Cure to Progressive Overload Anxiety

At one point or another, any serious lifter will develop what I refer to as progressive overload anxiety. Lifting is a solo sport, so you will need to self diagnose. If you find yourself cheating your technique just to add a rep or an extra 5lbs to your lifts, or if you find yourself avoiding lifts that don’t allow for frequent progression, this program is for you. The progression scheme we’re using allows you to forget about progressive overload during your sessions, so you can reapply that focus to your technique and intensity, which ultimately is what drives the occurrence of progressive overload.

The way it works is simple: you’ll pick a weight that is challenging within the general rep range prescribed, and you’ll work with that weight for an entire calendar month. Every month, you will add 5lbs to each lift. There will be months that you are unable to add 5lbs to certain lifts, and that’s ok. It’s lift dependent, and training age dependent. Some months you may need to regress by 5lbs and re-establish good technique, and create more stimulus. That’s ok. The goal is to have net gains at the end of the year across the board. If you add 5lbs for 6 months, regress 5lbs for 2 months, and maintain for 4 months, you have added 20lbs to that lift in one year.

For milder cases of progressive overload anxiety, feel free to still track your reps, at least to an extent. For more moderate to severe cases, I’d avoid tracking reps, and just focus on training hard and using potent, stimulative technique.

Don’t overthink this! Just remember this: the harder you train, and the better your technique is, the more growth you’ll see.