Progressive Overload MISTAKES Most Lifters Make (I DID TOO!)

Summary

This video by Geoffrey Verity Schofield delves into the common mistakes lifters make with progressive overload in their training regimes. Schofield identifies key issues like stagnation in lifting weights due to comfort zones, overly optimistic expectations, premature quitting, or frequently changing programs. He emphasizes the importance of patience, consistency, and realistic expectations in achieving gains over time. He also warns against allowing bad form or thinking that only adding more weight is a sign of progress. Overall, Schofield offers insightful advice for both beginners and advanced lifters aiming to optimize their training.

Highlights

• Lifters often fail by sticking to the same weight, missing out on growth opportunities. 📉
• Expect progress to slow down over time due to biological reasons; manage your expectations accordingly. ⌛
• Recognize that slight improvements, even if not immediately visible, indicate progress. 🔍
• Avoid letting form deteriorate while increasing weight; stricter form can equate to better stimulation and growth. 📏
• Weight increase isn't the only form of progression; reps, form, and range of motion matter, too. 🔄
• Over-specialization can temporarily boost max lifts but may not lead to sustainable progress. ⚠️

Key Takeaways

• Don't stick to your comfort zone; challenge yourself with heavier weights to make progress. 🏋️‍♂️
• Progressive gains will slow down as you advance; manage your expectations accordingly. 📉
• Consistency in training plans leads to better long-term gains than constantly changing them. 🔄
• Form is crucial; don't sacrifice technique for more weight. Perfect technique equals better gains. 🤸‍♂️
• Counting reps and managing weight aren't the only ways to progress; form improvements also count. ➕
• Avoid over-specialization; focus on well-rounded strength and muscle growth. 🌱

Overview

Embarking on a fitness journey often means grappling with the principles of progressive overload—a principle lifters know well but often misapply. In this engaging video, Geoffrey Verity Schofield outlines several mistakes, one being the lifters' comfort zone error. Too many stick with familiar weights, hindering growth potential. Schofield humorously compares the process to wooing, reemphasizing that to grow muscles, discomfort is part of the game, akin to sweet-talking heavier weights.

Another major point is the misguided expectation of linear progression in lifting. Beginners often enjoy rapid progressions known as 'newbie gains,' but as one advances, the rate of improvement slows, which is simply biology. Geoffrey highlights that progress isn't always about adding weight. Improvements in reps and form count too and that advanced lifters must prepare for slower, more gradual gains.

Form is just as important as lifting heavier weights. Schofield warns against sloppy techniques that claim to prioritize strength over form. While adding weights feels progressive, ensuring each lift is performed correctly ensures muscle stimulation and growth is maximized. Additionally, lifters are cautioned against over-specialization, as this may yield temporary strength gains but not a lasting, holistic improvement.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Progressive Overload Mistakes The chapter introduces the concept of Progressive Overload and compares it to Valentine's Day, suggesting that both are important yet often misunderstood. It highlights that people are unsure of how to approach Progressive Overload, similar to how they might feel about Valentine's Day, and emphasizes that failing to act can lead to metaphorical disappointment. The chapter also sets the stage to discuss six common mistakes related to Progressive Overload that the author has observed and personally encountered.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Mistake 1: Not Practicing Progressive Overload This chapter highlights the importance of practicing progressive overload in weight training. It describes a common mistake where individuals use the same weight consistently over long periods, believing they are engaged in hypertrophy training. The narrative critiques this stagnant approach, emphasizing the necessity to gradually increase the weight to achieve growth and improvement in fitness.
• 02:30 - 05:00: Mistake 2: Overly Optimistic Expectations In this chapter titled 'Mistake 2: Overly Optimistic Expectations', the focus is on the misconceptions people have about comfort and difficulty during training or challenging tasks. The narration emphasizes that discomfort and difficulty are inherent to growth and progress. Specifically, the text highlights that people often expect tasks like lifting heavy weights to feel comfortable, which is an unrealistic expectation. Instead, it's stressed that feeling strain is normal and should be expected when dealing with challenging endeavors such as lifting 300-plus pounds, which naturally shouldn't feel comfortable. The chapter calls for adjusting one's expectation from seeking comfort to embracing the challenges and difficulties as part of the process.
• 05:30 - 10:00: Mistake 3: Quitting or Changing Programs Too Early This chapter discusses the common mistake of quitting or switching training programs too soon. It highlights the importance of consistency and patience with a new program, even if initial results aren't ideal. For example, when increasing weights in exercises like the incline dumbbell bench press, initial performance may drop (e.g., fewer reps with 110 pounds compared to 100 pounds). However, perseverance will ultimately lead to improvements and better outcomes over time, emphasizing the concept of building up strength and endurance gradually.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Mistake 4: Expecting Linear Progress This chapter discusses the common mistake of expecting linear progress in fitness and strength training. The focus is on the importance of experimenting with heavier weights occasionally, rather than consistently using the same weight. By attempting heavier weights, you can potentially increase your maximum capacity for various repetitions (such as 8 rep max, 12 rep max, etc.), leading to overall improved performance. The analogy used is akin to playing a game where you test how heavier weights feel, illustrating that this approach can help in acclimating oneself to greater physical challenges.
• 13:00 - 19:00: Mistake 5: Form Issues in Lifting The chapter discusses the common mistake of having form issues during lifting exercises, particularly focusing on the aspect of load management. It emphasizes that people often have overly optimistic expectations about their workout progress. The general principle conveyed is that the rate of improvement typically decelerates as one progresses from a beginner to an advanced level. This natural decline is attributed to biological factors, although it's mentioned that optimizing processes might help to some extent. Overall, it reinforces the idea that slowing progress is a normal part of the fitness journey.
• 19:00 - 23:00: Mistake 6: Focusing Solely on Weight Increase In this chapter, the focus is on the common mistake people make of concentrating solely on weight increase during workouts. As individuals progress from beginner to intermediate levels, they often expect their progress to be as rapid as during their beginner phase, often termed as 'newbie gains.' However, it's emphasized that this isn't feasible as one becomes more advanced, and progress naturally slows down. The chapter also discusses a personal experience involving a change of gyms where the dumbbell weights fluctuated slightly due to different increments, highlighting the importance of understanding and adapting to such variations in weight training.
• 23:00 - 28:00: Bonus Mistake: Over Specialization This chapter, titled 'Bonus Mistake: Over Specialization', discusses the issue of over-specialization in training and progression. It illustrates this point through the example of a significant six-month progression in incline dumbbell curls. The narrator highlights a substantial increase in reps over three years, advancing from 24 kilos to 25 kilos, from three reps to eight, showcasing the nuances and differences in progression even with seemingly similar weights and reps. This reflects how minor adjustments and perseverance can lead to noticeable long-term gains despite the illusion of stagnation.
• 28:00 - 31:00: Conclusion and Additional Resources The conclusion highlights the slow progress that comes with advanced weightlifting. Over three years, the speaker mentions achieving an increase of five reps and one kilo, emphasizing that this gradual progression could be disappointing when viewed on a monthly basis. The example provided averages out to roughly one rep every four to six months. The narrative reflects the unrealistic expectations some people have, playfully alluding to the exaggeration of quickly jumping to heavier weights, such as 30 kilo dumbbells. The speaker also points out that many advanced lifters opt not to share their progress publicly due to its seemingly minimal nature, despite being significant at their level of advancement.

Progressive Overload MISTAKES Most Lifters Make (I DID TOO!) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 now Progressive overload it's a little bit like Valentine's Day now hear me out they're both important you know you should do something but you're not really sure what to do and if you don't do anything you know you're kind of [ __ ] well not not actually but you're metaphorically plus if you feel like you have to ask what to do kind of ruins the mood a little bit doesn't it and there's always some guy in the background yelling harder than last time right so here are six Progressive overload mistakes that I have seen and also done
• 00:30 - 01:00 myself many times before the first one they don't do it so you see the guy in the gym and a year ago he was doing a certain weight and right now he's doing the same weight and a year from now he's going to be doing the same weight and he's yeah I'm doing hypertrophy training 8 to 12 20 lb dumbbells that's my weight that's the weight that I use and you're like 25s no no that would break no 20s 20s is my weight and weight training is
• 01:00 - 01:30 not really supposed to feel entirely comfortable there shouldn't be pain you should avoid that but Comfort is something that's not really going to be there it should be hard it should be strenuous it should be uncomfortable when I hear people say stuff like you know the bar doesn't feel entirely comfortable on my back when I unrack it in squats like once I get to three plates it's a little bit uncomfortable why would it feel comfortable it's 300 plus pounds that's not going to feel comfortable for a long
• 01:30 - 02:00 time maybe even ever and your reps might drop off if you go from say 100 pounds in the inclin dumbbell bench press and now you're using 110 yeah you might only get three four five reps the first time you do it and that's not like strictly speaking the best for hypertrophy but you've got your foot in the door again Valentine's Day you've got your foot in the door and now you can sweet talk the 110 pound dumbbells and maybe get more reps in in the future and and that's really what it's all about right and I
• 02:00 - 02:30 would almost rather have someone shoot their shot at that heavier weight just to see how it feels and how it goes and perhaps play a little game called just a tip just for a second just to see how it feels rather than always using the same weight because sometimes trying that heavier weight will drag up the lighter weights as well so just trying that heavier weight it brings up your eight rep max your 12 rep max your 15 your 20 because you are now used to that heav
• 02:30 - 03:00 load so yeah load management pretty number two they have overly optimistic expectations now as a general rule of thumb from beginner to intermediate to Advanced to Elite your progress will slow down over time assuming you're doing everything pretty well I think that if you optimize the process and if you get better at getting better you can maybe make it a little bit more linear but in general progress will slow down that's sort of just biology so people go from being a
• 03:00 - 03:30 beginner to intermediate and they expect progress to be the same as when they were getting their newbie gains that's just not going to happen and when you're more advanced like I am progress is going to be even slower I changed gyms and the dumbbells went from 20 22 24 26 28 30 kilos to 20 22 and 1/2 25 27 and 1/2 30 so very similar amounts and the 24 versus the 25 dumbbells
• 03:30 - 04:00 big difference I mean that was probably six months of progress right there now someone might think oh no it's the same 24 25 it's the same same not the same same same but different that is a long amount of progression when you're Advanced and I'll put my progression up on the screen for the incline dumbbell curl 24 kilos for three reps four five six reps then the 25 kilos for seven reps and eight reps over the course of three years so
• 04:00 - 04:30 over three years five reps and one kilo I think a lot of people would be very disappointed by that rated progression especially if you looked at it month by month and so that's what probably one rep every six five four months somewhere in there and so when people are like yeah bro take the 30 kilo dumbbells next week I'm like all right well if only if only and a lot of advanced lifters won't even share their progress because it
• 04:30 - 05:00 makes them look bad it makes them look like they don't know what they're doing like they're doing something wrong but that's not the case that's just where they are on that curve and over the past two years across multiple bulks and cuts I've put on half an inch on my arms couple inches on my chest and a little over an inch on my thighs so yeah when you're more advanced progress is going to be just much slower still visible but
• 05:00 - 05:30 you just can't have the same expectations as when you were a beginner and I think it can help to zoom out if I tell someone hey would you be happy with three inches on your arms in three years most people would be like hell yeah that's lock me in that's awesome what about one inch in one year yeah that's that's pretty good yeah yeah yeah what about half an inch and half a year I start to think a little bit more what about a quarter of an inch in 3 months yeah I don't know what about an eighth of an inch in a month and a half
• 05:30 - 06:00 you know oh that's you can't even see an eighth of an inch right and so when you get down to the nitty-gritty of making decisions often you have to accept the fact that progress is going to be slow and perhaps in some cases barely even visible number three they quit too early or they program hop or they exercise swap they say oh I'm plateaued but in terms of the numbers you might be plateaued when progress is actually happening under the surface I've done
• 06:00 - 06:30 this many times where on paper according to the training log I wasn't making any progress but in the gym because I was observant I knew things were headed in the right direction maybe the Reps were getting slightly faster at the very end so I got the same number of reps but instead of like a 7c grinder at the end it was like a 5-second grinder and the next session it was a 4 second grinder and I even attempted the next rep but I failed then the next time it was even
• 06:30 - 07:00 faster for the last rep and then I attempted the rep and I almost got it but I didn't quite get it on paper those are all the same thing those are all the same numbers of reps but in terms of performance that is actually a very very good sign and so I'm not saying you have to write this in your trending log I don't but you can think back to last time you have this capacity to say okay well yeah I'm getting a little bit better every single section and on
• 07:00 - 07:30 pretty much any movement there are some fast gains to be had at the very beginning of introducing that movement so when I first introduced incline dumbbell curls on this weight I went from three reps to four reps in a month and four reps to five rep reps with two more months after that and I don't really recommend threes and fours and fives but you know not the end of the world just a tip but progress slowed down after that so when you first introduce a movement of course progress is going to be more
• 07:30 - 08:00 rapid because even if a movement is a machine or if it's an isolation or it's more stable there is still some amount of neurological adaptation plus it's easier when you have a Target I don't hear this talked about very much but the first time you do a movement you don't really know what your performance should be and so I think you just because you don't have that Target you aren't pushing quite as hard as you can but now you know oh my PR is four reps I want to get five reps and so now you have a goal
• 08:00 - 08:30 and it allows you to push even harder when someone breaks a world record usually they know what the record is and they have something to shoot for whereas the guy who used to hold a record then if you put him in the same race maybe he'd be even faster because he has that competition and so you are standing on the shoulders of giants and those Giants are you in the past represented by your training log by the way this video is sponsored by Boost camp now if you're not tracking your training how do you know if you're aggressive
• 08:30 - 09:00 overloading you don't it's not a trick question you just don't and so having something like boost camp in your back pocket with you in the gym to track and measure and manage your progress is an absolute GameChanger and if you're not keeping a training log and I'm always astonished by how many people are not start start today do it it's important how do you know if you're progressing if you're not writing it down don't trust your memory my memory sucks your memory probably sucks almost as much and so
• 09:00 - 09:30 have a way to track your progress it doesn't have to be boost Camp you could write it in an Xcel spread sheet or something but having something with you like boost Camp is probably the best possible option unless you're caveman or something don't be a caveman it's not a good it's not a good thing to be when you're trying to optimize your training so once again thank you to boost camp for sponsoring this video and so it's easy to get this fast sense of progress than things slow down a lot you think
• 09:30 - 10:00 you've plateaued but that's when you're really building muscle because you were doing neurological skill-based expectation stuff in the beginning and now you're into the real muscle building [ __ ] but that's exactly when most people stop like oh I got a muscle confusion because you want that quick dopamine hit because you lack the patience to have faith and keep going so just cuz progress has slowed down a lot that doesn't mean you immediately need to switch out and exercise same thing
• 10:00 - 10:30 with program hopping it's something I did all the time in the past I would read a tation article be like oh yeah I'm going to do small off the next three weeks skip the introductory phase and go right for the meat of the program no point because you get this big bump in performance on your squad and then you stop squatting and it goes right back down and you didn't actually really do very much at all I've been on the same split for like three or four years now same split same split it's in my books if you really want to know and I think that has been something that has
• 10:30 - 11:00 helped me a lot because I've had the structure that I can work around and have some consistency from in terms of WS sets exercise selection and I do think that it's very very important and if you're doing a new program every six eight weeks let alone every two 3 4 weeks that is really going to be to your detriment number four they expect things to be linear now I already talked about the diminishing returns aspect of things which is not exactly a line but even more than that there's going to be
• 11:00 - 11:30 fluctuations in performance along that curved line and so you're going to have good days you're going to have average days you're going to have bad days when you're a beginner your average days can actually be PR worthy because you're progressing so quickly an average day this day might be better than a good day the week before and so you're still seeing progress when you're in an intermediate your average days probably won't be as good as your good days
• 11:30 - 12:00 before and so yeah you might have days when you plateau or even days when you go back down and when you're Advanced that fluctuation in performance even if it's like 5% either way that might be so much that it masks like a year of progress so you might have a bad day and be like crap I was using these weights a year ago and it's true but on the good days you're still making progress so try to compare your good days to your good days your average days to your average days and your bad days do your bad days
• 12:00 - 12:30 if your bad days are getting better that is progress we' like to think of personal bests what about personal worsts what about your minimum expectation of going into the gym if you're seeing that improve over time that's still progress and so I give myself a range of performance that I would expect so let's say incline dumbbell bench press 100 PB nine reps would be a new personal best of course you can't be unhappy with that doesn't happen that often eight reps would equal personal best I would also be happy with
• 12:30 - 13:00 that seven reps I would even still be okay with six reps is where I'm like yeah that's that's not a great sign and if I get five reps on the first set when I'm relatively fresh that would be a big red flag and if I didn't have some kind of explanation for it like sleep or nutrition or something else then I would have to think things through especially if it happened more than one week in a row that would be yeah sort of a a a time to pause in consider number five
• 13:00 - 13:30 this is a two-parter and I'm going to trust you guys because these two things are headed in opposing directions and so you're going to have to hold two seemingly opposite ideas in your mind at the same time 5A they allow their form to change 5B they don't allow form breakdown 5A a mistake is that they allow their form to change and so let's say they're doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press now they used to use form
• 13:30 - 14:00 like this all the way up all the way down very controlled Etc looks fantastic but then a few weeks later they're doing like this [ __ ] right where they're leaning back a lot maybe it's half repping oh and now their gym Partners involved and you see them doing this [ __ ] where it's like a crappy triceps extension something like that oh but they put on so much weight yeah but if you went back to the old form maybe you've gotten better but maybe you haven't gotten better so in that case I think especially on pushing
• 14:00 - 14:30 pressing movements squatting movements if you're squatting higher and higher I think that you're kind of kidding yourself and so allowing your form to change in that way can absolutely be counterproductive because you're not even getting better stimulus because you're avoiding that lengthen position the most difficult part of the range of motion and so you're kind of just Eagle lifting at this point and I say eagle lifting not just because it's more weight because it's also getting less out of the set it's like someone says oh I deadlift 500 but my back is not getting any bigger and then I see their
• 14:30 - 15:00 deadlift and it's Sumo all the way out to the side with the whippy bar and the figure eight straps with the little Tippy tippies they just got the little not even holding on to the bar it's just all strap and and the tippy tippies of the tippy tip fingers and uh tippy tippy tippy that's fun and I'm like well why would this work your back well it's a deadlift well it is a deadlift but it's not the deadlift that's actually going to help you okay what do you do on rdls for a set of 10 to 12
• 15:00 - 15:30 with good form and and you know keeping everything strict with a good range of motion all the way down to the floor they're like oh yeah I I I don't do that okay however 5B they don't allow any deviation in form and you see these guys especially on rows lateral raises some curls where they are just so robotic the the row is just robotic man nothing is moving except for the upper arm and if someone is more advanced fair
• 15:30 - 16:00 enough they've settled on that form not going to criticize but if someone is a beginner and the rowing looks super super strict yeah I would say maybe opening things up a little bit allowing a little bit more oomph could be a a way to progress that is a form of progression now does this allow you to exactly compare to your previous form no especially on Rose I think yeah you're going to be much stronger with even a little bit of oomph but this is a way to sometimes get used to heavier loads and
• 16:00 - 16:30 I guess there's a 5c as well where you could be getting stricter over time as well for me on something like a dumbbell incline bench press for 40 kilos over the past almost four years I've gone from six reps to 12 reps it's not a lot in terms of increases but my technique is much stricter deeper more controlled less flared out and so overall I'm using a lot lot more chest which is what I
• 16:30 - 17:00 want to Target so sometimes you don't need to strip all the weight off the bar to change your Technique you can kind of change it gradually as you see fit over the course of many months and many years that is still sort of progressive overload even if you don't get stronger if you having more difficult technique if you turn your dumbbell incline bench press slowly into like a dumbbell powerfly that is going to be more stress on the chest for sure number six they think it has to be
• 17:00 - 17:30 weight so they think Progressive overload has to be weight on the bar and I think if you're a beginner yeah probably again you're progressing faster and so yeah you should be getting stronger as well when you're more advanced you might take the same weight for half a year a year maybe even two or three years and just increase the number of reps that you are getting for example on my RDL with 150 kilos or 3 30 lb in
• 17:30 - 18:00 2018 I was getting one two 3 four five reps I don't really recommend this probably pretty stupid I don't think a one two three four rep max or even a five rep max makes sense in rdl's in 2019 I got six reps 2021 I got eight nine reps 2023 I got 10 12 reps and then 2024 so far I've gotten 13 reps so I've gotten 12 more reps over the course of about six years so yeah two reps per
• 18:00 - 18:30 year one rep every six months and I'll do my RDL sometimes up to 30 reps and so with 13 to 30 reps that's many years most likely worth of progression so it doesn't necessarily need to be weight on the bar especially when you're more advanced now number seven I'll toss in a bonus one beware of over specialization if your goal is hypertrophy yes strength and size are going to be correlated but
• 18:30 - 19:00 if you get that strength through Ultra specific programming you decide to start squatting up to a Max every day like Bulgarian style stuff yeah your max if you stay in one piece is going to go up quite a bit but you might be very underwhelmed one with the size gains and two with the amount of strength that sticks around some of it probably will but if you stop squatting every day be prepared for your max to fall down probably pretty close to what it was so
• 19:00 - 19:30 you probably have 10 20 maybe 30% perhaps even more on technical lifts that you have to gain from a very very specialized routine but you have to sacrifice other areas of lifting what but you can't do this to me I started this company you know how much I sacrificed it won't really be good for long-term growth and this is kind of a
• 19:30 - 20:00 card that you want to pull if you want to maximize a certain lift but if that's not really your goal I would beware of getting Progressive overload from specialization because it's kind of just temporary in a lot of cases and Atlas po shrug actually did a good video on this pretty recently called strength versus peaking and the no practice PR so what can you hit without a specialization phase without dumping a ton of resources into really building up one left because
• 20:00 - 20:30 that is real progress in my opinion when you can hit a PR Without Really Trying in so to speak now in terms of the nitty-gritty how many sets how many reps when to add reps and sets and when to add weight and when to swap exercises in or out or how many exercises to have in your rotation how aggressive to be with progression or how conservative to be Etc I would honestly just check out my book it's all in there and it will help you a lot that's everything that I've
• 20:30 - 21:00 learned over the past 5 years or so since the publication of my first book so I think that will be very useful in terms of if you're intermediate or Advanced and getting the most from your training if you're a beginner you haven't even hit plateaus yet ideally and so I would just go for my first book sweat thank you all for the support and I will see you in the next video peace [Music]
• 21:00 - 21:30 he