In the previous installment of this series, I discussed the SRA cycle and how it provides the framework for training. Stress, the initial phase of the SRA cycle, was defined as the stimulus that continually drives adaptation, the requisite being that the stress is applied in increasing magnitudes to prevent stalled progress. While this concept may sound fairly simple, the game plan can get a little more complex when it comes to real-world application.
The act of increasing training stress to surpass a current adaptive baseline is known as presenting overload. For the purpose of this post, I’ll just use the lone term “overload” to refer to an increased training stress that subsequently produces adaptation. The phrase “overload training,” especially in the context of strength training, has a bit more specific meaning, which I’ll save for a future post.
There are many different methods for producing overload, which can vary greatly depending on your training goals and what adaptations you are trying to build. Though from a broad sense, keep in mind that the overarching principle of overload has to do with training stress, which can be applied to any and all desired training outcome. I’ll keep things general for the sake of this post being more of an “applicable concept guide” rather than a “x-Week [insert event] Specialization Program.” Because of this, I’ll break down the process of producing overload into the manipulation of two main training variables: intensity and volume.
Intensity
Training intensity, in this sense, has nothing to do with how sweaty you get during your workout or what shade of red your face is at the end of it, though sometimes those can certainly be side effects. Think of intensity simply as what you are doing for a certain exercise in relation to your maximum limit in that exercise.
For example, in terms of strength training, intensity is most often expressed as %1RM, or percentage of your one-rep max. However, a more subjective metric such as RPE (rate of perceived exertion) may also be used. Conversely, intensity of aerobic training is often tracked relative to heart rate, whether it be percentage of max heart rate, heart rate reserve, or some other kind of measure that relies on feedback from the cardiorespiratory system.
Depending on your training goal and what your training program looks like, your strategy for keeping tabs on intensity can vary. The important thing is to identify your markers for training intensity and keep record of them. This is essential so that over time you’ll know what intensities you’ll need to train at in order to produce overload.
Producing overload via intensity when it comes to strength training is pretty simple – add weight. Increasing the load, whether it be weight on the bar, heavier dumbbells, a thicker band, etc., is the only way to guarantee that you are moving further toward your max and will eventually surpass it. This is easy to do workout to workout in the beginning stages of training, but becomes a bit slower process as you advance. Have patience and know that as long as training loads eventually increase, you’re moving in the right direction.
Overloading intensity during conditioning workouts usually concerns pace, whether it be the amount of work done in a certain time frame (or just simply speed) or a gauge of heart rate or perceived exertion. Personally, I like to prescribe conditioning workouts that have a cap on either time, work, or rounds. This way you are always able to easily see if you are doing more work in an allotted time or the same amount of work in less time. I also like that it provides more room for variation and flexibility.
So now the question is: how much and how often do I need to increase intensity? Well, I’m going to go with the airtight yet lazy answer of “it depends.” Because of training experience, amounts of increased intensity can look very different in both numerical amounts and frequency. So without opening up into a whole other article discussing training intensity details for anyone and everyone, I’ll leave you with this highly adaptable nugget of wisdom: if things are starting to feel too light or too easy, they probably are. Of course we all have good days where we feel bulletproof, but if the feeling of ease is prolonged into several consecutive workouts, it’s usually time to bump the intensity up.
Of course we can never rely on increasing intensity alone to get us to our goals. After all, we can only move so much weight or run so fast. The last time I checked, nobody’s been able to just continually add weight and move their legs faster to attain Thor Bjornsson strength and Usain Bolt speed. Due to this limitation, we must also rely on another variable to produce the stress necessary for overload: volume.
Volume
Training volume is simply defined as the total amount of work done during a workout or training cycle. Volume can be expressed in different units, like reps, sets, tonnage, or even total mileage for endurance trainees.
Because of the implications that different intensities can have on equated volumes (5 sets of 3 at 85% provides a different magnitude of stress than 5 sets of 3 at 70%), I prefer to look at volume from the view of total work done. For example, tonnage is a calculation of total work done from a bout of resistance exercise, in which sets, reps, and the weight lifted are multiplied together. In this case, 5 sets of 5 with 100 lbs would be expressed as 2,500 lbs of work (5x5x100). However, if intensities are held relatively stable, tracking total reps or total working sets can still be a pretty accurate measure for most.
From the standpoint of using volume as a tool to produce overload, there are multiple variables you can manipulate to achieve the desired increase. Adding reps, sets, or weight can all be used to raise the amount of work for the next workout, training week, or training cycle. Though to keep things a little more sustainable in the long run, I advise focusing on changing only one variable at a time, at least within the span of session to session or week to week.
For instance, adding more weight while also adding a few sets and taking all those sets to failure will definitely present overload, although probably too much overload to fully recover from before the next session. This often creates as a trickle-down effect in which one unnecessarily brutal workout hinders your ability to train hard for the next few workouts. (think one step forward, two steps back). And even then, where do you go up for the next session or week if you already hit the ceiling and stuck there? To describe volume progression in an oversimplified model, you should always start out with the minimal effective dose and incrementally build up to the maximal necessary dose, gradually introducing overload as you go.
Side note – an easy way to increase volume during a training week is to increase frequency, or the number of days per week that you train (especially if you have a limited window of time to train each day). If you choose to go this route, it is advisable to keep volume on the newly added day to a relative minimum and add volume to it slowly. It is far too easy to mistakenly create an exponential increase in volume just from adding a day and not realizing that you’re instantly burning out because you automatically added 20 working sets. Again, gradual overload equals sustained progress.
Due to the impact of volume on overload, it is important to track your training volume both short and long-term. Most people will pay the majority of their attention to measures of intensity over time, like weight on the bar or the time in which they complete their workout. That being said, if you seem to hit a plateau and can no longer increase intensity, you likely need to add more volume, even if it means scaling back the intensity for a bit.
Deloading
As I’ve discussed before, training stress accumulates and the repeated bouts of overload introduced through training can take their toll over time. Obviously we can’t just continue to repeatedly overload until we either resemble Superman or die trying. That is where the necessity of deloading comes into effect. Deloading is the act of taking time (usually around a week) to significantly decrease both training intensity and volume in order for accumulated fatigue to dissipate. By utilizing a deload period every once in a while, not only do you allow for recovery to return to optimal levels, but you also promote a re-sensitivity to training that enhances the adaptive effect when you start your normal workouts back up.
It is important to note that a deload week is not the same as an “off week.” It is imperative that you still get in the gym and train, even if it is less days or requires less weight on the bar. There is a considerable difference between deloading and detraining, and you should hold no interest in the latter.
Although the need for how frequent one should deload depends on a myriad of factors and can vary greatly among people, I wouldn’t advise anyone train longer than 10-12 consecutive weeks without taking at least one deload week. For those who are advanced and can thus introduce much larger amounts of fatigue, deloading more often may be necessary.
Also, a quick word to those who proclaim that deloads are never needed – if you believe this is the case for you, then either:
A) Your training, by definition, doesn’t actually produce overload consistently (even if you claim your training to be “hardcore”)
or
B) You are, in fact, not a normal human and are of the same blood as that fellow from the planet Krypton that I mentioned earlier.
Your long-term training should never be defined by how much you can theoretically do, but how much you can recover from. And everyone has a limit on recovery capacity, even those genetic freaks in some professional sports. Biology still applies to all of us human folk, after all.
Recap
- The act of consistently introducing overload is crucial in continually advancing the SRA cycle and thus driving forward long-term training progress.
- Overload is achieved primarily by increasing training intensity and/or volume.
- Intensity and volume should be increased gradually over time to ensure sustained progress and avoid burnout.
- Deloading periods should be taken every so often in order to promote both recovery from the fatigue of accumulated overload events and re-sensitivity to future training.
Feel free to comment with any questions or thoughts; you can also contact me directly at strengthscrolls@gmail.com
Thanks for reading!
Strength Scrolls 