s a good lesson for all of life. I don’t have frequent contact with other women who have lifting experience, and it’s ridiculous to compare myself to the guys who lift around me. At 57 years old, I’m stronger and more fit than I was at 55 or 25 for that matter. That’s what counts.
Make a reasonable plan with short-term attainable goals. It helps me to have a definite goal with a flexible date, because I often imagine I can progress faster than is possible. If I push too hard, my recovery ability can’t keep up the pace, and I end up losing strength.
Buy partial plates available at PDA. They’re worth the money because you’ll use them the rest of your life. That is how long you’re planning on lifting, right? Partial plates are especially useful if you’re using free weights, because you can add as little as ½ lb to the bar or dumbbell rather than adding two 2 ½ lb plates. Sometimes it’s easier to move forward in tiny increments, and if you add ½ or 1 pound a week, it adds up in 20 weeks.
Put your desire to progress to work in other parts of your program. Progress in consistent record-keeping and mental focus. Progress in mastery of form and good nutrition habits.
Progress in flexibility and aerobics. Check out my information on aerobic training.
Progress in your knowledge about strength training and conditioning so you can become your own expert trainer, but make sure your resources are reliable. I've given a list of my favorite web sites in my exercise section and a list of books in my health-related book list.
Master each lift before pushing to add resistance or reps. You know when you’re forcing out that last rep, grimacing and contorting, holding your breath, letting the form crumble. You also know when you have the lift nailed. Mastering the lift might mean going weeks without noticeable poundage progression, but trust that your body is preparing for the next move forward.
When you’ve worked an exercise for months and have reached a plateau that won’t budge, work those muscles in a new way. I stalled in the bench press, so I’m back to dipping now and adding weight and reps. When I stop progressing in the dip in 6 months or so, I’ll go back to the bench press. Changes are stimulating, and we get to enjoy the rapid progress that comes with an exercise that hasn’t been practiced for a while.
Progress in patience and faith in your body. If you’re sure your progress has stalled, take a week off, drop back a few pounds, make some small changes in your routine, and begin your cycle again. You’ll get there.
If You Aren't Progressing
Maybe you aren’t progressing quickly or at all, and you’re getting discouraged. Look carefully at your out-of-gym habits. Are you eating adequate amounts of good quality food? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you giving your body adequate time to recover between workouts?
If you're taking care of your recovery needs and the pressure to make gains has taken the fun out of lifting, put aside your focus on progression and do a less demanding routine for a few workouts. Ask yourself afterward: Do my muscles feel stimulated? Do I feel alive and vital? Do I feel relaxed and happy? These inner or intrinsic goals have nothing to do with outer measurement, but they will keep you going year after year.
Don’t let adding pounds be the only criteria for assessing your exercise. Each person who trains hard will reach a point where her strength gains will slow or stop—otherwise we’d all be lifting elephants. Also, despite the wonders of medicine, aging inevitably leads to a decline in fitness, no matter how healthy we are or how much we exercise. Strength training, aerobics, flexibility and other good health habits are the only reliable tools we have to slow the ravages of time, but if poundage progression is our only criteria for success, we’re all doomed to failure. Most of us won’t be making lifetime personal records when we’re 70 years old, but we still can enjoy our strength and vitality. Notice what happens to the bodies of older people who don’t exercise. What better motivation could we find!
© 2003 Elaine Mansfield