After your newbie gaining phase, there comes a time when you simply can’t just “add weight to the bar” workout after workout — doing so as an intermediate or advanced lifter will eventually lead to compromised form, and probable injury. As an experienced lifter, progress slows down and instead of lifting more weight every workout in order to progress, other factors need to be taken into account and worked on in order to build quality muscle. In this Pur Pharma article, we’re going to go over a few key components of a lift so that you can work on progressive overload.
What is progressive overload?
In the simplest of terms… progressive overload is the act of progressively overloading your muscles! To be a bit more specific, to progressively overload means to improve on your exercises efficiently over a period of time. Many people think that progressive overload only means more reps and more weight on the bar; however, this simply isn’t the case. There are many things that go into a perfect set or lift, and with that, many things to refine. Let’s check out a few of our favourite to our checklist that ensure great progressive overload when improved upon.
Pack extra weight onto the bar
Adding more weight to the bar is the simplest way to work on progressive overload! When you add more weight to your lifts, your muscles are proven to grow as they’re being given more stimulus. For beginner lifters, it can be quite easy to do an exercise one week, and the next week add 10-20 pounds and do the same amount of sets & reps with that new weight. However, for more advanced lifters, things get a bit trickier. A great anabolic for gaining ridiculous strength as well as dense muscles is LGD-4033. Being more potent than testosterone, small dosages will take you a long way. Even if you’re more experienced, you can still progressively overload by adding more weight to your exercises — just at a much slower rate than newbies. With that being the case, many experienced lifters periodize their workouts & lifts so progress doesn’t stall.
Add more volume to your sets
Another simple way to progress in your workouts is to increase relative volume. If you can bench 135 for 12 reps on one week, then a week later are able to bench that same weight for 15 (3 extra) reps, that’s a boost in volume that’ll lead to muscle growth! With volume being a great way to add more stimulus to your muscles and implement progressive overload, it’s important to measure your workout’s volume. Doing too many reps and sets per exercise can result in overtraining and poor recovery, which can actually inhibit muscle growth. Taking an Equipoise and Masteron Enanthate cycle can result in great endurance and improve your progress on high rep sets.
Take less rest time between sets
Usually it’s important to take as much efficient rest as possible between each set — usually 2-5 minutes between sets with moderate to heavy weight. If you find yourself resting less than you did last workout, while working out with the same weight and the same reps as last time, that’s another form of progressive overload! If your muscles are resting less, but still able to lift the same weight for the same volume as last time, that means they’ve gotten stronger and built up endurance.
Work on better form
One of the most important factors to building muscle mass is lifting with proper form. If your form improves week after week, even with less weight some workouts, that’s still a great way to progressively overload muscles and it WORKS. With better form, you’ll be able to contract a muscle more efficiently and therefore get more growth out of it. Improved form includes controlling the weight & working on time under tension, better bar path, and proper setup & execution. Perfecting your form can lead to fitness longevity, excellent joint health (especially when paired with NPP), and will eventually lead to being able to lift more weight! As a plus, if you’re lifting good weight with even better form, gym bros and bodybuilders across the gym will look at you with tons of respect.
Pause your reps!
This one is a little bonus, but pausing reps is a fantastic way to improve form, increase time under tension, and make the exercise more difficult by reducing momentum and ramping up mechanical tension. If you are hitting three plates on deadlifts for three sets of five reps on one workout, and then pausing that same weight for the same three sets of five reps, progressive overload is being executed and muscle is proven to grow.e
Hopefully after reading this article, you can pack on some dense new muscle mass with our highly effective anabolic steroids and workout tips. For more fitness and steroid news, check back next month as new content is coming your way. Until next time, Pur Pharma out.
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