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00:00:03.279Welcome to There is a Method to the Madness.
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00:00:07.839My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer.
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00:00:13.839I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994.
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00:00:20.960The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work.
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00:00:23.760Hence the name, There is a Method to the Madness.
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00:00:30.079Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros.
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00:00:35.600They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales.
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00:00:39.840Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth?
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00:00:44.640386-451-2412.
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00:00:48.159Happy Saturday, everybody.
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00:00:54.000At least it's Saturday for me, not quite sure when this is going to be going out to you.
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00:01:01.359I wanted to give you a little podcast on some questions that I've had recently about progressive overload.
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00:01:07.840Now, I have covered progressive overload multiple times, many times, and that's okay.
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00:01:14.159I mean, it's one of the most important concepts and concepts in all of strength training and exercise.
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00:01:16.719I mean, to get better, we have to get better.
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00:01:18.480To do better, we have to do better.
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00:01:24.879I mean, we just can't do the same thing over and over again and expect any kind of different results.
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00:01:27.359I've heard before they call that insanity.
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00:01:28.400So we don't want to do that.
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00:01:32.079So progressive overload is very important.
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00:01:39.599I want to talk about, though, just very specifically and briefly today, three different kinds of overload.
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00:01:42.239And let's see which one works best for you.
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00:01:48.319The three that I'm going to cover is number one, increase the repetitions.
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00:01:52.480Number two, increase the load.
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00:02:02.560Number three, change the style and add in some progressions with your set style.
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00:02:05.760So the first one is where we always begin.
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00:02:09.039Simply increase the repetition.
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00:02:12.560I mean, that's the first thing we should always do.
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00:02:15.439That's the first thing we do at the gym.
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00:02:28.159So when a client comes in and they go for their very first workout, based on our knowledge, based on our experience, based on the assessment, we set a weight that we think is going to work with them.
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00:02:31.360And largely that is experimental, right?
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00:02:32.800I mean, we don't know for sure.
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00:02:38.879We know some information from the assessment, but we don't know for sure, but we get a really good idea.
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00:02:44.800And I would say 99 times out of 100, we're correct and don't have to change that opening weight.
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00:02:46.960But we start with a weight.
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00:02:53.520So we will do that on each particular exercise that the person's doing, just a nice starting weight.
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00:03:05.039Like let's say, for example, a sedentary person comes in of middle age, hasn't worked out in, I don't know, a few years or a few months, doesn't really matter.
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00:03:13.759Our guesstimate on the exercises is going to be pretty much across the board, the same for all of the four trainers that we have here.
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00:03:20.560You know, the leg extension might be somewhere between, say, 30 and 50 pounds, depending on their weight.
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00:03:25.840The leg curl roughly in the same range, maybe 10 pounds lighter.
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00:03:30.080The squats are going to be body weight if they can do squats.
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00:03:34.719If not, the leg press will probably be around 50 pounds.
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00:03:38.960The high row, we will start at somewhere around 25 or 30 pounds.
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00:03:46.719The chest press, anywhere from say, I mean, it could be as little as 10 up to say 50 pounds if it's a bigger male adult.
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00:03:50.639Um, the low row is going to be around 35 to 50 pounds.
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00:03:51.680So you get the idea.
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00:03:54.879We have an idea of where people are going to start.
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00:03:57.360Dumbbells are even easier, actually.
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00:04:05.360So we will do that, and you should do that, meaning set your weights late, very doable in the beginning.
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00:04:13.199We will do that for at least the first two, if not three, workouts, not increasing the weight at all.
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00:04:15.439The first day we learn form.
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00:04:22.240I mean, we we should continue to learn form as we go, but the first day, even the repetitions really don't matter that much.
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00:04:29.439It's really just a matter of kind of getting a baseline and making sure the person is learning how to do the exercise correctly.
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00:04:31.600So that's what we will do.
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00:04:34.639The next workout, the weight will be exactly the same.
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00:04:42.319I mean, I can't think of a scenario where I raise the weight on somebody's second workout unless I really drastically made a mistake with the observation.
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00:04:44.639But usually that doesn't occur.
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00:04:46.639And it would have to be a big mistake.
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00:04:55.600I mean, it would have to be like I put the weight at 30 pounds in a leg extension when they're six foot five, 300 pounds, and 70 pounds feels light to them.
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00:04:57.680But again, pretty rare, as you can see.
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00:05:00.560So then the next workout will stay with the same weight.
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00:05:04.480We'll simply increase the reps from where that person is at.
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00:05:09.199So let's say on day one, they did 10 pounds at 10 reps at 30 pounds.
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00:05:17.519Well, day two, they'll do 12 reps at 30 pounds, and that will kind of go across the board, roughly two reps more than they got the last last time.
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00:05:20.800So that is increasing the repetition.
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00:05:29.759And we typically increase the repetition until we reach the higher end of the range, which for most people is about 15 reps.
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00:05:35.920Once we hit that 15 reps, then we go to part two.
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00:05:44.480The second way we should always overload, and that is load, overload, increase the weight.
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00:05:46.399That's the second way we can do it.
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00:05:51.439Now, I want to say that like it doesn't always have to go in that linear fashion.
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00:06:04.720So, in other words, if your goal is muscular endurance only and you want to get better at doing pull-ups and push-ups, in other words, never really adding load, but increasing reps, that's the definition of endurance.
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00:06:11.040So if that's the case and that's what you're most interested in, then you would just basically always increase the reps.
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00:06:13.680So I'm not saying you always have to increase the load.
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00:06:19.279I'm saying that the natural order when you increase the load is to increase the reps first.
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00:06:21.600Okay, so it could be load all the way.
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00:06:24.639Hardly ever see that scenario, but it is possible.
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00:06:30.160So the second way we increase or overload is by adding more weight.
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00:06:33.279Weight is a way that we overload.
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00:06:38.480I mean, it's one of the most important things you can do when trying to get stronger, right?
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00:06:40.800Can you think of a more important thing?
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00:06:45.839When you're trying to get stronger, you have to use more load.
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00:06:51.199You're not going to get stronger unless you are using more load.
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00:06:54.480And I love giving this example to people all the time.
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00:07:01.360I tell them, I'm like, look, I know your goal isn't to be in a powerlifting competition.
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00:07:09.360So, you know, when I keep saying we're going to increase load so you get stronger, you know, I don't want you to think I'm trying to get you ready for a bench press competition.
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00:07:23.920I use the example of if you are doing knee extensions at 30 pounds when you first come in, and now you're doing 70 pounds for the same amount of repetitions, your strength levels have increased by 40 pounds.
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00:07:24.560Okay.
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00:07:38.160So now what used to feel hard when you're out walking around, stepping on a curb, going upstairs, now feels a lot lighter because your joints are stronger.
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00:07:44.720It's not just your muscles that get stronger, it is your joints too.
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00:07:47.199So that's the beauty of getting stronger.
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00:08:05.759So every time you're going up on an exercise, making that exercise stronger, you are now making your life easier when you're out there in the real world trying to prevent injuries and do activities of daily living.
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00:08:06.240Okay.
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00:08:11.519The only way we get stronger is by getting stronger.
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00:08:19.279That doesn't mean that we shortcut the process by using bad form, by shortening the range of motion, by throwing the weight, by using momentum.
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00:08:28.800No, we have to compare apples to apples, but increasing load when we can is how we get stronger.
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00:08:29.680All right.
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00:08:37.039Now the other way, there's other ways to overload, but I'm talking about the big three, my favorite.
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00:08:39.519The other way, my three favorites.
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00:08:55.759The other way is simply changing the set schemes, making the exercise harder by keeping you underload longer or manipulating the muscle fibers.
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00:09:03.679Okay, what that means is we can do different things like drop sets to keep tension on the muscle.
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00:09:15.840So that means after a certain point, and typically when we start using these advanced techniques, because they are advanced techniques, we kind of have reached our capacity for muscular endurance and muscular strength.
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00:09:21.679I mean, I hate to break everybody's hearts, but there does come a point where you're really not getting any stronger.
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00:09:24.320And I don't know why that bothers some people, but it does.
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00:09:25.039It's kind of weird.
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00:09:27.600I guess it would bother me too if I didn't understand it.
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00:09:29.759But let me give you a brief example on that.
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00:09:31.200Might I digress?
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00:09:42.080So if you're peaked now, but through continuing to work out, you maintain the peak and you keep doing that for 10 years.
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00:09:45.360Well, in 10 years, you're 10 years older using the same weight.
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00:09:46.399You're stronger.
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00:09:47.120Get it?
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00:09:50.720You're stronger at whatever age you would have been if you didn't.
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00:09:53.919So there's nothing wrong with peaking.
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00:09:55.360We're going to peak.
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00:10:01.679There are little tricks around it to try to get around it, to try to change it a little, but for the most part, you're going to peak.
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00:10:04.240I peaked, I peaked long ago on my strength.
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00:10:05.279That's okay.
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00:10:16.159But what we do at that point when we want to continue to challenge ourselves and we want to increase hypertrophy, which is muscular muscular cell enlargement.
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00:10:20.960There are things we can do, and that's where we can do these types of things.
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00:10:24.159Drop sets or descending sets.
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00:10:32.879That means we can do our 10 reps, rest five seconds, decrease the load by 50% or 25% or whatever.
00:10:32.960 -->
00:10:36.159There's different schemes you can do and do 10 more.
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00:10:38.879Rest five more seconds, do 10 more.
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00:10:41.759So those are like drop sets and descending sets.
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00:10:45.759It's a great, efficient way to make the workout harder.
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00:10:49.200That is a form of overload.
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00:11:03.919There's supersetting where you can do two exercises back to back, whether it be classically upper and lower body, or classically agonist and antagonist, meaning the primary and the opposite.
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00:11:05.360That's a common superset.
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00:11:09.440Or it could just be two exercises of the same muscle group back to back.
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00:11:16.399That's another way you can overload without increasing the load, without increasing the rep.
00:11:17.039 -->
00:11:26.879It's simply changing the intensity, giving your body and mind something else to focus on, a challenge.
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00:11:28.639A lot of people like those.
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00:11:32.559I like those a lot because they're very mentally doable.
00:11:32.879 -->
00:11:46.639Another way to overload without increasing the repetitions or the load is to do harder exercises of the same muscle pattern, which I've covered before in previous podcasts.
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00:11:52.320So if your push-ups are getting a little bit old, you've overloaded them as much as you can.
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00:11:56.879You can do push-ups on different things like bosu balls or heck.
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00:12:00.480I used to have a trainer that could do them on a Swiss ball.
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00:12:08.399Not just his legs, because that's something you can do too, but literally pushing his hands on the ball and being able to do a bunch of them.
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00:12:15.600So there's ways we can change the exercises up that make it fun and challenging.
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00:12:16.159Okay.
00:12:16.879 -->
00:12:23.919So there's not just one way to overload, there's a lot of different ways to overload.
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00:12:25.360I like all of them.
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00:12:30.320I use all of them for my clients and myself.
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00:12:34.320We have to increase the reps before we increase the load.
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00:12:38.960Once we do that, it's pretty prudent to increase the load.
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00:12:43.679After a certain point, you might peek out, and now it's kind of like, okay, it's fun time.
00:12:43.759 -->
00:12:44.480I peaked out.
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00:12:50.559What can I do to add challenge, variety, and a little bit of fun to this workout?
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00:13:01.360Well, that's where we can do breakdown sets, drop sets, the supersets, changing the modes of exercise, doing different things with the same loads that you used before.
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00:13:05.200So you're really not going backwards, you're just mixing it up.
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00:13:05.919All right.
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00:13:15.440So the idea of this podcast is the method to the menace to explain why we have to overload in this case, and then different ways we can do it.
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00:13:16.240All right.
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00:13:17.519Happy Saturday.
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00:13:23.679Get out there, exercise, do some form of overload, or at least do the best you can.
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00:13:28.240Thank you everybody for listening to today's show.
00:13:28.399 -->
00:13:29.679I really appreciate it.
00:13:29.919 -->
00:13:34.399I ask you and I ask you to please hit automatic download.
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00:13:36.320It really helps the show.
00:13:36.639 -->
00:13:43.600It is and please send this to people that you think might enjoy it or maybe need to listen to it.
00:13:44.320 -->
00:13:49.759Now I'm very excited to thank a new sponsor who has come on board.
00:13:50.080 -->
00:13:51.679Now I am very excited to be excited.
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