(upbeat music)
-: So let's answer the question of,
why we're doing this whole Progressive Overload.
I kind of hinted it, with the physiology,
bullet on the last one.
Which is, because like our goal is,
we're creating a stimulus, right?
(mouth clicking)
And, because of that stress and stimulus
that we put on the body, right?
Our body is going to adapt, and you know,
we're gonna run a recovery fast, et cetera.
And so the theory of Progressive Overload is that like,
well, okay, to continue to get that stimulus,
we're either gonna have to, work to a greater degree.
Because basically the threshold is increasing.
Okay?
And that is, in many ways, a true concept.
But, that can be mistaken to the point
that you always need to be moving up every single session,
every time you repeat it and exercise.
And, while,
especially if you understand how to use all these tools,
you likely will be able to progress quite often.
I'm gonna try and give you guys some visualizations
to understand that, we're moving a threshold,
but you may not necessarily be
at the very bottom of that threshold,
meaning that like, well, okay.
After I do today's training,
doing that again would never provide a stimulus again.
We're moving at a bigger target,
than when we think in terms of the stimulus.
And so, it'll make more sense when we kind of look
at some visuals.
But that's one thing I want you to understand is that,
the goal of Progressive Overload is
that we are increasing what we're doing,
to consistently hit that threshold,
where we're getting a stimulus.
And as we do that, the adaptations are going
to raise the bar, for them.
I mean, simply like, if we add,
if we grow more muscle tissue, right?
Well then, loading more muscle tissue
with the same amount of load, and the same amount of reps,
is now less muscular work.
So, because of the adaptation,
that's actually a regression in volume,
you know, in terms of how much muscular work that is,
like especially if we include the intensity factor
to that, right?
So even though I may be moving the same amount of pounds,
the same amount of space, right?
In terms of like, well,
how hard was it for that muscular tissue?
And then how much mechanical tension
did we really stimulate?
If we didn't progress, the work demand,
as we grew new muscle,
or we became more neurologically efficient,
or became more bio-mechanically or,
you know, our energy system efficient,
because our performance capabilities has gone up,
that same amount of work,
may not hit that threshold for stimulus.
Okay?
And so, that's the whole reason that we are going
to focus on, how do I progress that stimulus
in a way, where progress the work that I'm doing in a way,
that is still a stimulus above that threshold
that's gonna give me the adaptations I want.
So, Progressive Overload,
it's not an automatic requirement all times,
because it doesn't mean you have to go up
from where you are,
but just know that that threshold is moving.
And so, when we look at these visuals,
try and help you kind of see that, where our goal is,
is that we're always hitting in that space,
where, we're gonna get positive adaptations.
So, without further ado, my fancy graphics.
And I just want to pause here for a second,
and tell you guys that,
I really whipped out my visualization skills
for this course, for these charts here.
So, really take a time to soak this in.
Alright.
So, the first of like the 50 bell curves,
that we're gonna walk through, just kidding,
it's not quite 50.
But the first of many, right?
Is we're just kinda looking at,
what the current situation is,
in terms of that stimulus threshold.
So, if we look at the vertical axis being the stimulus,
and the horizontal axis being the volume.
Okay?
And when I say like, you know,
stimulus, it's like, okay, that's gonna be thinking of it,
as is like, the intensity and stuff
that we're working at, et cetera.
Right? So,
So, if we don't do enough volume,
it doesn't matter if we do one set at an RPE,
you know 15, it's probably not gonna be enough.
Okay?
But also, if, you know, we're not doing very much,
then it's probably not gonna be enough either.
So, what I've done here, is I've taken a bell curve,
and I've provided you kind of a target window.
'Cause what we wanna do, is we wanna find that ratio,
of like the volume of work, that we're doing,
and then the intensity at which we're doing that workout,
or proximity to failure that we're doing,
that workout, where we get kind of
the most efficient stimulus.
So that's where that stimulus threshold kind of is.
And what you'll see is that, it kinda sits in that window,
like the bottom threshold exists, in an angle
that tapers down as volume goes up.
So what that means is,
if I'm working in a little bit higher intensity,
I'm gonna be able to get by
with a little bit less volume of work.
But, if I'm doing a little bit more volume of work,
I may be able to get by, with a little less intensity.
And in this case, I'm using intensity,
as the same thing as saying a higher proximity to failure,
a higher RPE, lower RAR, et cetera.
So, at any given moment,
these are the conditions that you have.
You have kind of like this target volume window,
where it's like, okay, if I work,
if I do this much mechanical work,
and as long as I perform it, at an appropriate intensity,
that's gonna be my place
where I'm gonna get the best stimulus.
All right?
And, you know, this may be wider, taller,
different shapes for different individuals,
but this is the concept,
that we're thinking about when we're visualizing,
this moving target, that we're trying to hit
via Progressive Overload.
So now, if we kinda look at this, and we say like, okay,
if I put a top bar on there, and I say, all right,
this is our kind of stimulus range.
Okay?
And I don't have quite the skills
to make a top cut off bell curve or whatever.
But realistically, this is gonna kinda be where it is,
because, what we'll start to see is,
if we start to try and push that stimulus too high,
we're not gonna get that much more adaptation from that.
So that means that like, okay,
there's a sweet spot for volume,
there's a sweet spot for intensity, within there.
And what you will see is the lower the volume,
the higher that intensity ranging is.
And, the higher the volume,
the lower that intensity range is, in general.
Again remember, principles, not rules, but there is a cap.
Okay?
So, keep that in mind.
What happens outside this window,
essentially is gonna be diminishing returns, right?
So we don't wanna be doing too little volume,
we don't wanna be to too much volume,
We don't wanna be too low intensity,
You don't wanna be too high intensity,
we wanna stay in that specific spot.
Now, we do that.
We accomplish it.
We nailed it.
What happens?
Well, the bell curve is going to shift.
And in this case, it's shifting to the right,
on my screen, hope it's the same on your screen.
I don't know if I have a reversed window here,
so, if this is right or this is right, whatever.
The green one is, the new one.
That's the important thing.
So, the yellow line, that was our previous bell curve.
And so it happens, is this entire window shifts, right?
So now, we have those double parallel lines,
they moved over.
And we have a new target volume window, right?
(mouth clicking)
And, this shift can occur slower, faster,
it can move more laterally, or more vertical,
in different individuals.
But the principle is,
is it's always gonna move, somewhat to the right and up,
you know, is kind of what it's gonna do.
So, when we were talking about Progressive Overload,
not always being required.
If you can notice, there's a lot of overlap,
and I'm gonna move on to my next visual here,
so that you can kind of see,
well, there were space in the yellow,
that has overlapped with space in the green, right?
If I come back here, you look at that gap there,
I could do something, in the middle, of this,
and it would still be in that window for adaptation there.
So this is why, we don't necessarily
have to be doing Progressive Overload,
every single session that we do it.
Right?
So, basically, as long as I'm still operating
within that threshold,
I should still be getting an adaptation, right?
So, I don't always have to increase volume,
or always have to increase intensity every single workout,
every single session.
But there will come a time, when I do.
So that's the thing.
And the thing is, there's different approaches,
that you could take,
you could maintain kind of like,
the same stimulus work, et cetera.
I should say just the same amount of work volume,
and wait until you think the curve is starting
to move past you, and then make a big jump,
or, you could try and make a bunch of small jumps,
so that, you're kind of continuing to move with the curve.
And I would say they're depending on the goal,
the individual, et cetera.
The accuracy and the amount of data,
that you have to work with,
is that both of those are gonna be valid approaches.
The goal is, that you're always, you know,
you're always hitting in that kind of, you know,
above that threshold,
within that kind of target volume window,
and stimulus window, and you're always getting progress
from your training.
You don't want to nonchalantly keep doing the same thing,
and the window has moved way past you,
and you're just sitting here not getting results.
You also don't wanna jump too far ahead.
Okay?
'Cause you remember, there's a cap on this.
So, if you're just too aggressive and you just increase
for the sake that you need to increase,
you can work yourself right outside of that,
right outside of what is the optimal window,
and start getting diminishing returns,
and, you know, if you're really crazy about it,
you could even start, you know, regressing, right?
You could get into the point
where you're over-training and recovering.
You know, and get to the point where you're gonna have a,
you know, a setback either from injury,
or having to take an extended de-load, et cetera.
And your net progress over time,
is gonna be less for that.
The best progress that you can make over time,
is to constantly be in that window.
And what I would say is that,
you know, this is where you can look at some of the things
we'll talk about these, you know, later,
like with things like a, minimal effective volume,
maximal effective volume, maximum recoverable volume,
or maximum adaptable volume, like all these little things.
And the goal is not necessarily to be
touching the line at either case,
because then that leaves you having
to be very, very precise, with your adjustments
to stay in that threshold.
In a perfect scenario, you're somewhere in the middle.
Right?
And that's gonna be a very hard thing to know,
which is why, you should definitely aim for that,
and not try and be at the maximal or the minimal
likely well.
Because, optimal is likely going to be somewhere
in the middle.
Okay?
So, if we look at this, and we now we look at it
over a longer period of time,
we have this entire window shift, okay?
Eventually those intensities are gonna
have to come up.
And what they do, is as they go up,
they can make a certain amount of volume, like problematic.
So.
(breathing loudly)
If we get to a point, where, we have to progress,
like, so, so, so much, likely this is the case,
where now it's time to take periodization into account,
and change the way that we're training, or de-load,
or doing something, that can lower the threshold for us.
'Cause what happens is that in order to achieve this,
either have to be working at,
impossible intensities at a lower volume,
or I have to be doing a ton of volume.
So, if we look back at this guy here,
and we look at this small shift, right?
And we compare that, to something that has shifted
the way the right, and all of a sudden,
now it's taking a tremendously high intensity
and high volume for me to continue
to benefit from this style training.
Wouldn't it be nice, if I could get that threshold,
to shift back, to where I was able to get better results out
of lower volume?
And so, once we do, like a de-load,
or we spend time in a different training phase,
and this is something that we talk about,
like a lot in our training and program design
for trainability, of course.
And that is, we're using these things
to potentiate other systems,
because they're gonna affect that threshold,
they're gonna affect the stimulus.
(upbeat music)