An Example Of How & When To Add Weight
"Heavy Day" For Runners
Squats, Deadlifts, Shoulder Press, Bench, Pull Ups (can substitute with Lat Pull Downs)
Warm up is KEY, use just the bar and do the exercise a dozen reps. Add a tiny bit of weight where 10 reps is easy. Then you're into your work set.
For simplicity, a work set is 3x8 (3x8 = three sets of 8 reps). On day one, chose a weight you can 'comfortably' do 3x8. Each week we'll go up in weight by the smallest increment.
Let’s say that for one of the exercises in your workout routine (let’s call it Exercise XYZ) you are currently lifting 50lbs. Let’s also say that your program calls for you to do 3 sets of 8 reps for Exercise XYZ.
Now let’s say today you did Exercise XYZ and it went like this:
- Set #1: 50lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 50lbs – 8 reps
- Set #3: 50lbs – 8 reps
As you can see, you lifted 50lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps in this example. Since your program calls for you to do 3 sets of 8 reps, this workout was a success.
Since you’ve reached the prescribed set/rep goal for this exercise, it’s now time to increase the weight by the smallest increment possible. So, the next time you perform Exercise XYZ, you should do something like this:
- Set #1: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #3: 55lbs – 8 reps
See what happened? Progressive overload took place. You increased the weight you were lifting by 5lbs (which is usually the smallest possible increment) and performed that same prescribed 3 sets of 8 reps with this new slightly heavier weight.
That means this workout was once again a complete success. The next time you perform Exercise XYZ, you’d go up to 60lbs and again attempt 3 sets of 8 reps. You would then continue increasing like this as often as possible over and over again.
The only thing is, most people will NOT be able to increase this much and/or this consistently from workout to workout (beginners might, but few others will).
In fact, instead of that second successful workout shown above (the 55lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps), many people would have ended up only able to do something like this:
- Set #1: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 55lbs – 7 reps
- Set #3: 55lbs – 6 reps
This is completely normal and should still be considered a successful workout (it is still definitely progressive overload). Now, in this case, your goal the next time you perform Exercise XYZ is something like this:
- Set #1: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #3: 55lbs – 7 reps
And then the time after that…
- Set #1: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 55lbs – 8 reps
- Set #3: 55lbs – 8 reps
And the time after that…
- Set #1: 60lbs – 8 reps
- Set #2: 60lbs – 7 reps
- Set #3: 60lbs – 6 reps
And you would repeat this similar pattern of increasing reps/weight over and over again so that your body continues having a reason to adapt and improve over and over again.
Oh, and in case it isn’t obvious enough, if your weight training routine called for 3 sets of 10, 4 sets of 6, 5 sets of 5, 2 sets of 12, or any other combination of sets and reps, you’d still progress virtually the same way as shown in the above example, just with a different number of reps and sets.
